BUSI 770 Liberty Internal Environmentand Customer Value Propositions Discussion Please draft a comprehensive reply to another students original discussion

BUSI 770 Liberty Internal Environmentand Customer Value Propositions Discussion Please draft a comprehensive reply to another students original discussion board post. The reply should have atleast three sources cited. Here is the discussion board post you are replying to:

Internal environments of companies are the first step to a company’s health. They consist of the company strategy, employee demeanor, and customer satisfaction. How does that environment look? How can it be measured and what questions should be asked? The following discussion examines the current social and business environment and looks at the customer value proposition within social media and an online presence.

Internal Environment

A company’s internal environment consist of the company’s innerworkings, such as how their strategy is working and is the company competitive. “…the techniques of evaluating a company’s internal situation, including its collection of resources and capabilities, its cost structure and customer value proposition, and its competitive strength versus that of its rivals” (Gamble, Peteraf, & Thompson, Jr., 2019, p. 65).

Customer Value Proposition

In today’s environment, especially in the Covid-19 environment, brand personality plays into customer value proposition through the social media platform. Everyone is moving to online due completely to social distancing. Although online environments are not new; see the Cyber-Monday sales as opposed to Black Friday, it has been forced to become more robust. The ability for a company to handle a change to online, cloud based working environment does put the internal environment of a company to the test. The customer value proposition presented through an online presence can be measured using three factors: user imagery, employee imagery, and official announcements. “In the present research, we attempt to capture these influences through three main factors that we operationalize through three different data sources. The first factor is User Imagery, which reflects the traits of individuals who choose to associate with a brand, and which we derive from the profiles of individuals who choose to follow brands on Twitter. The second is Employee Imagery, which reflects how employees perceive the internal corporate environment of the brand, and which we derive from employee reviews of the brands on Glassdoor. The third is Official Announcements, which reflects the messaging put out by the brand, and which we derive from the brand’s official announcements on Twitter” (Hu, et al., 2019, p. 903).

The Fourth Factor

The fourth factor that has shown an impressive online presence has been the environmental impact of a company. This fourth factor plays to the integrity of a company’s internal environment as it pertains to the responsibility the company maintains for environmental concerns. As mentioned in previous discussions, the environmental responsibility of a company is and has become a large part of a company’s strategic plan. Starbucks, for example, has continued its global sustainability goals for the 2020 year. These goals maintain Starbucks strategy and internal commitment. With the current pandemic, some of those goals will be challenged, such as 50% reduction in waste sent to landfills which consisted of elimination of single use packaging (Warnick, 2020).

Strategic Thinking

The Covid-19 environment harbors a significant power/weakness dynamic for the internal environment of a company. There is power in the online presence and weakness in lack of presence or weak presence. Many small businesses have found that a lack/weak online ability has been the end of their ability to continue functioning. They have also found that their lack of diversification has also been a weakness in the current business environment. Many company’s have had to rethink their strategic plans as they shift the functioning platforms. This is not just segregated to the customer facing environment of a company either, the employees have had to make shifts to their internal work environments as well, changing to at home offices and virtual meetings. Company’s are now faced with leases for empty office space and reduction in employee benefits for commuting. How a company handles this “new norm” is a testament to their internal terrain.

Decision Model

The feedback analysis is the current decision model that I believe is in current use and is a significant aid to the understanding of the internal environment. As mentioned above, the online presence of a company is significant, but more so now than ever before. The feedback analysis done by a company, on a consistent basis, might be one of the few things that keeps some company’s afloat at this time. The consumer will play a significant role in how well a company handles the current pandemic as well as the employees. A company’s ability to continue with its strategic plan and responsibilities to its customers and employees will be voiced significantly in feedback.

Ending Thoughts

The internal environment of a company can be established by asking a few questions. The current circumstances present challenges to several of those questions due to the sudden changes needing to be made. In the end, companies can look to feedback of how they have handled the curve balls and still answer whether or not their strategy is working and if they are competitive.

References

Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M. A., & Thompson, Jr., A. A. (2019). Essentials of Strategic Management: The Quest for Competitive Advantage. New York: McGraw Hill.

Hu, Y., Xu, A., Hong, Y., Gal, D., Sinha, V., & Akkiraju, R. (2019). Generating Business Intelligence Through Social Media Analytics: Measuring Brand Personality with consumer-, Employee-, and Firm-Geneerated Content. Journal of Management Information Systems, 893-930.

The article looks at the study designed to measure the internal environment of a company through social media. The main focus is on user imagery, employee imagery, and official announcements made through the social media of Twitter and Glass Door. The study also reviews how brands are considered in a dimensional parameter. For example, whetehr the brand is considered a sincere brand like Cracker Barrel which is “down-to-earth” in brand recognition.

The authors compiled an extensive study, centered more around the dimensions then the social media aspect, although they covered this well. They recognize that changes associated with marketing campaigns and business environment will skew the results of the published study, but believe that the work defined was reasonable and accurate with few exceptions. I agree, as the dimension used could be seen outside of Twitter. I do believe that relegating the social media to Twitter was a mistake, as social media has such a vast presence.

Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and why it matters. New York: Currency.

Warnick, J. (2020, January 21). 5 things to now about Starbucks new environmental sustainability commitment. Retrieved from Starbucks stories and news: https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/5-thing…

The article discussed in informational detail the 2020 goals of Starbucks and the intent of those goals to carry over the next decade. The article was well written but did not get into any significant specifics. The Starbucks goals are to continue on their environment responsibility trek by reducing waste, moving to a more plant-based menu, and reducing their carbon emissions.

The author wrote an informative article, stating facts and reporting without opinion. I believe when a strategic plan is being reported for a company, that a lack of opinion is a plus. I would have liked more detail in the article, and I believe the author could have provided more in the end. Probably not the strongest article on Starbucks social responsibility.