10 level of intimacy in today's communication

Today communication is effected by the rapid change of technology communication. Today there are many ways to communicate with other people, but not all the communication way is has same level of intimacy. There are different level of intimacy in each type of communication.

There are 10 level of intimacy in today's communication, the highest level of intimacy is the best way to make a conversation, which are :

1. Level 10 intimacy : Talking
2. Level 9 intimacy : Video chat
3. Level 8 intimacy : Phone
4. Level 7 intimacy : Letter
5. Level 6 intimacy : IM
6. Level 5 intimacy : Text Msg
7. Level 4 intimacy : Email
8. Level 3 intimacy : Facebook Msg
9. Level 2 intimacy : Facebook status
10. Level 1 intimacy : Twitter


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Business Model Canvas

Business model is basically a mental model and concept of set of strategies and investments a company should pursue, so that they can be integrated into a congruent whole, thus enabling company to gain a competitive advantage and achieve superior profitability and profit growth.

To be able understand the business model, instead of doing a mental model it is better if the company can sketch the business model. Sketching the business model can help the owner and the executive of the company to understand the strategies that the company want to pursue. The sketch will give a clear picture of the business and help the executives to plan a strategy to achieve the goals.

Whenever we want to sketch or draw something, we need a canvas to draw on. In this case we need the BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS. Business model canvas is a set of drawing blocks that build a business model. There are 9 blocks that use as a representative to build the model, which are :

1.       Customer  segment

2.       Value proposition

3.       Channels

4.       Customer relationships

5.       Revenue streams

6.       Key resources

7.       Key activities

8.       Key partners

9.       Cost structure

Every block is a representative of the key factor that should be consider when build a business model. Each building block has connection to others that linking each other  as a system. This canvas is use to sketch the business model, from defining customer segment until breaking down the cost structure.

A complete business model will encompasses the totality of how company will :

1. Select its customer.
2. Define and differentiate its product and service.
3. Create value for its customers.
4. Acquire and keep customers.
5. Provide value-added product and services.
6. Deliver the products and services to the market.
7. Configure its resources.
8. Achieve and sustain a high level of profitability.
9. Grow the business over time.

The Formal Strategy Making Process

People think that strategy is the output of the formal planning process and most of the thinking and planning process is done by the top management. This opinion has basic reality but that’s not the whole story. Valuable strategies often emerge from deep within the organization with the input from the team who are constantly tackling problems on the ground, this could be the manager, executives or section head, etc.

The formal strategy planning has 5 main steps:

1.     Select the corporate vision, mission and values and goals/objectives.

Vision is a statement of some desired future state, mission is the reason for existence- what an organization does, and values is a statement of key values that an organization committed to.

2.     Opportunities and threats

Analyze the external competitive environment to identify opportunities and threats.

3.     Strengths and weakness

Analyze the organization’s internal environment to identify its strengths and weakness.

4.     Select a set of action that :

·         Build on the organization’s strengths and fix its weakness- in order to take advantage of external opportunities and counter external threats.

·         Consistent with the organization’s vision, mission, values and goals/objectives.

·         Congruent and constitute a viable business model.

5.     Implement by aligning the organization’s people and activities with the action plan/strategies.

The main task is to analyzing the organization external and internal environment then selecting the appropriate action that constitutes strategy formulation. But the hardest part is the implementation, which is taking actions consistent with the selected strategies of the company at the corporate level, allocating roles and responsibilities among managers, allocating resources, designing reward systems.

Some organizations go through a new cycle of the strategic planning process every year. This does not necessarily mean that managers choose a new strategy each year. In many instances, the result is simply to modify and reaffirm a strategy and structure already in place. The strategic plans generated by the planning process generally look ahead for a period of one to five years, with the plan being updated or rolled forward every year. In most organizations, the results of annual strategic planning process are used as input into the budgetary process for the coming year so that strategic planning is used to allocate resources within the organization.

Business Strategic Planning

Goals should be crafted based on the strategy of the company. There should be a cascading linkage of aligned goals throughout the company as shown on the picture below. Each department in company has goals that support the strategic objective. In term of an ideal condition, every employee has to understand his/her own goal, how to deliver the goal of their department and how the department goal can give impact to the company strategic objective.

What is strategy?

Manager has a responsibility to direct the employee to do the right things and to do things right. Doing the right things require the manager have a strategy. Doing things right is about effectiveness. These two are require to be a success company. Doing the right things is possible with the strategic planning which is a set of actions that develop a business competitive advantage to increase the performance of the company.

Competitive advantage is to be found in differences. The differences between the company and the competitor. The differentiation arise because the performance of each company. See picture below to understand how competitive advantage creates value for company.

Strategic leadership, strategy planning and strategy implementation.

Strategic leadership is how to most effectively manage a company's strategy-making process in order to create a competitive advantage. The strategy formulation is the task of selecting strategies. Strategy implementation is the task of putting the strategies into action, which is include designing, delivering, supporting, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, organization structure, control system and culture.

A company is said have a competitive advantage over competitors when its profitability is greater than the average profitability and profit growth of the competitors. The managers must have the strategies that increase and grow the profitability of the company, known as ROIC - return on invested capital. To do this the company has to outperform its competitor then the company will have the competitive advantage.

A company must have a sustained competitive advantage to outperform the competitors. A company has a sustained competitive advantage when its strategies enable it to maintain above average profitability for a number of years. If a company has a sustained competitive advantage, it is likely to gain market share and achieve a higher profit growth compared to its competitors.

Business model

Basically a mental model and concept of the set of strategies and investments a company should pursue is called a business model. A business model draw a totality of how company will :

1. Select its customer.
2. Define and differentiate its product and service.
3. Create value for its customers.
4. Acquire and keep customers.
5. Provide value-added product and services.
6. Deliver the products and services to the market.
7. Configure its resources.
8. Achieve and sustain a high level of profitability.
9. Grow the business over time.

See below picture to understand defining a business. A fine tuning of a business model can make a huge impact and expected result.

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Goal setting as the essential part of strategic business planning

“Good grief, it is business planning or budgeting time again” is a common refrain among many managers. Business planning and budgeting can cause stress and conflict and is extremely time-consuming. However, good business plans that are properly budgeted are worth the time and trouble.

If one is the owner or manager of a small company with few cash resources, a good business plan can be the difference between financial success and the business’s inability to expand to its full potential, which may ultimately result in insolvency. The business planning and budgeting process forces the management team to estimate how many individual goods and services the company will sell, the cost of these item, the rate at which receivables will be collected, general expenses, and lastly taxes. These figures provide a forecast of the months or year ahead. A good business plan and budget helps the management team to assess whether the business will have adequate financial resources to stay the course. Business planning and budgeting for business as a whole can be a powerful control mechanism. It is also an action plan that guides organisations to reach their strategic goals.

Goal setting is a process for defining targets one plans to achieve. It is one of the essential functions of the management team. When one sets goals, one commits to outcomes that can be accomplished personally or through one’s subordinates. Goal setting makes it possible to focus limited resources and time on the things that matter the most. It sets the course of action. A goal is a precise and measurable aim that a company must desire to realise. In this context, the purpose of goals is to precisely specify what must be done if the company is to attain its mission or vision.

Key characteristics of well-constructed goals:

• Precise and measurable – this is to provide a yardstick or standard against which managers can judge the performance.

• Address crucial issues – this is to maintain focus. Managers should select a limited number of major goals to assess the performance of the company.

• Challenging but realistic – this is to provide employees with incentives for improving operations of the organisation. If a goal is unrealistic in the challenges it poses, employees may give up. A goal that is too easy may fail to motivate managers and other employees.

• Specify a time period – this is to motivate and inject a sense of urgency into attaining that particular goal. Time constraints remind employees that success requires a goal to be attained by, and not after, a given date. However, not all goals are constrained by time.

By setting the goals and measuring their success, one can focus on what is most important, waste less energy on non-critical tasks, and achieve greater results. The manager is responsible for setting personal goals and subsequently organisational goals for the department. Although most companies operate with a variety of goals, the central goal of most companies is to maximise shareholders’ returns, and doing this requires both high profitability and sustained profit growth.

However, it is important than top managers do not make the mistake of over-emphasising current profitability to the detriment of long-term profitability and profit growth. Therefore, some companies are more driven by the satisfaction, profit and wealth creation it brings than others and some are better at managing capacity and capital constraints and risks than others.

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