Managing Strategy, Operations, and Partnerships

Uchenna Chiboka Sixtus

User 11843206

Strategy and Partnership Module

UEL-SG-7001

Assessment point 2 (Week 12)

Assessment task: Reflective Writing
Word count: 1110 words

June 4th, 2022

Introduction

The aim of this essay is to highlight the development skill that I have learned from

assignment 1 of the module on Strategy and partnership and how i will apply the learnings on

my path to self-development and career success.

I have always thought of myself as a critical thinker, someone who analyzes and makes

deductions from different fact-finding-related activities. Hughes & Youngson, 2009 posed

that students need to expect that they must graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary

for them to get engaged in their professional careers. I took this statement seriously and tried

to cover all the major aspects of my learning. I will express how my views around

innovation, Strategy, and partnerships evolved throughout the research work i conducted to

conclude the first part of this Module and the impact it has made in my professional line of

work since i concluded it.

I will also discuss my learnings from the Module and how the realization of the impact of

Strategy execution in organizations is at the core of business growth.

Learnings/Case study Analysis

Before the start of this Module on Strategy and Partnerships, i was just getting acquainted

with Essay writing again, my writing skills are not bad, However, the academic writing style

was one i had not engaged in frequently since i left college. There was an initial struggle to

really articulate my thoughts to write in a way that made academic sense. But after carefully

imbibing the learnings and instructions of the last assignment, it strengthened my academic

writing skills and reasoning.

The last assignment was keen to me developing rhetorical knowledge by analysing different

forms of writing to understand how different authors could represent one a word with
varying expressions even though it had the same underlying meaning. One of the referenced

journals that come to mind that typifies this is one by Janeneel, (2012) on ‘The success and

failure of Kodak’, Where his explanation of ‘Strategy’ was hinged on good proactive decision

making while Mui.C. (2012) in his article on ‘How Kodak Failed’ described their ‘Strategy’

as simply wrong activity prioritization. What this made me realize and that I have begun to

apply to my professional line of work as a Strategy and Partnerships manager is that two

individuals’ perspectives on what strategy is can vary slightly and still have a broad general

meaning.

Another learning outcome from the first assignment is that it has helped me to develop

critical thinking, reading, and information literacy by writing and reading for inquiry,

learning, critical thinking, and communicating. A way in which I have met this outcome can

be seen in the way my email draft and the line of questioning to my colleagues at work have

improved since I concluded the first assignment, This new style of writing with a more

analytical approach and improved line of questioning has been commended by my

supervisors at work as it has allowed me to become a more valued employee. Another way i

was able to further apply and improve my critical thinking was recently at my company’s

Strategy retreat where i had to prepare a strategy document that the company will anchor her

growth on for the coming year.

The research skills acquired during the first assignment were relevant towards effectively

coming up with a rich document as I harnessed the ability to incorporate outside materials

effectively into my company’s research document.

Another positive outcome and learning from the first assignment on Strategy and operations

is that since concluding it, I have been able to apply some new convention of knowledge that

was acquired during the research work that was carried out to conclude the assignment.
At my workplace, we have had to rethink some of our plans for the year and how they align

with market realities. The learnings on how even an industry giant according to (Nazik, H.,

and Muhammed, A.T. (2014) can become extinct made us re-examine our strategy to validate

its viability.

We also introduced a monthly Strategy session to ensure the above process is a continuous

one and not a one-off occurrence.

Finally, the first assignment helped me gain a lot of insight into the understanding of Strategy

and how it affects organizations, how the concepts are learned, and how innovation coupled

with calculated risk-taking should form a key pillar of every organization’s strategy

execution. I also learned about the major competitive forces that shape organizational

strategies through several articles and business newspapers all contributing to my increased

knowledge of strategy execution.

One key takeaway from the first assignment is also that the varying aspects of strategy

execution highlight the complexity of its nature, as confirmed by (Ansoff et al, 2018) For

example, a particular reference was made in the first assignment on how Kodak lost strategic

positioning by failing to position itself to lead the transition of the general public to the digital

camera era but however chose to focus on their core product(Film sales and marketing) which

at the time some argued was a good decision because it was yielding immense revenue for the

company.

Analyzing the case study from the previous assignment wholistically it was quite clear that

Eastman Kodak Company, known around the world as Kodak, - an American imaging

company that began in the 19th century as an innovator of photography failed to realize that

its strategy which was effective at one point was now what was holding her back from

success. Rapidly changing technology and market needs negated their strategy, and this was a
key lesson outcome for me from Assignment 1. Kodak invested its funds in acquiring many

small companies, depleting the money it could have used to promote the sales of digital

cameras that one of its Engineers first invented.

They failed to realize the changing perspective and dynamic shift that was going to hit the

market. It is interesting to note that they even had the first shot at re-inventing themselves and

leading the entire industry to a new wave of photography, However, poor strategy

implementation prevented this from happening.

Conclusion

Overall, this entire module on Strategy, Partnerships, and operations was a rewarding one

that threw me back into the research and critical thinking required of academia and it was

through the research put in for this assignment and the previous one I realized how

imperative resilience is for every academic research work. The research skills I have learned

would enable me to progress to other modules with better preparedness. According to

Johnson and Johnson (2017), experiential learning is the generating of an action theory from

your own personal experiences, and frequently adjusting your learning to improve your

efficiency.
 References

Ansoff, H. & Kipley, Daniel & Lewis, Alfred & Stevens, Roxanne & Ansoff, Rick. (2019). Implanting
Strategic Management. 10.1007/978-3-319-99599-1.

Hughes, Jan & Youngson, Sheila. (2009). Personal Development and Clinical Psychology.

Janeneel, (2012) ‘The success and failure of Kodak’, WordPress, 23 November. Available at:
https://janeneel.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/the-success-and-failure-of-kodak/

Johnson, D.W. and Johnson, F.P. (2017) Joining together: group theory and group skills, 12 edn.
New York: Pearson

Mui.C. (2012) ‘How Kodak Failed’. Available at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how-kodak-failed/?sh=61a88bbf6f27

Nazik, H., and Muhammed, A.T. (2014) ‘Kodak Stunning Journey of Fortune to Misfortune; A
Case Study - Financial Analysis. Available at: chrome-
extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/RJFA/articl
e/viewFile/15833/16494 (Accessed: 04 July 2022)