Question

Strategic Management: A Taiwanese story about strategy and structure Before 2000 the Taiwan-based company Acer had competing strategies. For 15 years one part of the firm had been building computers for other PC sellers who would put their own labels on the machines, while another part sold very similar computers under the company’s own brand. The latter strategy was predicated on direct sales to consumers, which had brought the firm into direct competition with companies such as Dell. However, in 2000 the firm decided to adopt a new business strategy in order to increase its global market share. Acer’s manufacturing division was made an independent company (Wistron) and this enabled a smaller and more nimble sales firm to emerge. The strategy based on direct sales was discarded and replaced with a strategy focused on selling as many low-cost laptops and netbooks as possible to consumers but via a network of partners and retailers. A new logo was adopted to reflect this new strategic direction, which had proved very successful despite the industry downturn. By 2008, Acer had replaced Hewlett-Packard as the market leader in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, partly as a result of Acer’s success in the booming netbook market. This strategy enabled the firm to become the world’s second largest PC vendor. However, in 2011 tensions at board level over the firm’s strategic direction culminated in the resignation of Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci. The difference in opinion appears to be about whether the firm’s future lay in PC’s or mobile devices. Acting CEO J.T Wang announced that the PC would continue to be the firm’s core business. In 2009 the firm entered the smartphone market with the launch of four different smartphones and the promise of more in the pipeline. Unlike Apple, which was focused on developing one phone only, Acer’s strategy is based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment. In march MODULE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TOTAL MARKS 60 MARKS 2011, Acer announced that revenue projections for the first quarter in 2011 will fall short of expectations by about 10% due to weaker demand in the PC market in the US and Europe. (Source: New York Times, 2009, Bloomberg Business Week, The Financial Times, PC Pro)

Questions Discuss the purpose of Strategic Human Resource Management for organisations today. In your discussion, identify which organisational strategies have been employed by ACER over the years, justify your answer using evidence provided in the case study and discuss how these organisational strategies affect the HR strategy. (60) You are encouraged to use at least 5 current and relevant external literary sources to support your discussion on Strategic Human Resource Management.

Answer 1

Strategic human resource management is the link between a organisation HR and its strategies, objectives, and goals. The objective of strategic human resource management is to achieve flexibility, innovation, and competitive advantage.

The purpose of Strategic human resource management are-

1. focus on actions that distinguish an company from its competitors.
2. It gives a directional idea to distribute the resources of organization to most match & capable Employee.
3. It add its expression in business’s decision making task.
4. It give emphasis to organizational codes of moral values and manage public crash of business.
5. It provide tactic and proposal to the director of organization.
6. It take business to the new level, integrates HR workflow, defines new goals, aligned employee work force for business flourishing.
7. It design the foundation of organization to achieve efficient business benefits, structure, culture, employees values propositions and effective communication strategic plan for HRM.
8. It also keep track of down turns, down falls, risks and other business acquirement.
9. It also take part in employee recruitment, hiring, training and assessments processes.

Organisational strategies adopted by acer

From the given case it is very clear that there were two types of strategies which were adopted by Acer one was the competing strategy which the company adopted for 15 years of its operation in which the company did two things first it produce PC'S for other companies and other it it sold PC in its own name selling the laptop and PC in its own name which included direct sales to the consumers in which it had to face direct competition from reputed companies like Dell after that there was a Paradigm shift in the strategy of Acer and the shift was that the company this disintegrated its manufacturing department and it was named as a separate company by the name of WISTRON and this enabled small and quick sales for the image the company it also adopted the strategy of discarding its direct sale to the customer and replace it with a strategy of selling low cost laptops and notebooks this included it network partners of retailers the company during this. Adopted a new logo which proved very successful despite the industry downturn as time went by in the year 2008 acer has replaced HP as the market leader in Europe and the Middle East and Africa and this success was due to its booming product netbook market this strategy also made acer the world's second largest PC maker
Later in the year 2009 the company decided to enter the smartphone market with launch of four different smartphones and like apple which focus on developing one phone only in this case as a strategy was based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment

From the given case it is very clear that there were two types of strategy which were adopted by Acer one was the competing strategy which the company adopted for 15 years of its operation in which the company did two things first it produce pCS for other companies and other it it sold PC in its own name selling the species in its own name included direct sales to the consumers in which it had to face direct competition from reputed companies like Dell after that there was a Paradigm shift in the strategy of Acer and the shift was that the company this integrated its cE manufacturing department and it was named as a separate company by the name of restaurant and this enabled small and quick sales form 2 image the company also adopted the strategy of discarding its direct sale to the customer and replace it with a strategy of selling low cost laptops and notebooks this included it network partners of retailers the company during this. Adopted a new logo which proved very successful despite the industry downturn as time went by in the year 2008 acer has replied hP as the market leader in Europe and the Middle East and Africa and this success was due to its booming product notebook market netbook market this strategy also made complete the world's second largest PC maker
Later in the year 2009 the company decided to enter the smartphone market with launch of four different smartphones and like apple which focus on developing one phone only in this case as a strategy was based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment
Organisational strategies affected the HR
The organisational strategies affected the HR strategies as earlier the company used to to produce computers for itself and also the company sold its own brand through direct marketing channels like Dell did but later on when the company changed its strategy in total it made its company into two parts one was responsible for the manufacturing which was WISTRON and other was responsible for making netbooks and laptop in its own name the company also introduce a new logo but in this case the company sold its laptop and notebooks through retailers and distributors so the HR strategy which the company used this time included more people to be involved in making retailers and distributors of the company as compared to before which was based on direct selling through online websites this also enabled the human resource in the company to expand into markets like the europe Middle East and Africa and gain a a sustainable market share.

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