[8] 2002 e-business-strategies-for-virtual-organizations

e-Business Strategies for Virtual Organizations
alignment. The degree to which virtual organizing can be
applied in the organization will relate to the extent to which the
change management factors are in alignment. When these are
not aligned then the organization will find itself dysfunctional in
its exploitation of the virtual marketspace and so be unable to
derive the maximum value benefits from its strategic position.
Figure 7.3 revisits the VOCM introduced in Chapter 3 and
integrates the e-business strategies – exploiter, explorer and
innovator – into a knowledge management framework for
change management. This can be used by the organization to
identify those factors where their greatest focus is required:
� the exploiter strategy will focus on maximizing the effectiveness
of business processes along the value chain through
ITC;
� the explorer strategy will extend market reach by strengthening
structural alliances and interorganizational partnerships
along the supply/demand chain; and
� the innovator will be attempting to integrate all these
processes into a virtual value chain and to move into new
virtual markets.
7.11 Strategies for transition
162
It is all very well to say that a firm must look for ways to change,
but such advice is of little consequence unless we can provide a
more practical set of guidelines that can be followed. This is not
to say that there is any single set of guidelines that can be
applied to all circumstances. If there were, then nobody would
need to study management or seek effective means of implementing
management information systems – we could all buy
the same set of rules and sit down to apply them.
Recent accepted management thinking suggests that nine useful
and identifiable challenges sum up the difficulties that must be
addressed by any established firm looking to take advantage of
adopting a virtual business model. In so far as we can formulate
a set of rules of guidance, then, you can take these as starting
points and see how far you can get by applying them:
1 Shifting value drivers – identify what new or emerging factors
are influencing how the value of your product or process is
judged by the market.
2 Designing the new business model: first you must be aware of
your existing business model, then you must look to see