Strategic Execution of Mozilla Corporation †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Execution of Mozilla Corporation. Answer: Introduction Most corporate organizations in the past have relied on the idea of using their past experiences to develop their future strategies. Such an approach has been rendered ineffective in business development, and in the recent past, the development of strategic plans by most corporations and businesses had become the order of the day. However, it has come to the reality of various organizational management boards that the success of a corporate strategic plan is determined by the ability or the efforts of the organization to execute the plan. Strategic planning was seen as the most challenging exercise in strategic planning without the understanding that having or developing a successful execution strategy is even harder than developing a strategic plan (Haines, 2016). This essay will, therefore, provide an understanding of strategic execution through analysis of Mozilla Corporation in a move to understand the challenge facing most organizations about executing organizational strategies effectively as well as making vital thinking part of everyones day to day life. The term organizational DNA, has been used to describe or provide an understanding of the personality or values of an organization and establishes whether it is active or weak in achieving or executing the organization strategy. Mozilla Corporation has developed quite a different or unique organizational culture by setting different corporate values compared to other organizations. Most organizations define its workforce as the staff workers working for the company. However, Mozilla Corporation has a liberal base of a diverse collection of both volunteers as well as paid staff who work together to achieve a common objective (Gnther, 2016). The company culture is against the traditional employment equation which is used by many companies and holds that when an employee is hired, his or her contribution to the company starts and ends after the individual is fired. The company has established a culture through which employees may begin from volunteer positions and end up taking paid pos itions later and may even choose to volunteer then. The organization culture for Mozilla Corporation is based on humanity and the potential the individuals have towards each other. The organization has focused on developing an environment where employees and staff feel championed to achieve the maximum possibilities for the growth of the organization. The company business plan is aimed at creating a global open business community of internet programmers to enhance the development of innovation in the browser market (Bahrami, 2013). To achieve the company business strategy, the company had to develop an execution strategy which is centered on the people or the people's operations. Through this initiative, the employees or staff always feel to be part of the company by volunteering to work compared to being paid. Such a culture promotes employee productivity without the need for other material motivational programs. Employees in the organization feel more valued, and their skills cannot be measured regarding monetary value as compared t o human resource efforts in other companies. The organizational DNA is therefore established on the development of people by becoming more conscious, more understanding of their needs, developing their skills and making sure that they are well represented. The company strategy has moved from focused to a systematic business strategy where they seek to establish a balance between the intellectual skills of an individual or staff and their functional capabilities (Mikesell Wood, 2016). The company does not characterize its team through their abilities but seeks to develop them through practical innovations and skill development. Once they establish peoples centered strategy, the company is then able to build its technology strategy by creating changes which match the peoples skills and result in the development of internet products which are consumer sensitive. Mozilla corporation business strategy is built on humanity based philosophy. It believes that, for successful execution of strategic business plan the company has to asse ss how it works, understand how the program was organized and the objectives of the company. Lessons from Mozilla Corporation to other Knowledge-based Organizations Despite the corporation efforts to add to the existing software technology social aspects, interactions and the people's platform Mozilla has given other organizations a need to develop new ideas and innovations. Strategy execution initiatives in a company may not be necessarily the same since every company has its established action plans. However, other knowledge-based corporations such as Google, Google Chrome as well as Firefox can learn from Mozilla Corporation (Al-Khouri, 2014). The company strategy has been developed with the understanding of people, technology, the company product and the organizations or institutions evolutions. The strategy execution plan is excellent an aspect that other companies can learn to add more value to the strategy to enhance its effectiveness in achieving the company objectives. Mozilla believes that sometimes its not about the people or the brand of the company but the values of the brand (Duggal, 2018), an aspect that has given it a competitive advantage over other non-profit entities. This is an idea that has also been adopted by Google as a pioneer in the technology and innovation industry. The company strategy for educating the users to improve the involvement in web citizenship is excellent however it is also essential to learn that the period taken to inform these people may take longer and reduce the chances of people joining the web platforms. This aspect is missing in Mozilla products, and therefore the company should start creating more value to their products by developing new ideas and not building on established concepts or software. Google operates under an open policy and has employed the use of a free business model as well as focused on fast innovations. This does not mean that Mozilla should use the same strategy but should enhance their i nternet and browsing services by improving on their innovations. Achieving performance objectives in developing a working community, Mozilla Corporation has internet programmers trained in fueling innovation in the browser market. Therefore, there is a need for other companies to create value through changes to the company brand as this will help increase the company web citizenship. The development of Firefox Quantum was to rival with the company main competitors Chrome. The new browser by Mozilla is twice as fast as the original Firefox browser. Like Mozilla, Chrome can also remain a customers choice due to its ability to offer robust feature set, a thriving extension system, an integration to integrate Google accounts as well as its compatibility and reliability of their mobile apps. These achievements from Mozilla Corporation can be a learning platform for Google Company to build their brands around people, technology, and the organizational culture. Other organizations can also use the same strategy to add value to their brands which can indirectly contribute to the growth of the prior strategies. Like Mozilla, a company execution strategy and involvement of people in the organization should focus on adding value to the company brand. Challenges facing Debbie Cohen regarding strategy execution and alignment Strategy execution in an organization as discussed earlier is very difficult compared to developing a strategic plan. Therefore when Debbie Cohen was appointed as the chief of People at Mozilla had a difficult task in executing the company strategy. In his period he encountered several challenges, and the first challenge was on how to scale the constant growing and changing Mozilla and at the same time maintain and improve the quality of the company as well as its people (Bahrami, 2013). The second challenged that she encountered was how she would ensure the company remains competitive in the web browsing market and also on how she would continue right to the company core values and mission. Despite these organizational challenges, Debbie Cohen also had personal problems which included the challenge of how to stay true to her roots, what she wanted to become in future and what she stood. The organizational challenges mostly based on the corporate culture, their product and the industry the company was operating. The company had experienced tremendous growth in the web browsing market and had rivaled her competitors such as the Microsoft internet explorer and making extraordinary steps to match the market pioneers such as Google (Bungay, 2011). The company, human resource culture, was different as it was based on having a workforce of volunteers and a few paid staff and which not what she was used to as most organizations had employees who were paid yet the organization did not have any role prescribed for human resource functions. There was a need therefore to develop a people-centered strategy that was considerate of the organizational culture and values. Having presented with such challenges, Debbie Cohen has to understand that the effectiveness of any company strategy is directly proportional to the commitment of the people who are accountable to fulfilling it, posses. The company executive teams who are implementing the plan play a vital role in the successful execution of the strategy and therefore their level of ownership, commitment and accountability are also directly proportional to the effectiveness of the plan. With that understanding it will be easy for her to understand how the company works, its organization regarding structure, the goals, and objectives of the company or what mattered to the organization as well as the people working in the company. Debbie Cohen needs to start by conducting commitment audit to establish the high commitment, ownership and accountability levels of the existing executive. It is after understanding these levels when she can go ahead and develop a bold and compelling future strategy (Reeves Deimler, 2011). She should also define her plan to achieve success by focusing on the challenges and then incorporate everyone in the organization. The main reason for these steps that she should take is based on the fact that the success of the peoples operations project that she has to undertake will be determined by the level of commitment of the executive team. Getting Everyone to Participate in Strategic Thinking and Execution The success of an organization will depend on the involvement of all company stakeholders towards the achievement of a common goal. In this case, the company would be seeking to establish a long-term performance and increase overall stakeholder engagement. The knowledge and practices of cross-functional strategic thinking can have a significant impact in helping the company achieve these goals (Madsen Walker, 2015). Cross-functional involves the coming together to work for common purpose whereas strategic thinking consists of the application of strategic innovation planning and operational planning in developing effective business strategies. This implies that cross-functional strategic thinking suggests the coming together of all business stakeholders and applying both strategic and operational plans to achieve a common goal. Cross-functional strategic thinking creates a culture of continuous organizational improvement which means that all the organization stakeholders take part in improving the performance of the businesses. They all take part in the ownership of the company or the industry and can provide solutions to the business problems (Wu et al., 2015). It plays a vital role in improving communication in the company which comprises of diverse groups of people. Such commitment and communication are very critical in effective execution of company strategic plans. Strategic thinking is a precious and useful tool in strategic planning. In business, strategic thinkers are considered to be the most highly effective leaders. Strategic thinking helps the stakeholders sit down or come together, talk about the company problems, assess the issues and develop or create a future for the company through strategic planning (Zheng ., 2017). This knowledge is essential for the company as it will help them work towards a common goal and reduce the chances of failure of business plans which result from uncooperative stakeholders. It enhances commitment and business accountability which is critical to effective strategy execution. The long-term success or performance of the company, as well as its stakeholder engagement, will be determined by the companys efforts to develop within itself cross-functional strategic thinking initiatives or strategies. Building an organization based on the culture and values of the organization will require the cross-sectional an d strategic thinking as well as making innovative decisions (Wheeler, 2017). Mozilla Corporation is strategizing to build a community or internet programmers and increase her involvement or engagement in web citizenship by focusing on the development of the organizational culture. Therefore an organization centered in developing its people base will efficiently employ the use cross-functional strategic thinking to improve the company or organization performance. Key Insights from this Course This course has been resourceful in understanding how strategy development and planning is critical to the growth and development of any businesses. A key point of understanding was the discovery that strategy execution is even more critical to the effectiveness or success of a strategic plan compared to strategic planning. Most business has therefore focused on developing good strategic ideas and presenting them to the company or business stakeholders without the development of strategy execution plan (Bryson, 2018). This might have been one of the reasons many strategic projects have failed in achieving the set objectives. Strategy execution plays a similar role in strategic management by helping the company or organization to transform the static strategic plan into systems that allow the program to evolve and grow as per requirement. The understanding of organizational culture is essential in strategy execution as it defines the organization personality and helps in understanding whether the organization is strong or weak in executing its strategy. The modern corporate world is characterized by a lot of uncertainties which the company should be keen to recognize its signals. The ability of a company or organization to adapt to future changes has become the current competitive advantage (Salerno et al., 2015). Therefore most company develops their strategic plans with a goal of building an enduring competitive advantage. The ability read and act to signals of change from the external environment is an excellent strategic plan that will help businesses to thrive in the modern competitive business world. The company organizations, therefore, need to keep experimenting and reviewing their business strategies because experiments lead to discoveries (Choe, 2014). It is crucial also to invest in building the skills of t he company by going beyond the company boundaries and working closely with organization stakeholders. Efficiency in strategic execution will also be determined by the ability of the company to unlock their greatest resources which is the company labor force or people working with the company. It is also vital for an organization to differentiate between what makes them successful and what can make them successful. This is because most companies have continued to work alongside their traditional approaches. Company culture may be thriving in helping the company sell their brands and improve performance, however, there is an excellent need to develop or create value for company brands. The benefit will assist in retaining and attracting more customers to the company or business and therefore help the company or industry in achieving their long-term goals (Hamid et al., 2014). Past experiences should never be used by companies to develop future strategies, and that future strategy should be based on the commitment, ownership and accountability audit reports conducted by the company as these are critical factors in establishing the success of an organization execution strategy. Explanation of how individual stakeholders participate in cross-functional strategic thinking to help in improving company performance and stakeholder engagement Individual stakeholders, in this case, may arise from both internal and external business environments. In these examples, I use two different stakeholders from different levels from these two business environments. The first individual stakeholder will be the employee or staff (Shields et al., 2015). This group of people plays a significant role in the successful execution of the company strategic plan. Most organizational culture is built around the development of company workforce. Employees can negatively or positively influence the long-term performance of the company or even impact on stakeholder engagement. Employees make the most significant company resources and should be highly valued by the company regarding decision making (Sacks, 2015). Through their skills, they can deliver best services to the customers or even produce quality and valuable goods and services. Their innovative capabilities help in enhancing the competitiveness of the company and assist in adding new ide as to the business which when exploited and implemented lead to increased or improved organization performance. The second group of individual stakeholders is the customers. The customers form part of the company target market. The company brands are developed based on customer market analysis, and therefore customers play an important role in improving the company performance. One of the most important practices is through providing feedback for the consumer brands to the company. Such feedbacks are then used to develop brands which are competitive in the market and tailored to meet customer expectations (Smith, 2017). Customers also help in marketing company products through referrals, and it is essential to building a company strategic plan that is customer centered. It is easy to retain an existing customer than gaining a new customer which emphasizes the need to develop customer service oriented strategies. These two categories of stakeholders, though at different levels, their practices are very critical in long-term business development. Conclusion Most strategic plans and their execution strategies are customers centered with most companies seeking to establish an organizational culture where strategic thinking is a part of everyones day to day life. This means that, the company focus is people operationally centered and that the companies should develop all their strategies around its people. Mozilla Corporation through the leadership of Debbie Cohen has been able to create an effective strategic execution strategy that is focused on the organizational culture and values, the workforce of the company and the competitiveness of company to the web browsing internet market. 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