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The Standard Tuesday Date: 02.08.2016 Page 15 Article size: 352 cm2 ColumnCM: 78.22 AVE: 203377.77 MBITHIHUTUA Firms must adapt to survive turbulence Dinosaurs bestrode the earth come a threat. Think about the net effect to some firms when came extinct. These humongous animals serve as powerful meta ron, once a giant corporation in been happening in the banking sector. With so many firms issu ing profit warnings in our cn United States of America serves continuous basis, if firms do not phors for big firms who may fall due to lack of adaptation to their as template of how unethical practices can ruin organisations. up their game, survival in this people stopped writing letters to their loved ones manually and opted to use ICT more. There environment will be farfetched. were losers and gainers. The dif business environment. Nokia failed to take cognisance ference between these two cate of changing environmental dy gories can be traced in strategic planning and change pro es and models are not changing Recently, Nokia Chief Executive Officer may have introduced an other dimension of catastrophic corporate failure. in tandem. Once dominant firms Like Enron, Nokia was no or have appeared on corporate obituary pages, so to speak. For the firm of today to sur dinary organisation. Enron and like colossi. Ironically, they be In Kenya, the ground has shifted but our business practic vive, it must be lean, ethical and adaptable to a fastchanging en vironment. To some Kenyan firms, the last nail could have been driven by entry of global brands. For our national develop ment, our homegrown firms must compete and extend their operations beyond our borders. While some may fall by the way verge of extinction due to ethics. Across oceans, the story of En Nokia went down due to ethical namics. Managers need to pay atten tion to these twin issues, namely environmental dynamics and ethics, if they are to survive in an concerns and environmental dy namics respectively. In a press conference recently, the Nokia increasingly challenging envi ronment. Firms in fastchanging boss told the world that though the management team did noth ing wrong, somehow they lost. If we try to decipher this that strategic and change man agement are central to their sur vival. Organisations develop statement, we will arrive at the interpretation that there were no ethical issues involved but Nokia faced turbulence, which the through planned change that us es organisational development principles and models. In addi tion, there is change that comes as a result of market forces. Or ples of organisations which have lar financially and have experi ence to operate on a global scale. Industries previously regard ed as stable are experiencing ganisations may have no much control on this type of change. What they need is adaptation. •Indeed, with foresight and change management pro grammes, some firms create op portunities from factors such as technology. For others, they ig nore the proverbial writing on become extinct or are on the tremors. We all recall what has the wall. The same factors be side, others will survive. Corporate ethics has often been a factor as far as performance is concerned. managers could not deal with. In Kenya, the business envi ronment is becoming more environments need to realise complex, especially with new market entrants who are muscu In Kenya and Africa at large, its role is becoming more pro nounced as we now have exam grammes. ICT firms operate in fastchanging and sensitive en vironments where a slight change in market forces may have a drastic effect. Indeed, some may even close shop alto gether. Airlines operate in a sim ilar situation. The September 11 terror attack and SARS virus in Asia had debilitating conse quences even on fivestar air lines. Actually, Singapore airlines has been quoted widely on how to deal with organisational and industryspecific crises and challenges. The story of this air line explains how to fly past tur bulence. It can offer lessons to some of our airlines that we pride in here in Africa. Dr Mutua is a Lecturer, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricul ture and Technology Ipsos Kenya Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road Lavington Nairobi Kenya