REAL STRATEGIES FOR VIRTUAL ORGANIZING

N. Venkatraman – John C. Henderson

Presented By,B. SundaravadiveluESIGELEC, Rouen, FranceEmail:

buvanesh.s@gmail.com

POINTS TO DISCUSS

What is Virtual Organizing

Dimensions

Customer Interaction

Asset Configuration

Knowledge Leverage

VIRTUAL ORGANIZING

Virtual Organizing is a strategic approach that is singularly focused on creating, nurturing and deploying key knowledge assets in a complex network of relationships.

Developed with IT at the center

DIMENSIONS

Customer Interaction Company to Customer interaction

Asset Configuration Manage firms requirements through business

network

Knowledge Leverage Share expertise across organizational boundaries

STAGES OF DIMENSIONS

CUSTOMER INTERACTION

In Early days, this process happened through multistage distribution network

This involves retailers, wholesalers, service agents

Evolving economy allows two way information link between customer and company through remote mechanism.

This is available in business to business products as well.

Three stages of Customer interaction Remote experience of products and services Dynamic customization Customer communities

CUSTOMER INTERACTION – REMOTE EXP

Sears, Roebuck was the first successful attempt of creating a virtual product experience.

Remote and continuous link with customers become critical as the concept of brand identity and brand equity.

Internet has accelerated the possibilities of remote product and service experience. Mailing services (FedEx) Stock services Airlines and Bank services

Traditional selling of textbooks have changed to web based links for books

Website is essential

CUSTOMER INTERACTION – DYNAMIC CUSTOMIZATION

Focuses on dynamic customizing products and services

Based on three principles Modularity

Partitioning into independent modules Reusability

Intelligence Sites learn their visitors taste and deliver dynamic

personalized information about products and services. Organization

Need to change how they look at marketing processes.

CUSTOMER INTERACTION – CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES

Communities are information gathering and information disseminating platform.

Five defining characteristics of virtual communities Focus Capacity to reach larger audience Appreciation of member generated content Competing offerings Commercial orientations

Companies which have implemented Citibank – For customers to know their product Harley-Davidson – Share Harley owners pictures and

stories

ASSET CONFIGURATION

Acquiring critical assets and resources from external markets

Effective contracting for complementary capabilities through a network of suppliers and subcontractors.

Allows companies to focus on their core competencies which will also obtain complementary assets through inter-firm relationship.

Three stages of Asset configuration Sourcing modules Process Interdependence Resource coalitions

ASSET CONFIGURATION – SOURCING MODULES

Deals with the benefits of efficiently sourcing standard modules or components.

Sourcing logic plays a vital role for any company.

Selection of assets is complicated because the criticality of assets changes over time

Personal computer market which was conceptualized by IBM in 1980.

ASSET CONFIGURATION – PROCESS INTERDEPENDENCE

Focuses on interdependence of business processes across organizational boundaries.

Business process outsourcing with full control.

This involves delegation of one or more business processes to an external service provider

Examples: DirecTV: Integrated satellite television, phone FedEx: Virtual order taking and processing of orders.

KNOWLEDGE LEVERAGE

The basic economic resource is not land, physical resources or capital but knowledge and intellectual assets.

Knowledge assets can support rapid execution of strategies, increase learning rate of employees and their response rate to customers.

Three states of Knowledge Leverage Work-Unit Expertise Recognizing knowledge as Corporate Assets Professional community expertise

KNOWLEDGE LEVERAGE – WORK UNIT EXPERTISE

Tasks can be decomposed and can be done at different locations and time periods.

IT functionality like group ware, video conferencing and intranets are necessary to make processes effective in an organization.

Knowledge sharing sessions are held between teams to share expertise

Companies distribute work to teams in different time zones.

CORPORATE ASSETS & PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY EXPERTISE

Knowledge is a corporate wide asset that should be systematically managed.

Emerging virtual communities serve as a primary mechanism for collecting and legitimizing knowledge and expertise

Multiple experts from different locations can simultaneously interpret the meaning of unforeseen event

Companies face the challenge of how to compensate and motivate the expertise from multiple sources.

CONCLUSION

Challenges for transition Designing new business model Interacting with customer for knowledge leverage Navigating across multiple communities Deploying IT platform

Virtual organizing as a concept focuses on the importance of knowledge and intellect in creating value.

Merci de votre attention !