Goody AG: Setting IT-Strategy Goals Through Tech Innovation - Essay Sample

Introduction

Like most other companies that were created in an era of the industrial revolution, Goody AG bakery company was established in 1962 and has since made numerous advancements taking advantage of the rapid growth in technology (p. 3). Using various technological approaches, Goody AG has managed to make notable achievements primarily by employing the use of different business innovation strategies to set its Information technology strategies (IT- Strategy) or goals, that are progressively attainable, with the continuous evolution in technology. The primary aim of this discussion is to present an in-depth understanding and evaluation of the definition for business innovation strategy and IT-strategies: the study provides specific recommendations that an organization like Goody AG can implement to align its IT-strategies with its mission, vision, and values so that the whole expectations do not fail.

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Business Innovation Strategy

In business terms, an innovation strategy primarily refers to the plans of a company to enhance the use of technology in its operations. The initial idea of Goody AG company is to train its employees to acquire all the knowledge and skills, as new production techniques continue to evolve in the modern world (Gault, 2010). Typically, working with highly skilled workers in a company can potentially lead to the manufacturing of high-quality end products, which satisfies the demands and specifications of the buyers. As a result, Goody AG bakery organization is planning to integrate the use of technology in the organization, to attract a broader category of the customers, by meeting their demands (p. 5). This can prove by the vision statement of the company, which states that its fundamental goal is to make high-quality products that individually meet the needs in the market.

Besides, business innovation often involves making many investments in the research and development sector, to monitor all the emerging technology trends that can improve the production process to improve the overall competitive advantage of the firms. Typically, for Goody AG company to attain their vision, it will have to increase its share of investment in the research and development, to ascertain that market challenges are identified, to align the production or innovation strategies towards addressing that need in the market. Moreover, the fact that most of Goody's AG goals are tailored around financial aims is a manifestation that it is working to promote the plan of its future innovation strategy.

To make it more precise, one of the company's innovation strategy is to produce goods that address a particular challenge in the market. Rapid growth in technology has changed the overall perceptions and predictions by the buyers on the quality and nature of the products that should be produced. The fact has also facilitated competitive business advantages among various firms, especially those in the same industry. For these reasons, most buyers today make a judgment on the competencies of multiple companies, depending on their tendency to apply their current technical skills and knowledge to make better products than their competitors. Fortunately, there are such plans in the Goody AG bakery to promote the use of technology in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its products. The company also engaged in a significant milestone in the year 1997 and 2005, respectively, where the various original point of scales was modernized to match the current needs (p. 6). Also, the company has opened numerous points of scale since its year of creation in 1962, as a way of expanding and accommodating new trends and production methodologies.

In a nutshell, business innovation strategies are usually meant majorly for companies that need to attract competitive advantages. In the case study of Goody AG company, investigations revealed that lack of price adjustments, the regular increase in the levels of competition, and the buyer's unpredictable purchasing behaviors had affected the overall rates of sales for bread in the region of Switzerland. The report was made by the Swiss Federation in charge of the bakers and Masters of Confectionaries. They added that although the demand for bread was high in the region, the number of bakery companies had significantly increased to 3500 (p. 6).

More effective innovation strategies should always aim at inspiring or adding new characteristics to the already existing product in the market, to increase its value and eventually demand in the market. Since a company is struggling in such a competitive market, the innovation strategy should be able to add more features on the baked pieces of bread, or ultimately introduce a new method that is unique and will lead to a different product, or one with a higher value.

Nevertheless, Goody AG company may face severe challenges to compete with its giants because it is only a small, medium-sized enterprise SME. However, the theme of formulating innovation strategies must not be aligned on the view that a company is big or small, but its experience gained in the market, in terms of the profitability range. It is because innovation strategies have several advantages that the company could use as a stepping stone before the implementation stage of the planned innovation strategy. For instance, a successful business innovation strategy would increase the levels of productivity with a minimum cost of production, that expanding the profitability. It is imperative that Goody AG company would also increase its market share, which has already fallen by a difference of 0.02. Meanwhile, the fact that the company enjoys a wide range of customers can be of great benefit because improving the quality of products to match the buyers' demands and expectations will positively affect its reputation.

IT- Strategies

Information Technology strategy, also known as the ICT strategy, refers to a definite plan of a business organization or company to create an IT platform that is capable of offering a sustainable value for the organization. In its simplest terms, IT strategies are just the technique of applying IT capabilities on the current corporate of innovation strategies to maximize the expected outcomes (Gault, 2010). Using such an approach is beneficial in the sense that they allow the company to harness the opportunities brought as a result of the technological revolution in the 21st century. The principal aim of IT strategies is usually to generate shareholder value by helping a company to maximize its return using the IT investments. For the case of Goody AG company, such plans include increasing the amount invested in the marketing for its products. Since the company is willing to improve its financial flow in making investments, one of the primary targets should be the advertising model.

For instance, the company can begin advertising its products by posting regional newspapers on cars and engaging new communication channels and social media such as television adverts, ads on smartphone apps, Facebook, and Instagram could be beneficial. Ideally, most of these stated advertisement strategies were invented after the Goody AG was launched. Therefore, employees should be trained to understand better how to use them in marketing to increase the shareholder value, specifically for the customer. Customer value is one of the components in marketing that poses a direct proportionality to the success of any organization.

Moreover, Goody AG also has its websites that host its products and offers any customer support assistance. One of the latest IT strategies in the Goody AG company was launched in the year 2015, known as an online shop, a model that enabled its customers to shop online and order for their prospective products without necessarily having physical interaction with the employees or marketing shops (p. 8). This advancement improved the reputation of Goody AG, and it was able to attract most new customers, one of its primary objectives.

However, Goody AG bakery should also consider improving its value chain process of production to modern methods by applying the current techniques. In the case study, it is evident that the company's use of traditional production methods has restricted its ability to collaborate with external institutions in partnerships to form partnerships, intending to deliver the best customer experience. It is believed that establishing such interactions by applying specific IT strategies would help to add more value using IT capabilities. More IT strategies are also needed by the company to support the existing or innovation strategy.

Recommendations on the Alignment of Business and IT

The highlighted IT strategies can always align with the IT capabilities and business capabilities or the reverse. Such integration is often referred to as business-IT alignment. The alignment can also be framed to aligning Business with IT (the idea of information technology). Business technology alignment is also a possible recommendation. The terms should not be confused with “aligning business strategy with IT” because once the element of business strategy is introduced, then a referral to both ends is being considered. As discussed in the above sections, approach can be found in both IT capability and business capability. Suppose the focus on strategy is made on one side of these elements, then the most fundamental impact on the business value loses its meaning. However, the primary objective of the innovation strategy is to improve the product value to meet the needs and expectations of the customers. In contrast, IT strategy aims at maximizing shareholder value, such as customer value.

A significant point of coincidence can be drawn to conclude that both IT strategy and innovation strategy aim at improving the business value, thus focus must be made on both ends. Occasionally, the alignment of these terms may be challenging in one way or the other. It should be understood that the business that usually drives the IT; thus, the most appealing and logical alignment should be Business-IT alignment. Nevertheless, the rapid increase in the growth of technology in recent times is alarming because technology has been the driving force of business for almost the past two decades. The actual meaning of the primary form of alignment is, therefore, continuously losing its sense (Baets, 1992). Therefore, Goody AG bakery company can implement the use of aligning IT with Business or business with IT, since booth forces impact the other in the modern business environment. In fact, as a way of evolving from them the traditional methods of performing business, Goody AG company should use "alignment of IT with business" to ensure that major emerging trends are used to increase the business value.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this discussion has effectively derived the meaning of business innovation strategy as a plan that is formulated to use the business capabilities in increasing the quality of products to meet the specification of the company's mission and vision goals and the buyers' needs. Besides, the findings suggested that IT strategies often aim at utilizing particular IT capabilities to maximize the value of every scope of the business. All these advantages are useful in increasing the quality of products manufactured by a company such as Goody AG to leverage its competitive strengths by raising its market shares.

References

Baets, W. (1992). Aligning Information Systems with Business Strategy. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 1(4), 205-213. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096386879290036V

Gault, F. (2010). Innovation Strategies for a Global Economy. International Development Research Centre. https://pdfs.semantic...