Q2: Based on your above answer, critically analyze the importance of cross-functional coordination between HR and Marketing in the internal delivery of brand positioning through human resources in any organization.
For the coordination in the organization, there are several other important factors despite those typical five management functions. Other than that, another important thing that a manager needs to perform is “Coordination”. The manager of the company needs to make coordination among all the departments of the company to make it more structures and aligned and known to be the essence in the overall management of the company. The term coordination can be defined as a process of synchronization in terms of various departments of the company to execute the company according to its vision and mission. On a general note, it is based on bringing harmony in all the activities that has been going in the various departments of the company.
It is the primary or basic function that the manager has to perform from different departments of the company. The main activities in coordination include integrating the activities of all departments like marketing, Finance or Human Resources to make the goals of the company strategically aligned. To achieve this purpose, organizations often made cross-functional teams that are bringing experts from various departments of the company to achieve one common objective.
The same thing was done by Nokia-Siemens Networks as after the merger, the management of the company faced various challenges. Two rather dissimilar corporate and management cultures were in play, as well as different operating models, more decentralized at Siemens and more standardized at Nokia, and divergent attitudes towards formality and reporting hierarchies. As with any merger, designing a new business strategy was, therefore, only the first step. The more challenging part was to align the organizational structures, systems, processes, and cultures.
Formation of a cross-cultural team includes bringing together people from various departments like Nokia-Siemens did by bringing together research, Marketing and Human Resource department. In addition to this, Nokia-Siemens Network also announced to cut 9000 jobs that are 15% of its total staff over the next four years as a part of its integration program in 2007.
With the help of better coordination among various departments at NSN, the company would be better able to maintain its overall operations that in turn will ensure the company that all the functions are in harmony and properly integrated with each other. For this, the overall management of the company needs to pay special and proper attention to various issues that are acting as an obstacle in achieving a proper brand positioning for a newly formed brand.
The main purpose of building a strong position is to build a strong brand image in the eyes of the customers. For building a strong brand position in the market, first, the company needs to transmit it to the employees to make them understand the purpose and rationale behind the existence of a brand. For that reason, companies often develop a positioning statement that is used internally. The purpose of these statements is to guide the internal departments of the company about the goals and objectives. In the case of Nokia-Siemens Networks, the main purpose of building a cross-functional team was to make the concept of newly formed brand clear to its external customers and internal employees.
Q3: Using appropriate theoretical models as relevant, critically analyze the importance of shaping employees as brand ambassadors through an internal branding process and how this contributes to better alignment of a corporate organization brand value with its human resource strategy. How can such alignment, deliver consistency in brand positioning and organizational performance?
Every company that aims at to be well-managed first focus on building a strong brand. Like many companies, one of the major motivators is the sales volume that is based on the fact that a strong brand leads to higher premiums. If the company has a strong brand image, other marketing and branding activities become relatively easier. However, most of the companies believed that building a strong brand is just the responsibility of a marketing department, but, Unfortunately, this is not the case.
For making a strong brand with its long lasting image, the management of the company needs to engage each and every employee of the company in this process that means, employees from each and every department needs to play its role in the brand building process. However, Nokia-Siemens Networks knows the importance of people and their valuable input in building the brand, that is why NSN has developed a cross-functional teams that involves marketing, Human Resource and Internal communications to build internal themes of the internal brand for NSN..........................
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