Environmental Scan

Environmental Scan

To maintain a competitive advantage, an organization must create a business strategy. The organization must be capable to change the organization's strategy based on the changes of the environment surrounding the organization. The organization must be aware of the guidelines used to measure the strategy effectiveness which contributes to the success of the organization.

ExxonMobil

Business strategies are the decisions that upper management must make that involve both internal and external resources and ExxonMobil shares several elements that affect both internal and external resources. The first of the elements is safety. ExxonMobil believes that safety to both employees and the environment is the core of the organization's success. ExxonMobil conducts business that is beneficial to the communities in which they operate by providing training to improve the development of local business' which in turn develops economic growth. The second factor to the organization business strategy is to maintain higher standards than other companies in the same field. To maintain the higher standards of ExxonMobil, upper management holds every employee to the same level of integrity. Company directors, officers, and all employees must maintain the same level of integrity. Higher standards also include holding all employees to high ethical standards. Third element in ExxonMobil's business strategy is to maintain higher quality of personnel. Exxon believes in hiring a diverse team and once hired provide the organization's employees the training that allows them to be successful. ExxonMobil knows that the success of the organization is only as successful as the employees within the organization. The final element is simply maintaining a strong financial rating ("Investor Toolkit business Model and Competitive Advantage", 2013).

ExxonMobil runs feasibility reports and believes in maintain transparency throughout all the works of the company. ExxonMobil produces an annual "Corporate Citizenship Report". The citizenship report sets in details what strategies will be implemented in the next fiscal year and the success or failure of current strategies. This report contains information from time lost by employees, economic development, and also includes reports on community involvement and human rights in countries that ExxonMobil operates in. ExxonMobil contributes the organization's success to their employees and the communities they operate in. But in the contrary, ExxonMobil demand accountability of their employees on the work and research done.

Subway

As of August 2012, Subway surpassed McDonalds as having more stores internationally and the way the created the value necessary is through customer satisfaction. Subway's business strategy is mainly focused on building customer relationships both nationally and internationally. To create customer satisfaction, Subway believes in customer feedback wither through the company's loyalty card or personal feedback through phone surveys or social media such as Facebook. Another strategy Subway uses is employee training for all employees, both nationally and internationally Subway offers employees complete training in sandwich making, company software, and sales (Stensby, 2014). Internationally, Subway already has restaurants in 90 different countries to include the organization's first international restaurant in Saudi Arabia and75 restaurants in Russia alone. Subway is currently looking into opening other stores internationally in the United Emirates and United Kingdom (Chancey, 2014).

Through using software such as Microsoft's Dynamics program Subway can maintain constant customer feedback through the loyalty card offered to customers. Also by using the software, Subway management is able to predict what the customer likes or dislikes. Also the software is able to track sales, thus allowing Subway to constantly have the ability to change marketing promotions as needed (Stensby, 2014).

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was a man known for entertainment and had the plan to do it. Mr. Disney had nine business principles which have made the Disney organization what it is today. The first of his nine principles were "Know what you value and Why." Mr. Disney knew that he valued the happiness of the young child. Disney's second principle is "Demonstrate the courage of leadership". Disney had high values and everything that he did showed it. He had a way to communicate his values to his employees those values. The third principle was to "strive for perfection and don't compromise quality." Disney set high quality standards and made his employees understand that it is possible to achieve those standards. His next principle was that he believed that "Money is a means, not an end." Walt Disney believed that money was the way to make his dreams come true. Disney's main goal was to make money, so he can make his customer's dreams come