Strategic Management: What is Strategy and why is it important?
By Thamali Nisansala
* Business Model of McDonald’s
First, with a franchise business model that allows its franchisee-members, management and shareholders to share the risks and rewards from the discovery and exploitation of new business opportunities—McDonald’s model has become the norm for other franchise organizations. Second, by adaptation and innovation, coming up with fresh products and services to address the needs of a diverse consumer market—as shaped by demographic, economic and local factors around the world.
* Business Model of Oracle
Oracle invests in hardware, database, middleware, and applications – and businesses simply rent it.
This is a huge change in Oracle’s business model, and the company is taking the transformation very seriously. Every major product is being transformed by the cloud, including the way the sales force operates. Oracle sees this transition as its next major growth opportunity – telling analysts that organic growth will come from integration and redeployment of products in this new way.
Fusion: Oracle’s Cloud Applications Strategy
Fusion is the name for all of Oracle’s new set of cloud-based applications, and I attended several sessions where legacy customers running PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, or Oracle applications were migrating to the cloud. In each case the progress is steady and customers are biting the bullet.
In the Human Capital Management area, Oracle sells Fusion HCM (which competes with products like Workday). I had the opportunity to meet with four new Oracle Fusion HCM customers and sit through several Fusion HCM sessions. Oracle now has 25 live customers on Fusion HCM, more than 125 licensed customers, and some huge wins such as UBS, Elizabeth Arden, Brocade, Hitachi Data Systems, Shutterfly, and others. I expect many more to come.
We talk with clients every week, and many large organizations are evaluating Fusion as an upgrade path...