Implementation plan Mercedes Benz

Strategic Choice and Evaluation

A company can withstand the demands of their industry or become one of the casualties of competition and poor organizational strategy. Chrysler is a key example of how one of the top automotive manufacturers can become weak enough to be undermined and bought out by an industry competitor, Mercedes-Benz. On the other hand, BSNF was stabilized and remained so with the aid of new CEO Matthew Rose who set the corporation up for success with the implementation of operational efficiency (Pearce & Robinson, 2012). This paper will examine the strategies involved in the value discipline, generic strategy, and grand strategy and which of each is best applicable to Mercedes-Benz. The paper will also discuss which strategy or combination of strategies should be implemented to benefit Mercedes-Benz the most.

Mercedes-Benz and Value Discipline

            Value discipline strategies focus on providing excellent customer service and displaying customer value. Value discipline strategies accomplish this goal through operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership (Pearce & Robinson, 2012). Mercedes-Benz best value discipline strategy is operational excellence. Customer intimacy and product leadership are among Mercedes-Benz priorities of course, but they offer limited focus. On the other hand, operational excellence involves offering customers reliable products.  After Mercedes-Benz merged with Chrysler, it was noted that “Daimler-Benz’s key advantages lay in quality, innovation, and exclusivity” (Štrach & Everett, 2006, p.112). In an effort to continue using operational excellence in Mercedes-Benz strategic plans, the company has eliminated and diminished operations that have had detrimental effects on the trade mark of the company.

 

 

Mercedes-Benz and Generic Strategy

Generic strategy incorporates vital ideas about what a company can do to remain competitive in their industry. A company can utilize generic strategy through lost cost leadership, differentiation, or focus.  Low cost leadership and focus center on parts of a corporation that have not been essential to Mercedes-Benz past successes and will hurt more than help their future feats. This is accurate because cost leadership focuses more on competitors than customers and focus strategy concentrates on a particular segment (Baroto, Abdullah & Wan, 2012). Neither of which is product specific. For that reason, Mercedes-Benz will best benefit through differentiation because it revels in creating products that offer not only appeal and luxury but also innovations that precede their industry competitors. Mercedes-Benz does not maintain its place in the auto industry by merely producing reliable, mediocre vehicles, but by meeting and in some instances superseding their competitors in standards and innovations.

Mercedes-Benz and Grand Strategy

Grand strategies are what companies incorporate to achieve long range goals over a specified time. Grand strategies are comprised of 15 principle strategies including concentrated growth, market development, product development, innovation, horizontal acquisition, vertical acquisition, concentric diversifation, conglomerate diversification, turnaround, divestiture, liquidation, bankruptcy, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and consortia (Pearce & Robinson, 2012). A company can utilize one or more of these strategies to achieve the goals they have set forth. Mercedes-Benz best grand strategy is innovation. In fact, many of the everyday features, such as ABS, airbags, and belt pretensioners that became the standard in a car were first built into Mercedes-Benz vehicles (Mercedes-Benz, USA, 2014). That is not to say that they would not benefit from other grand strategies, however, they have built part of their reputation on setting standards in the auto industry.

Strategic Recommendations for Mercedes-Benz

As an international corporation with multiple interests, Mercedes-Benz could benefit from utilizing one or many strategies for their organization. Operational excellence and innovation will be the best strategies for Mercedes-Benz to implement to maintain their current customer base, capitalize and re-energize their brand name, as well as continue to be innovative front-runners in the automotive industry. For instance to celebrate the 125^th year of gas-powered cars, Mercedes-Benz decided to stand apart and launch a world tour of hydrogen fueled vehicle and to bring attention to their venture in making hydrogen filling stations more available for hydrogen fueled cars (News Focus, 2011). Operational excellence is advantageous to Mercedes-Benz alongside the practice of innovation in remind the company to remember the client. To never go so far outside the box that they forget who their customers are, what they expect and how to deliver upon the promises and values that have lasted more than a typical person’s lifetime.

Conclusion

Strategies are not just incorporated into a company through a list or a set of practices, but are the overall way in which the organization will operate. These operations include company organization, production, marketing, and customer service. Value discipline, generic strategy, and grand strategy each serve a vital role in the success or demise of a company. Therefore, it is imperative that a company selects the best or several of the best strategies that will keep them in their current business at hand and make it possible for them to competitive in the decades to come. Mercedes-Benz will benefit greatly from taking advantage of the organizational strategies they currently employ as well putting new ones into action as they become necessary and beneficial.

• Objectives
• Functional tactics
• Based off this information. I need the objectives and functional tactics done for our implementation plan. Please use the correct strategies already used in the paper. its 250-300 may need some more research. words