Mgt 450 Strategic Management - Week 5 Strategic Management Research Paper

MGT 450 Strategic Management

Week 5 Strategic Management Research Paper

This research paper will discuss AT&T Rebrands - Again; briefly giving a history of the organization, identifying the components of its environment and provide a RBV analysis of the organization. I will discuss my plans for achieving these outcomes while incorporating control systems and excellent management related to interest.

For more years than I care to mention, AT&T has been an anticipated impact on my personal and professional life; with their unparalleled features and steadfast technology in communications, which is supported by research and development capabilities of AT&T's Labs, they are dedicated to innovation which has made them a worldwide principal in local, long distance, Internet, transaction-based voice and data services. It takes the right technology, the right people, and a bold vision to be the "The World's Networking Company." (AT&T Communications)

The AT&T Company, initially the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is an American tele-interaction company providing voices, videos, data, and internet telecommunications; supplying professional services to organizations, customers, and a variety of government agencies. Throughout AT&T's extensive record, there was a time when they were the world's largest communication company, the largest cable subscriber operator, with a standardized monopoly. Today, the company AT&T, Inc, and their subsidiary still provides long distance service assistance throughout the country.

In 2005, AT&T was purchased by Baby Bell SBC Communications for more than $16 billion, and opted to keep the AT&T (icon) name. In 2006, AT&T profits were approximately $300 billion per annum, and hitting their highest point AT&T employed over one million people - for comparison, Exxon Mobil's 2006 yearly income was $377.6 billion.

Today AT&T Company still exists as a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and their name sporadically shows up in AT&T news releases; such as AT&T Communications, "Business Forum, Company History Index, Information Technology, and Telecommunications." (Reference for business)

During my research, I ascertained that the AT&T Corporation organizes its business using two segments, business services and consumer services. I believe that in our text, Strategic Management, p. 340, "Traditional Organizational Structures and their Strategy-Related Pros and Cons," - specifically Exhibit 11.2 Functional Organization Structures on p. 343 of our text applies to the AT&T's consumer services business structure. "A functional organizational structure is one in which the tasks, people and technologies necessary to do the work of the business and divided in separate "functional" groups (such as, marketing, operations, finance) with increasingly formal procedures for coordinating and integrating their activities to provide the business's product and services." (Strategic Management, pages 342 and 343)

These strategic disadvantages are listed in our text, p. 343, in Exhibit 11.2. Promoting narrow specialization and functional rivalry or conflict; creating difficulties in functional coordination and inter-functional decision making; limiting development of general managers; not being a strong potential for inter-functional conflict - priorities placed on functional areas, not the entire business, and costing more to do a function than it does "outside" the company unless outsourced. (Strategic Management)

Analyzing and illustrating the essentials of quality management and the techniques which are associated AT&T, includes benchmarking and knowledge management, as applied to the AT&T organization using the "new philosophy is the quality should be the norm." (Strategic Management, p. 36) The techniques used are AT&T stockholders for the intense communication they send about needing more energetic opposition and customer alternatives in the communications marketplace

AT&T merger with SBC has put their best use of their strengths of both companies by conveying SBC's expertise in serving consumer and small business customers with AT&T's leadership to provide a voice and data services to large business customers "The combination of SBC and AT&T will speed the delivery of new technologies to customers and is a logical step in assuring America's role as a leader in global communications." (AT&T Communications) The balancing of both sets of strengths will help make possible a multitude of innovative technologies and services to customers, corporations, and improve customer selections.

AT&T's definition of control as the process of ensuring that the actual activities conform to planned activities. I feel that a conclusion can be made AT&T control system might pick up where planning leaves off.

Control, in my opinion, is a pervasive theory, helping managers keep an eye on the effectiveness of their planning, their organizing, and their leading and taking corrective actions as needed. Every manager in spite of level needs to make "control" an integral part of his or her job: calculating the fundamental aspects of the management process. Such as planning, classifying and encouraging cannot be completely detached from controlling.

I have found that interpreting the criteria for developing and evaluating control systems and integral parts of the AT&T's organization's overall system is not easy. In fact, because of the different types of software development systems - involving customers, designers and products; my feelings are that the relationship among the AT&T modules should be to some, quite apparent. For example, when a customer needs a product, the customer will contact a designer to develop and deliver this product. Most of the time, it may also happen that customers do not know exactly what they want or the product that they want may not be the product, which they should have. They want the product to have certain uniqueness, such as, with respect to quality; the product should have, excellent pricing, excellent deliverance time, compatibility, extendibility, interpretability with other products, and operation and maintenance. The requirements listed are going to make the product development difficult, which sets off complex activities. In addition to complex activities product development has to involve individuals, groups, organizations

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