Mba 500 Global Problem Solution

Problem Solution: Global Communications

In an effort to remain profitable and competitive, Global communications must compete in a global economy while focusing on stakeholder alignments, employee retention, robust and savvy technology, development of a global focus and outsourcing initiatives. This paper will introduce the situation and describe the problems that Global Communications is having in their attempt to outsource their labor and make organizational changes. There will be end state goals that can be achieved in a two to three year period if the opportunities are used to address the challenges faced within Global Communications.

Describe the Situation

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Global Communications is losing their footing on Wall Street. Their stock is down more than 50% in less than three years. Global communications has to find a way to remain a competitive leader in the telecommunications industry. CEO, Katrina Heinz has proposed a plan that has been approved by the board to make numerous changes to Global Communications. This has caused a rift amount the leadership team. This rift seems to be compiling and causing symptoms and emotions within the company infrastructure. Several of the key players along the chain of communication have included several challenges and opportunities, both internally and externally, for the new aggressive move that Katrina Heinz is taking the company. Katrina feels the need to implement these changes based on her desire to increase revenue and profits through aggressive globalization and to make Global Communications an industry leader. Even though Katrina has received Board approval to proceed with the plan to compete in local markets and develop globalization by moving various call centers to some European countries, the union has already agreed to major benefit decreased for the employees and is not in agreement with the outsourcing plan. (University of Phoenix, 2006, p. 1-6).

There are five opportunities Global Communications will need to focus on in order to increase their profitability while creating a competitive advantage in the telecommunications industry; alignment of stakeholders, employee retention, a competitive advantage, global focus and outsourcing.

Stakeholder Alignment

Lack of stakeholder alignment and agreement will impede Global Communications ability to become a leader in the telecommunications industry. Getting the stakeholder buy in is a serious internal challenge. The leadership team needs to do plenty of research and benchmarking to effectively create a shared vision, communicate that vision, increase their stakeholder's comprehension of the company's strategies and maintain trust and loyalty of each and every stakeholder. It is imperative to gain employee involvement in this process to ensure this trust and loyalty is progressive towards end-state-goals. In addition, if Global Communications does not bridge the gaps they have created within their Union relationships; it could have significant negative impacts with the Workers Union taking action against them within the government and other avenues.

Employee Retention

If Global Communications does not retain and keep their employees, they are not going to have them available to provide top notch service to their customers which would impact profit positively. Global Communications' philosophy is "Our Edge is People" and with that in mind, they want to maintain current jobs, while creating additional jobs (University of Phoenix, 2006, p. 1-6). The following exhibit outlines this philosophy and reinforces how satisfied employees lead to customer perceptions of a companies value that drives revenue and growth (McShane & Von Glinow, Exhibit 4.5, p. 65):

The customer's experience with Global Communications hinges on the representation of its employees and the level of service and commitment shown in each and every customer contact.

Competitive Advantage

Global communications is faced with a huge problem: too much competition (University of Phoenix, p. 1-6). Global communications must remain competitive and profitable or other telecommunication organizations will surpass them as an industry leader. It is imperative that they look at low cost services, outsourcing initiatives and updated technology to keep them a cut above the competition.

Globalization

Global communications focus needs to be on what is inherent to their name, creating a "Global" presence for themselves in the telecommunications market. They can position themselves as a global resource and global leader if they; 1) utilize global partners, 2) implement robust technology, 3) ensure timely delivery of products and services and 4) have detailed global outsourcing plan.

Outsourcing

Global communications is looking at several cost-cutting measures that will help them increase their profitability; the biggest: outsourcing. If outsourcing can cut Global communications costs, it is possible that Global Communications and its outsourcing vendor will be able to profit via a shared-risk arrangement (Greenemeier, L. 2002). Outsourcing can provide Global communications numerous ways to structure their business to achieve their desired business objectives, improve their service to customers and increase their revenue. The key is to show that profitability is still able to be successful even with the introduction of outsourcing. According to outsourcing consulting firms Gartner Group and IDC Consulting, there has been a considerable rise in the use of outsourcing business functions and the trend was expected to be at "1.2 trillion" in 2006 (Beasley, Bradford & Pagach, 2004, p.24). This piece of benchmarking is illustrating that there is no need for the stakeholders to be concerned about Katrina's new plan to outsource. Global Communications is trending in the right direction compared to most businesses to day who are trying to globalize. Figure 1 illustrates outsourcing trends.

Figure 1 :(Beasley, Bradford & Pagach, 2004, p.24)

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are three stakeholder groups with competing values, which include the stockholders, the senior leadership team, and the Union. The stockholders' interests involve their