Porter’s generic business strategies are ways and means that entrepreneurs use to effectively compete for customers. Marketing, more so in the face of stiff competition takes a very careful balancing act (Powers & Hahn, 2004). For a start, it is possible to get all the customers and move all the products but spends so much in the process that it becomes a Pyrrhic victory that will bring the entire business down. Yet again, it is also possible to be so conservative in marketing to save cost that the business loses all its market to the competition and also end up going down. Within Porter’s generic business strategies, two main options are available, one is to focus on the cost and ensure that the product moves at the least possible marketing cost. The other is broad differentiations, which the focus strategy for the instant essay. Broad differentiation entails the generation of a product that is so specialized that the competition cannot in any way catch up (Powers & Hahn, 2004). The process of differentiation will, however, be exponentially expensive, with a reasonable cross section of the expense going towards human resource management.
Staffing models and staffing strategy relates to the formulae that a business employs when hiring members of staff (Heizer & Render, 2013). It is worthy of notice that there are no right or wrong members of staff as staffing perspectives are relative. For example, it would be unwise and a waste for any organization to hire an individual with an MBA to manage a kiosk. The individual may run the kiosk perfectly but the wages would also run the kiosk down. Similarly, a high school dropout without any experience would accept any wage to run a manufacturing plant, but the savings made in hiring the individual would cost the company the entire plant. Therefore, just as with the aforesaid marketing strategies also entails a balancing act. Skilled labor is expensive and innovative labor much more expensive than unskilled and non-creative labor (Heizer & Render, 2013).
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Therefore, Porter's Generic Business Strategy selected will most definitely become a bearing factor to the staffing models and staffing strategy that an organization will adopt (Powers & Hahn, 2004). The broad differentiation strategy, for example, eliminates any cost considerations from the strategy adopted in the hiring of members of staff. This is because having a perfect product is not the target for broad differentiation. After all, with care and due diligence, any organization can achieve perfection. Broad differentiation, however, entails the creation of the kind of a product that the business can assure its customers that no other company can produce the same (Powers & Hahn, 2004). A good example of this can be seen in the mobile phone business. Mobile phone giant Apple Inc. leaks out their specifications for the next generation smartphone way before the date of release. This is premised on their confidence that despite the leak, their specifications cannot be replicated for a very long time, even by the best in the world. Broad differentiation, therefore, entails the selection of the most skilled as well as the most innovative employees within the particular field that the business operates in (Heizer & Render, 2013).
From the perspective of human resource planning, staffing planning, and diversity planning, broad differentiation becomes a significant factor. Human resource planning, staffing planning, and diversity planning relate to how assignments are shared, how teams are organized and the chain of command within the organization (Gittell et al, 2010). With regard to broad differentiation, the perfect way to organize staff members is the manner that will allow for extreme innovation and creativity so as to create ideas that are unique enough to be reduced into a patent or so advanced as not to be easily copied by any competitors even without a patent. The holy grail of differentiation is the team that was organized by Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson at the Lockheed Skunk Works. Step number one is to get a team leader, who has to be the best available expert in that particular field globally as far as is practicable (Gittell et al, 2010). This team leader will be placed in charge of a team that also entails the best possible genius in every aspect of the production system. This could include an expert who understands customer processes, an expert who understand manufacturing procedures and others, depending on the nature of the product. Then, as a general rule, the team ought to be advised to think outside the box and not to shy away from sharing any idea, no matter how outrageous (Gittell et al, 2010).
When selecting this team, there is a need for the most fitting substantive assessment method. Generally, there are four substantive assessment methods to wit the personality test, the ability test, the situational judgment test and the structured interview. It is also worthy of notice that with the substantive assessment being both expensive and time-consuming , it is only undertaken after the initial assessments that eliminate the less fitting candidates. The substantive assessment test that best fits the broad differentiation strategy is the ability test (Heizer & Render, 2013). The ability tests assess the actual capabilities of an individual based both on academics, talent and also innovativeness. It entails two main components which are an aptitude test and an achievement test. The aptitude test relates to inane and inborn capabilities such as talents. This goes above and beyond academic capabilities which can be replicated. The achievement test, on the other hand, assesses an individual’s capacity to function individually and also within a specific team (Heizer & Render, 2013). It is the totality of this factors that are necessary for the selection of every member of the human resource team, which will develop products under a broad differentiation strategy.
Finally, when it comes to reliability and validity, a perfect definition of the same from a perspective of manufacturing has been given in Vamsi and Kodali (2014). Validity is about the quality of both the manufacturing process as well as the final product itself. On the other hand, reliability relates to consistency. When a production system is reliable, it means that whenever that particular system is repeated, the same product quality will be replicated. For a start, development systems under broad differentiation are extremely expensive (Vamsi & Kodali, 2014). One of the principle rules necessary would be to err on the side of caution than the speed at every step of the development process. This will require a meticulous focus on fine details within the entire process while constantly revisiting areas that might be problematic. The second golden rule is to develop a meticulous monitoring and evaluation plan. This secondary plan factors or the possible contingencies and has well-established contingency plans. The combination of the two will enhance both reliability and validity of the process and product (Vamsi & Kodali, 2014).
The totality of the foregoing confirms that marketing of the eventual product to the intended target market controls every step of the production system. This factor also bears upon the human resource management of an organization. The HRM impact involves who gets hired, the hiring process and also how the said members of staff are going to be managed. The Porter's Generic Business Strategy on focus herein is the broad differentiation strategy. This is the strategy where the business seeks to have such a specialized product that it is way ahead of the competition. To achieve this, a company needs to employ some of the best and most talented employees in the specific area of operation. This employee will during the hiring process be tested for both aptitude and achievement. They ought then to be placed on a team with a great team leader then allowed to function freely with emphasis on innovation. Reliability and validity are important components of the process to ensure that the extremely expensive process is not out to waste.
References
Gittell, J. H., Seidner, R., & Wimbush, J. (2010). A relational model of how high-performance work systems work. Organization science , 21 (2), 490-506
Heizer, R.& Render B. (2013). Operation management, sustainability and supply chain management . Vol. 11. United Kingdom: Pearson,
Powers, T. L., & Hahn, W. (2004). Critical competitive methods, generic strategies, and firm performance. International Journal of Bank Marketing , 22 (1), 43-64
Vamsi Kishna Jasti , N., & Kodali, R. (2014). Validity and reliability of lean manufacturing frameworks: an empirical study in Indian manufacturing industries. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma , 5 (4), 361-391
