Sustainablity in maintaining a competitive advantage Essay Example

achieve this, See Tickets believes that feedback is essential as it provides an opportunity for customers to share their experiences.

It is crucial for any concern to have a steady income to maintain its operations. See Tickets has a long-term agreement to provide ticketing services for the RUG theaters in London (Smith, 2008). Additionally, See collaborates with major clients such as Ryder Cup, Glastonbury, IMG, West Ham United, British Tennis, RUG, trentfm sphere, SJM concerts, MPH Topgear live, BBC, The football conference, Taste of London, and Grand Designs. This indicates that we have strong networks to compete against our rivals. However, the duration of our success remains uncertain. On the other hand, Ticketmaster, a US-based company, holds a monopoly and is gradually entering the British market.

Lastminute.com and Gigantic are both major rivals for See Tickets. While See Tickets has a contract with the RUG theaters and strong relationships with various event organizers, it faces challenges from its rivals' pricing and distribution strategies. See Tickets cannot rely solely on its relationships to compete effectively. If customers choose to go with its rivals, See Tickets could lose business and market share. However, social networking is a unique advantage for See Tickets as it drives innovation, responsiveness, and flexibility. The way people are led within this organization is what sets it apart from others.

It is crucial for 'See Tickets' to align its strategies with its various stakeholders. Before delving into this topic, let's first look at the internal and external stakeholder relationships and connections.

See Tickets Business Model

A business model is vital to ensure coordination at multiple levels. The meaning we derive from our position and perspective within the organization

is influenced by the groups or constituencies we associate with (Fredrick's, 2009). Organizations consist of various groupings (known as constituencies) that cooperate or clash as they pursue their goals and interests. This leads to temporary alliances and strategic exchanges - exchanges of tangible and symbolic resources within or across the organization.

The development of power and influence within an administration occurs when constituencies control key resources that the administration relies on for its survival. These powerful constituencies change over time as the administration's dependence on critical resources fluctuates. Watson ( 2002 ) argues that a successful strategy involves understanding these constituencies and being able to gain their support and commitment. The business model presented below illustrates the flow of cash and the involvement of different constituencies. In order to secure the support and commitment of these constituencies, strategic conversations are necessary. Discourses are formed by the collective actions and statements of many individuals and organizations over time, rather than by the isolated actions of individuals ( Phillips ; A ; Hardy, 1997 ).

Eccles, A, and Nohria (1993, p. 88) argue that discourse is a unique form of rhetoric that serves as a "common language used by individuals at all levels of an organization to identify, justify, and give meaning to the continuous flow of actions that make up the organization." Discourse does not just describe things; it also has a performative function (Potter and Wetherell, 1987; Grant et al., 1998).

Discourse is both socially constructed and socially constitutive as it creates objects of knowledge, social identities, and interpersonal connections (Fairclough; A; Wodak, 1997). To understand how discourses function, it is necessary to analyze their internal structures, individual

actions, and linguistic use. We must explore how discourse, as a social activity, is embedded within larger frameworks of understanding, communication, and interaction. For example, the acquisition of 'Intascape Limited' by See Tickets has been one of their most significant strategic moves.

Before the acquisition, See Tickets only dealt with Theater shows and Music concerts. However, after the acquisition, they expanded into sport events as well. The acquisition also gave See Tickets a competitive advantage in terms of its technology. The diagram below illustrates the communication and development of this acquisition with its constituencies. In terms of activity, the management aimed to introduce new analytical statements that would connect objects to specific concepts. Their activities focused on introducing symbols, narratives, metaphors, and other tools. Additionally, the management acquired 'Intascape Limited', a company known for developing software for featuring organizations.

In order for these circuits of activity to pursue other actors, they must intersect with circuits of performativity (Lyotard, 1984). The organization (See Tickets) has now become associated with the idea of being a multi-service organization, dealing with theater events, music concerts, and sports events. This happens when the intellectual activity is grounded in a specific time and context where the relevant ideas hold significance; when the position of the speaker justifies their voice; and when the symbols used are receptive and resonate with relevant actors. This would mean that more clients and stakeholders would engage with See Tickets based on its new development.

Activity and performativity generate a network of connectivity as constructs become attached to specific objects. This leads to the emergence of new capable places (Jockey nine) and patterns (Data aggregation) and creates a discourse that

is taken for granted and communicated linguistically. As a result, prevailing discourses are challenged, displaced, transformed, modified, or strengthened, thereby impacting the context for future intellectual activities (Hardy and Palmer, 1999). This focus specifically examines the intellectual activities of management and their effects on individuals outside the organization. However, it is evident that there were significant indirect effects on members of the organization.

Strategic Leadership and Knowledge Management

Goran Carstedt (2007) argues that organizational leadership is not solely about managing people but about guiding them with inspiring ideas that are in line with the current times. To successfully lead a group of people from one point to another, one must invite them to something that holds significance, purpose, and opportunities for learning - something that truly deserves their unwavering commitment (Goran Carstedt, 2007).

An organization obtains direction from its mission and vision. The vision represents a long-term objective, while the goals can be seen as short-term objectives. However, in order for the organization to inspire its members, it must communicate this vision through dialogue and sensemaking. Sensemaking is the process of assigning a new meaning or interpretation to something that has already occurred during the formation process, but has not been identified as a distinct independent process, object, or event (Magala, 1997).

See Tickets operates as a goal-driven organization with a strong emphasis on system control. This approach takes a mechanistic view of organizations and management, treating them as machine-like systems designed to achieve clear and predetermined goals. However, in order to meet diverse market demands and engage employees, a more flexible and interactive approach is necessary. As previously mentioned, See Tickets manages a complex network of relationships and

operations, but cooperation among different groups is lacking and there is minimal knowledge sharing.

Customer feedback is not considered when making strategic decisions. The strategic leading process is an effective foundation that helps set the pace in the right direction while knowing what to do next; and it improves interaction and contribution within the organization, introducing the opportunity to adapt and absorb new insights on how to organize and make sense of relationships (Fredericks, 2009). To enhance business opportunities for 'See Tickets' and prevent any failure caused by conflicts, management is asked to create a clear understanding of our different constituencies that establish a leading, following, knowing, and learning relationship. For example, developing a general diagram of the decision-making process for the ticketing market could clarify how the different departments interact. Moreover, this could give an idea of areas where our organization could improve employee involvement and decision-making.

The organization's procedures and relationships are illustrated in the figure above. We can see how we interact externally with clients and internally with other departments. The "potential client" is introduced to us through media and online information. They then contact our "call center" for a discussion to understand their needs and requirements. The call center receives information from the IT, Marketing, and Distribution departments regarding ticket costs, availability, and offers, which is then shared with the client. The departments also collaborate with each other, sharing knowledge and learning from one another in order to determine the next steps in the process. This information is then relayed to management, who guide the media and internet activities based on client input. It is evident that all departments communicate with the

client, share knowledge, and know what actions to take next.

However, the internal acquisition and cognition sharing between the sections is lacking compared to the section's interaction with the client. This may result in a divergence from the client's scope. Therefore, in order to allow 'See Tickets' to integrate more effectively into the discourse and decision-making process internally, it is important to understand how 'See Tickets' shares knowledge and determine if this aligns with the business strategy. Knowledge tied to intuition, physical experiences, motion skills, and senses remains unspoken (Polanyi, 1966).

In order for this understanding to continue, the unspoken understanding must be transformed into explicit understanding and persist for future learning. Within our organization, Process Experts possess the knowledge on how to design ticketing, distributing, and communicating systems. The IT team has the knowledge to create tools that cater to customer/employee preferences and ease of use. Various call center agents are knowledgeable on converting customers about tickets and promotions.

Directors possess the expertise to effectively guide and benefit the organization. However, if these skilled employees were to leave, they would also take their valuable knowledge with them, leaving the organization at a disadvantage. In addition to operational procedures, feedback from employees and clients should also be considered as valuable knowledge. Despite See Tickets declaring their commitment to collecting feedback, there is very little being done to actually utilize this knowledge for the organization's benefit. It is important to capture, research, utilize, and expand knowledge. This can be achieved through interaction and sharing of both tacit and explicit knowledge with others. By doing so, individuals can enhance their ability to define a situation or problem and effectively apply

their knowledge to solve it.

According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), the corporate vision and organizational culture are important for accessing both implicit and explicit knowledge in an organization. Additionally, von Hippel (1988) suggests that new knowledge gained from customer use of products and services is often tacit in nature. To effectively utilize this knowledge, it must be shared through collaboration with customers, made explicit, and justified before it can be communicated through information systems. The key goal of organizational knowledge creation theory is to identify the conditions necessary for knowledge creation in order to enhance innovation and learning (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995; von Krogh et al. 2000). It is important to note that employees are not just automatons, but instead play a crucial role in this process as agents and IT technicians.

They are more than just employees - they need a platform to express their ideas and strategies. Companies like 'General Electric' believe in the "Power of One," recognizing that the true knowledge of working concepts lies within the lower-level employees. The managers must gather and guide these ideas towards something impactful.

GE utilizes strategies such as Quickhits, Lean thoughts, Muda (waste removal), and Kaizans. These strategies are derived from the ideas and viewpoints of non-managers and directors. If See Tickets were to incorporate some of these concepts, they would discover new opportunities, perspectives, and improvements that they previously could not have imagined. Participating in 'ba' means engaging in knowledge creation, dialogue, adaptation, and organization while also surpassing one's own limited perspective or boundaries. The cyber Ba is a space of interaction in the virtual world rather than in the physical world.

The consolidation of new knowledge

and existing information helps to organize and generate explicit knowledge within the organization. While physical Ba limits the number of participants in effective knowledge creation, the cyber 'ba' can include hundreds of individuals through the use of information and communication technology. In See Tickets, as the operational processes undergo frequent changes and updates, it is necessary to have a shared database/platform (e.g., the homepage of the LAN network) that contains all the updates. This ensures that the agents are aware of the latest procedures.

This system reduces operational mistakes and ensures quality. It also provides opportunities for innovation and learning, where employees share their ideas and improvements with other teams and staff, helping managers make necessary changes, if beneficial.

Stakeholder Management

Our business involves interaction with various stakeholders. Stakeholder management involves building and maintaining the active support and commitment of these individuals to facilitate the timely implementation of the change or project. By understanding an individual's motivations and position, it becomes possible to positively influence the process of change and address any issues that may be hindering it.

This attack will be applicable to both internal and external stakeholders, including trade associations, involvement groups, regulative bodies, and more. It is important to identify and list out the stakeholders, noting the resources they control, their interests and concerns, relevant metrics, their level of interest and power. We must categorize stakeholders using a Stakeholders Matrix based on the impact of the change and their significance for the success of the project. Once stakeholders are positioned on the Power-Interest Matrix, we should develop an action plan for managing them based on the information provided in the stakeholders map.

The action plan should determine

the responsible party for managing stakeholders, the necessary actions, and the timeframe for completion. The action plan should also align with the project's communication strategy. The below figure illustrates the fundamental principles of the stakeholder-oriented integrative strategic management model. Essentially, environmental strategies, resource strategies, networking strategies, and corporate responsibility strategies contribute to knowledge management and stakeholder-oriented strategies in order to generate advantageous knowledge and stakeholder relationships as part of the company's core competencies and dynamic capabilities. These capabilities impact the company's financial and responsibility performance, which can be regulated through feedback loops to the emerging strategies. The defined approach is based on the interactive development of advantageous knowledge and stakeholder relationships in accordance with the resource-based theory.

In the case of See Tickets, the Knowledge Management schemes and the Stakeholder Management Strategy that were previously discussed will help us develop our core competences and dynamic capabilities, which our competitors will find difficult to replicate. This will have a positive impact on the organization's performance, leading to improved overall performance.

Strategic Partnership

See Tickets maintains partnerships with various organizations, specifically in the business-to-business (B2B) market. B2B marketplaces serve as information and coordination hubs, facilitating efficient business partner connections and the exchange of goods and services (Phillips and Meeker, 2000). These marketplaces not only support collaboration and partnerships among their members but also require extensive partnerships of their own to provide these benefits.

While market place suppliers should collaborate with buyers and sellers to maximize their business model as intermediaries, they also need to establish strategic partnerships with service providers. This shift in strategizing and operations is crucial for B2B market places and involves partnering with specialized service providers such as

logistics companies, financial services firms, content providers, and other market places. These strategic alliances with specialized service providers are essential for B2B market places to achieve a strong competitive position. For example, the partnership between See Tickets and Alliance Cornhill, an insurance provider, benefits both organizations. See Tickets gains a competitive advantage by offering insurance on its tickets while Alliance Cornhill secures more business through its association with See Tickets.

In a similar fashion, See Tickets has a partnership with American Express (AE). See accepts AE as a bank to perform direct transactions for its clients, with AE receiving a percentage for the service. This partnership benefits both parties. See gains more business as AE promotes it to all its clients, while AE profits from its share. In addition to financial benefits, this strategic partnership aids in knowledge sharing through information exchange.

See Tickets has formed a partnership with the RUG Theaters, Nimax, and Delfont-Mackintosh. This partnership allows them to access and utilize the client databases of each organization. With this access, they are able to inform clients about publicity, new launches, offers, verifiers, etc., through mail or email. This helps to increase gross revenues. Additionally, strategic partnerships can be used to attract partners with core competencies in countries where the organization lacks strong competencies. B2B marketplaces can also add value by integrating information from all involved parties. Dai and Kauffman (2001) emphasize that marketplaces serve as infomediaries, not only lowering communication and search costs as initially expected but also maintaining and supporting long-term business relationships.

Thus, a crucial element of an effective strategic approach for B2B marketplaces to compete successfully is having extensive partnering skills and a

well-planned partnering strategy. This allows them to coordinate their own service capabilities, as well as those of other marketplaces and specialized service providers. These services should be able to be organized flexibly in order to meet the changing and developing needs that a marketplace provider encounters from customers. Competencies are defined as "intangible, knowledge-based resources that are not easily tradable on factor markets" (Rasche, 1994).

Partnerships help develop intangible networks like the ones See Tickets needs to focus on. The company should develop partnerships with finance, selling, logistics, and other organizations to improve its core competences. Core competences are specialized skills difficult for competitors to copy (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). For example, See Ticket's core competences include customer service skills, technical/subject matter expertise, a reliable process, and relationships with clients and suppliers. These competences are developed over time and should offer benefits that customers value. Core competences lead to successful core businesses and should be unique, providing access to new markets in the future. To stay competitive in the dynamic market, See Tickets needs to assess its current skills and competences and determine what new ones it needs to succeed. The company can employ various strategies to build these competencies. For instance, acquiring Intascape limited for developing its IT resources was a strategic move by See Tickets.

Among them may be acquisitions or joint ventures to gain access to and learn about the necessary competencies. It may be by empowering staff, investing in training and development, hiring external expertise, or forming various partnerships with clients or supplier organizations. To help organizations identify core competences, Hamel and Prahalad (1994) have developed the matrix shown in the figure

below.

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to review the effectiveness of See Tickets' internal and external leadership processes. The paper has demonstrated that social networking is a highly difficult aspect for competitors to replicate as it fosters innovation, responsiveness, and adaptability. It also highlights the importance of using discourse as a strategic resource that enhances reasoning and guides our organization strategically. Furthermore, we discuss how individuals are being led in this organization, thus creating a better understanding among various stakeholders. We also address how knowledge spread within See Tickets can be addressed through knowledge management.

The concept of a cyber Ba can be utilized to obtain information and knowledge through communication with various groups. Additionally, we have examined the significance of stakeholder management and its impact on the core competences and dynamic capabilities of the organization. Lastly, we have explored how strategic partnerships can benefit the organization and enhance its core competences. From our analysis, it can be concluded that effective communication is crucial for strategic leadership within our organization. Furthermore, it will create a conducive atmosphere for knowledge sharing and strengthen relationships with stakeholders.

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