Chapter 2

Business Intelligence

Organizations depend on information, and companies that most effectively acquire, interpret, disseminate, and use information come out as winners

acheivment culture

- The achievement culture is suited to organizations concerned with serving specific customers in the external environment but without the intense need for flexibility and rapid change. - This results-oriented culture values competitiveness, aggressiveness, personal initiative, cost cutting, and willingness to work long and hard to achieve results

Adaptibility Culture

- emerges in an environment that requires fast response and high-risk decision making. - Managers encourage values that support the company's ability to rapidly detect, interpret, and translate signals from the environment into new behaviors

boundary spanning

- links to and coordinates the organization with key elements in the external environment - Boundary spanning includes activities that represent the organization's interest in the environment and attempt to influence elements of the external environment - One area of boundary spanning is the use of business intelligence, which results from using sophisticated software to search through internal and external data to spot patterns, trends, and relationships that might be significant. The fastest-growing segment of business intelligence is big data analytics.

the internal environment: corporate culture

Corporate culture surfaces as being extremely important to competitive advantage. - Culture is the set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization.

high performance culture

The high-performance culture: - Based on a solid organizational mission or purpose - Embodies shared adaptive values that guide decisions and business practices - Encourages individual employee ownership of both bottom-line results and the organization's cultural backbone

The organization's external environment can be conceptualized as having two components: task environment and general environment:

The task environment is closer to the organization and directly influences its basic operations and performance. The general environment affects organizations indirectly

environmental uncertainty: what does uncertainty mean?

Uncertainty means that managers do not have sufficient information about environmental factors to understand and predict environmental needs and changes. -Managers at large multinationals deal with thousands of factors in the external environment that create uncertainty.

joint venture

a strategic alliance among two or more companies that agree to jointly establish and share the ownership of a new business - A joint venture typically occurs when a project is too complex, expensive, or uncertain for one firm to handle alone. Sikorsky Aircraft and Lockheed Martin, for example, teamed up to bid on a new contract for a fleet of Marine One helicopters. The joint venture would have Sikorsky building the helicopters and Lockheed Martin providing the vast array of specialized systems that go into each one. Although the two companies have previously competed to build presidential helicopters, they joined together to be more competitive against rivals such as Boeing, Bell Helicopters, and Finmeccanica SpA's Agusta Westlan

organizational ecosystem

a system formed by the interaction among a community of organizations in the environment - Includes organizations in all the sectors of the task and general environments that provide resource and information transactions, flows, and linkages necessary for an organization to thrives

organizational ___ eats strategy for breakfast lunch and dinner

culture

involvement culture

emphasizes an internal focus on the participation of employees to adapt rapidly to changing needs from the environment. - It places a high value on meeting the needs of employees. - Managers emphasize values such as cooperation, consideration of both employees and customers, and avoiding status differences

Companies may also become involved in mergers or joint ventures to reduce ____

environmental uncertainty

strategic issues

events or forces either inside or outside an organization that are likely to alter its ability to achieve its objectives

For an organization to be effective, corporate culture should be aligned with organizational strategy and the needs of the _____

external environment

When _____ change rapidly, the organization experiences high uncertainty

external factors

Steve Jobs is a ____ at Apple, and he and his legacy represent the creativity, risk-taking, and striving for excellence that define the company's culture

hero

external organizational environment

includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect it. -Includes competitors, resources, technology, and economic

internal environment

includes the elements within the organization's boundaries. -Composed of current employees, management, and especially corporate culture

hero

is a figure who exemplifies the deeds, character, and attributes of a strong culture and who is regarded as a role model.

story

is a narrative based on true events that is repeated frequently and shared among organizational employees

slogan

is a phrase or sentence that succinctly expresses a key corporate value - such as Disney's "The happiest place on Earth," succinctly expresses a key corporate value.

ceremony

is a planned activity at a special event that is conducted for the benefit of an audience - Managers hold ceremonies, planned activities at special events, to reinforce company values

Many top leaders cite _____ as their most important mechanism for attracting, motivating, and retaining talented employees

organizational culture

Organizations within the same industry often reveal similar cultural characteristics because...

they are operating in similar environment

consistency culture

uses an internal focus and a consistency orientation for a stable environment. - Following the rules and being thrifty are valued, and the culture supports and rewards a methodical, rational, and orderly way of doing things

merger

when two or more organizations combine to become one - For example, Charter Communications acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2016 to form the second-largest cable company in the United States, and AB InBev bought SABMiller to create a $104 billion beverage company

General environment (6 dimensions)

-International dimension includes events originating in foreign countries, as well as new opportunities for U.S. companies in other countries. - Technological dimension includes scientific and technological advancements in a specific industry, as well as in society at large. - Sociocultural dimension represents the demographic characteristics, norms, customs, and values of the general population. - Economic dimension represents the general economic health of the country or region in which the organization operates - Legal-political dimension includes government regulations at the local, state, and federal levels, as well as political activities designed to influence company behavior. - Natural dimension includes all elements that occur naturally on Earth, including plants, animals, rocks, and resources such as air, water, and climate

Many technology and Internet-based companies, like TubeMogul, use the ____ type of culture, as do many companies in the marketing, electronics, and cosmetics industries because they must move quickly to respond to rapid changes in the environment

adaptability

symbol

an object, act, or event that conveys meaning to others

The fastest-growing segment of business intelligence is ___

big data analytics

Companies that succeed in a turbulent world are those in which managers are evaluated and rewarded for paying careful attention to cultural values or business performance?

both

When cultural values aren't connected to ____, they aren't likely to benefit the organization during hard times

business performance

cultural leader

defines and uses signals and symbols to influence corporate culture. - He or She articulates a vision for the organizational culture that employees can believe in. - He or She heeds the day-to-day activities that reinforce the cultural vision