Creating Strategy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Creating Strategy - Research Paper Example The opening of the thesis report consists of the description of office of Human Resources. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the main agency under the United States Department of Health and Human Services that is mandated by the United States government to conduct health- related and biomedical research. In order to operate effectively and efficiently to meet the client’s needs and expectations, NIH has, among other offices, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) and Client Services Division. OHR provides strategic leadership in assessment and development of human resources policies and program of the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, OHR links the Department to the central management agencies which provide consultative and operational services. Specifically, OHR has an operation arm of called the Client Services Division. This division’s key goal is to provide the best possible customer service in addition to creating positive, strong relatio nship between OHR and the Institutes or Centers (ICs) staff. Client Services Division has 10 branches which often operate inconsistently. They all serve different institutes which they are adapted to operate certain processes differently. Also, some are stricter on their institutes than other, while others are simply more efficient. These inconsistent operations among Client Services Division’s branches are not desirable as they result to clients obtaining varying services in regard to quality, time, efficiency, and effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to create a strategy for making the 10 branches of the Division to operate consistently and ensure that they all deliver services in a more efficient, effective, and timely manner that meets client’s needs and expectations. Creation of the Strategy Creation of the strategy will be based on the Harvard Business Review’s "What is Strategy", "Blue Ocean Strategy", "Pfizer Inc. Building An Innovation Center" case study, "Crafting Strategy" and "5 Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy." In order to create appropriate strategy for an organization, it is important to understand the forces that shape competition (Porter, 2006). Porter (2006) identifies these forces as the following: threat to entry; the power of suppliers; the power of buyers; the threat of substitutes; and, rivalry among existing competitors. Creation of strategy for the Client Services Division should thus take these forces into account so as to have a successful strategy in the long- run. Mintzer (1987) advises that crafting of strategy should take into consideration the patterns from the past and plans for the future. Therefore, in creating a strategy for the Client Services Division of the NIH with a bid to making the ten branches operate consistently, the patterns of the past and the plans for the future will be considered. In regard to patterns from the past, the fact that the branches have been operating inconsistently especially regard to time and efficiency will be considered. On the other hand, the plans for the future which is to ensure that these branches operate consistently will be considered to ensure that these plans are achievable within a given period of time and the amount of resources needed to achieve them. Taking these two important aspects into consideration will be critical in aligning the past patterns with the strategy that seeks to achieve the new goal (Mintzer, 1987). Porter (1996) argues that creation of strategy in most cases seek to attain operational effectiveness and consistency with the aim of improving organizational performance. This proposition is true in regard to the Client Services Division of the NIH; the strategy created will be essential in leading to superior performance which is indeed the main goal of any organization. Since it is an established fact that Client Services D