PRDV304: Introduction to Supply Chain Management

Business management consists of leading, planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling all the involved actors and activities in a company to achieve goals and objectives. It is described by Ford and Mouzas as "the process of managing networking between companies". Fast changes in customer demand, globalization of markets, and changing technology require companies to focus their efforts on improving competitiveness, trying to achieve customer's satisfaction through adding more value to their products.

Thus, improving business process performance is critical for business management. Also, process strategy is used to improve manufacturing performance, and as result business performance.

Marketing strategy is viewed by managers as a tool for improvement of their financial returns. And innovation should be seen as part of business management, allowing the implementation of new processes, products, and services to respond promptly to customers' requirements.

Process strategy

Process strategies are utilized by companies to improve their manufacturing performance and as a result business performance. Sultan states that process strategy management requires the identification of objectives, the creation of policies and assignation of resources for the plan's implementation.

Process performance

Companies are expected to provide superior quality at low cost. To achieve these goals, they have to look for tools and strategies that help them obtain high process performance. Rework rate, defect rate, and inventory turnover rate are measures of process performance.

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy is defined "as an organization's integrated pattern of decisions that specify its crucial choices concerning products, markets, marketing activities and marketing resources in the creation, communication and/or delivery of products that offer value to customers in exchanges with the organization and thereby enables the organization to achieve specific objectives". Managers are always confronting the problem of how to implement marketing strategies in the company. It might be better to increase advertising, to create and invest in loyalty programs, and to improve product or service quality by focusing on financial returns of marketing.

Innovation

Verhees and Meulenberg mention that innovation is the creation of a new product and the process of acceptation and implementation of the new product. There are three levels at which innovation can be studied: the sectorial, regional, and project level. According to Meeus and Oerlemans  innovation allows companies to growth and survive in the complex markets. Also, according to the Organization for Economic Co- Operation and Development innovation is defined as "the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organizations, or external relations". Another definition of innovation was done by Schramm as "The design, invention, development, and/or implementation of new or altered products, services, processes, systems, organizational structures, or business models for the purpose of creating new value for customers and financial returns for the firm".