Post on 10-Jan-2017
Final Research Paper
BUS7060 Corporate Governance and Globalization
“ACT OF GOD”
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
PLANNING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
RUSSELL AVRE
russellavre@yahoo.com
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
ABSTRACT
Planning for the business landscape is a daunting endeavor; a business has to worry about
customers fleeting perception of their goods or service, the competitor developing a product
to erode their market share and new disruptive entrants coming into the red ocean and
completely changing the game. While this might keep executives and stakeholders constantly
on their toes, the entire industry is thrown into chaos by some random acts of nature like an
earthquake. In this paper we would be using two case studies to show the benefits of
planning strategically
Keywords: Strategic planning, Information systems, Goals, Disaster, earthquakes, act of
god.
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STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
INTRODUCTION
Armson (2011) makes a compelling case when she said humans are problem-solving animals
and, while we do not always welcome problems, dealing with problems is what we do. The
regular grind of business brings with it unique sets of challenges and with some planning in
place, principals and stakeholders can accommodate them, but the game changes when the
disruption is without warning and worse is difficult to protect against?
Events as aforementioned are generally called natural disasters because they are perpetrated
by natural forces or by “acts of god”, or as most literature would like to describe them;
Mother Nature's fist of fury, attributing the wanton destruction of lives and properties to Gaia
of Greek mythology (Ryan, M. 2013). Putting it together, acts of god are those events that
occur due to natural causes, and the sudden and unexpected nature of their occurrence, make
them nearly impossible to carry out any kind of precautionary actions. A few of Events of
this kind are: flood, earthquake, tornadoes etc. If this “scourge” cannot be eliminated, can it
at least be minimized? Yes, and that’s what strategic planning is about.
Strategic planning derives it roots from ancient times, and has been used with great success
in situations as desperate as love and war. Its use in the sphere of business is comparatively
new, and it refers to making decisions on allocating resources in pursuant to a future goal.
The end product of this thinking process is the actualization of a desired future.
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STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
According to Vladimir (2016):
Information system is an integrated set of components for collecting, storing, and processing
data and for providing information, knowledge and digital products. Business firms and other
organizations rely on information systems to carry out and manage their operations, interact
with their customers and suppliers and compete in the marketplace. Information systems are
used to run interorganizational supply chains and electronic markets.
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STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
BACKGROUND
Governments and companies the world over build run their countries and businesses around
the Information technology model for example; the US and the Canadian Government using
E-government solution to administer their duties for the citizens, the giant online retailers
Amazon, Alibaba and eBay using ecommerce or electronic commerce to interface with their
customers. Therefore, it goes without saying that disruptions of any kind especially from
natural disasters could cripple a business and negatively impact employees and customers.
In a Utopia, things would go perfectly, but in reality; the uncertainty of he business landscape
makes it no longer an optional necessity but a priority to “plan for the rainy day”.
A good framework to start the strategic Information system planning is the strategic planning
cycle. The cycle is an embodiment of multiple planning procedures that help the principal or
executive consider the long term.
From a corporate governance perspective, shareholders are more interested than ever to
understand the workings of organizations in which they have a stake, first for ethical reasons
and subsequently the financial returns. The overarching argument in literature is that
organizations with celebrity CEO’s fair better that their competitors, but as this article will
show, they have are successful because of, not despite, properly thought through strategic
plans.
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Image: Strategy planning, (Source:
http://ctlinternational.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/strategic_business_planning.jpg)
Propose Goals
This is the first stage of the planning process and it involves the establishment of the
corporate mission and desired future. The goals in these category falls under the what I
would like to call operational goals, because they are necessary to sustaining the day to day
operations of the business.
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Examine Internal Issues
Every corporation has internal issues or the “thorn in the flesh”, they hamper performance
and could detract from major objectives if not handled with care. At this stage, the company
would have to focus on dealing with internal threats closer to home, i.e. the threats from
within.
Examine External Issues
This is the part of the plan that most tasking, as it forces the executives to look outwardly at
threats on the horizon. This could take the form of disruptive entrants into the market,
governmental regulations, and natural disasters.
Create SWOT Analysis
At this stage of the planning process, the company has crafted their goals, understands her
internal and external issues, now they are ready to analyze the issues in a grid like format. Its
imperative to know that the SWOT tool helps executives in making strategic long term
decisions that can completely alter the business landscape.
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SWOT table (Retrieved from: https://www.quora.com/What-is-SWOT-analysis)
Formulate a Strategy
This is the melting point of the process, as the aforementioned planning processes come
together to form an implementable working document, that would shape the direction and
scope of the organization over the long term, build agreement and commitment among key
stakeholders, produced decisions and actions and finally help the company establish her
business priorities.
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CASE STUDIES
Amada, M of the silicon Expert Blog(2016) opens with her article with a shrilly statistics:
On Thursday, April 14, 2016 a magnitude 6.2 earthquakes struck north of Kumamoto,
on the island of Kyushu in southwest Japan. With the country still suffering from the
effects of Thursday’s deadly earthquake, Japan was hit by another massive magnitude
7.0 quake just two days later, April 16, 2016. This second quake did hit the very same
region as the Thursday’s initial area of impact. (April 19)
The article went on to detail the level of damage suffered by companies within the fault line,
noticeable in this story as well as news paper reports covering the level of damage suffered
by Sony and Toyota. From the report, Operations at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing
corporations Kumamoto Technology center located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Province
was brought to a complete halt when the disaster struck, as it damaged buildings, finished
product inventory such as image sensors as well as the business operations of the Mobile
communications, Game Network Services and Home Entertainment. This event, which lasted
for just a few minutes cost Sony, a whopping one billion dollars in lost revenue.
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semiconductor-companies-japan-earthquakes-768x629.jpg. Retrieved from
http://www.siliconexpert.com/blog/japan-earthquakes-2016/
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STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
Automobile-Companies-Japan-Earthquakes.png; Retrieved from
http://www.siliconexpert.com/blog/japan-earthquakes-2016/
Not too far away was Toyota, who was equally affected but to a lesser degree. As its loss
was mostly due to the shortage of parts, leading to a suspension in production. Craig Trudell
of Bloomberg (2016 April) pegged Toyota loss at 277 million dollars.
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Retrieved from: http://michelbaudin.com/tag/metrics/page/2/
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World costliest natural disasters Retrieved from:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/03/natural_disasters
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Graph of Sony Segment and location retrieved from : http://docplayer.net/2866177-Sony-
corporation-griffin-consulting-group-hao-tang-rahul-misra-ellie-shanholt.html
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CONCLUSION
The cases above shows the benefits of strategic planning, as Toyota was able to cut her losses from
implementing a strategy they pioneered, called “just in time” This philosophy is simply an inventory supply
system that operates with very low inventories requiring less resources, but requires fast, on time delivery
(Cherie, S. 2011). Therefore, Toyota keeps only a week to a month worth of inventory on sites prone to disaster,
thereby minimizing expensive losses.
So borrowing the words of the elder states man Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”
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REFERENCES
Amanda, M (2016, April 19) Effects of the Japan Earthquakes on the Electronic
Industry. Retrieved from http://www.siliconexpert.com/blog/japan-earthquakes-2016/
Cherie, S. (2011, April 12) “Just in Time” & Today’s Global Uncertainty Retrieved
from http://blog.pcb.ca/2011/04/just-in-time-todays-global-uncertainty/907
Craig, T. ( 2016, April 17) Toyota Seen Losing $277 Million as Quakes Halt Japan
Output. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-
18/toyota-seen-losing-277-million-from-japan-earthquake-stoppages
HIROKO, T. (2011, MAY 23) Sony Swings to Big Loss After Natural Disasters
Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/technology/24sony.html?_r=0
Legal Information Institute (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/act_of_god
Reuters, (2016, May 24) Sony Says Earthquake Damage Will Cost it $1 Billion in
Profits Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/05/24/sony-earthquake-
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damage-profits/
Ryan H. Murphy (2013, October 30) Gaia’s Vengeance: The Caustic Cliché of
Environmentalism. Retrieved from http://www.acton.org/pub/commentary/2013/10/30/gaias-
vengeance-caustic-clich%C3%A9-environmentalism
Rosalind Armson (2011) Growing wings on the way. Axminster, Triarchy Press (p.
15)
Vladimir, Z (2016 February 10) Information System. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/information-system
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