A.T. Kearney Sales Management Essay Example

A.T. Kearney Sales Management Essay A. T Kearney and the new â€Å"defining entity† Background: â€Å"No longer is IT just another tool the CEO might use to accomplish costs saving and operational ends. Today, information technology can help solve product problems, set new levels of service and create new distribution and communication channels. † Founded in 1926, A. T. Kearney had evolved into one the world’s dominant management consulting practices. Its approach was to develop realistic solutions and help clients implement recommendations that generated tangible results and improved competitive advantage. The mix of strategy and operations had differentiated A. T. Kearney from its competitor’s and driven the firm’s outstanding results. A. T. Kearney had doubled its size every three years since 1983 and was recently listed in Consultants news as one of the five fastest-growing consulting firms in the world. EDS started in 1962 with Ross Perrot and $1000 dollar investment. It helped customers use information and technology to recast their economics and to identify and seize new opportunities. Considered by many to be the inventor of â€Å"outsourcing,† EDS had established itself as a world leader in information technology services. EDS defined its business as â€Å"shaping how information is created distributed, shared, enjoyed, and applied for the benefit of businesses, governments, and individuals around the world. † Its service offering included four different types of products: Systems Development, Systems Integration, Systems Management, and process management. EDS later entered the management consulting industry as part of a strategy to offer business solutions rather than simply IT solutions to its customers. We will write a custom essay sample on A.T. Kearney Sales Management specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on A.T. Kearney Sales Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on A.T. Kearney Sales Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer EDS eventually formalized its efforts of management consulting by creating MCS which leveraged its tradition and strengths, MCS brought a new dimension to EDS. Over a short two-year period, EDS had built MCS into an organization of 1,300 people, with 30 offices in 20 countries. Competition for both firms revolved around the big six classic IT firms who were enjoying annual growth rates in excess for 15 percent as IT became increasingly strategic in nature and instrumental for reengineering. Operation and Strategic Firms, who were best known for their strategic expertise, were broadening their service fferings as they moved aggressively downstream into operations consulting. Systems Integrators and Systems Vendors had moved to more traditional management consulting markets and new information technology entrants that spotted the opportunity to consolidate client relationship by selling â€Å"upstream† consulting services on top of their core outsourcing and system integration s kills. Because of intense competition and extensive opportunities, EDS acquisitioned A. T. Kearney Ltd. in order to provide is a full service company. Despite amazing growth in the first year, the â€Å"new entity† had problems in leveraging the two companies, and jumping on these new attractive opportunities. However, the acquisition also raised many issues. Among these was the issue of how to leverage the merger in terms of providing strategic consulting and information systems solutions to clients. There’s also the issue about the ability of these two very different organizations, with different skill sets and cultures, to work together in blending their services into a broad, seamless continuum. Should the two firm’s cross-sell each others services? Should A. T. Kearney call on existing ED’s clients and vice-versa? Should the two firms work together to secure new clients? Sales management issues arising from this decision. For example, if cross-selling is to be encouraged, what incentive scheme might be appropriate? Strengths: * Successful merger between EDS and A. T. Kearney * World leader in Information Technology services * Offer services from systems development to Consulting services * Companies are very well known world-wide * Well positioned in the market place * Unparalleled spectrum of capabilities to clients Steady growth * â€Å"One Stop Shop† * Broad Range of services * Well matched for both A. T. Kearney and MCS. * Strong goals of growth, globalization, and leadership. Weaknesses * Leveraging and combining each other’s strengths in the marketplace * Merging of two entirely different cultures * Fear that A. T. Kearney would be viewed as the front end for EDS * Merge not working out among employee s * May be difficult to attract and retain good people * Consulting vs. Systems * Un-established environment where the two companies could remain apart, but at the same time work together. Sales and account management Opportunities: * Draw on the strengths of both organizations and develop entirely new products. * Full service firm * Technology being integrated into business strategy * A lot of growth potential * Technological Investments will increase * Substantial cross-marketing opportunities * Host events where employees from both organizations attend Threats: * Competitors becoming full service * Political and legal policies affecting the merge * Competition from other firms * The â€Å"Big Six† – Classic IT firms * Operational and Strategic Firms Systems Integrators and system vendors * New information technology entrants Recommendations: Cross-Selling will be strongly encouraged in the company by giving incentives to the sales teams of both companies. In additio n, the company should train a middleman between the two services. Train employees in cross-selling techniques. The approach must be built around serving the customer, not just selling more stuff. For example, you might describe how the additional products or services would complement the original purchase and further solve the customer’s problem. Be on the same payroll, their pay depends on the other company. Basically, there should be consultants from A. T. Kearney, who are involved in the creation of the IT programs from EDS. The two firms should work together to secure new clients. Essentially, whether the client from A. T. Kearney or EDS. A. T. Kearney will encourage the client to buy the software and services from EDS or EDS can ask the client use A. T. Kearney consulting services or they can also make it a package deal. In order to do so there’s a need to establish consistent forms of communication  with various layers of management. Setting up a communication program that includes a comprehensive list of employee groups within the purchasing and selling organizations; a very specific timetable for addressing each group; tools and forums to be used in communicating to each group; and deadlines for developing content and producing material, along with the individuals charged with accomplishing these tasks. There should be clear communications to  all  employees,  the expectations for working in the post-transaction environment. They should, therefore, hear the same message from management so that all employees are singing from the same prayer book.    Ideally, members of a companys executive team should initially address all employees directly. On a follow-up basis, however, managers should be reinforcing the big picture painted by senior officials while focusing on specific actions expected of employees under their supervision. To ensure these follow-up communications are consistent in their message and reflect top managements expectations for employee action, a company-wide communication plan should be in place. Overall controls on the type and content of the communications could range from providing managers with content outlines and/or key talking points, to centralized development of the presentation material itself. Listen to the views and concerns of all employees  regarding work in the new environment. Overall, the newly formed company must work hard at finding a blend of corporate practices and procedures from operations, sales and R;D to finance, management systems and the use of capital and human resources that best suits its planned goals and objectives. Reason for Recommendation: If two firms were to create a new environment that can work for both organizations by communicating, it will provide both firms with optimum advantage. Benefits from the blend will include: keeping as many clients as possible, getting some more and most importantly, have a good and efficient organization, not just to the eyes of the clients, but also to the new inner structure that the company will have. The entity can host event for the employees to get to know each other this way EDS employees can refer clients to a specific A. T. Kearney consultant or perhaps have both work together, even introduce the A. T. Kearney consultant to the client and visa-versa. In order to encourage this, the company can provide incentives for cross-selling, or they can. For the vendor, the benefits are also substantial. The most obvious example is an increase in revenue. There are also efficiency benefits in servicing one account rather than several. Most importantly, vendors that sell more services to a client are less likely to be displaced by a competitor. The more a client buys from a vendor, the higher the switching cost

Realigning Elections in American History

Realigning Elections in American History Since the stunning victory by Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States Presidential election, the discourse around words and phrases such as â€Å"political realignment† and â€Å"critical elections† have  become more commonplace not only among  political analysts but also in mainstream media. Political Realignments A political realignment occurs when a particular group or class of voters changes or in other words realigns with a political party or candidate who they vote for in a particular election – known as a critical election or this realignment may be spread out over a number of elections. On the other hand, â€Å"dealignment† occurs when a voter becomes disenfranchised with his or her current political party and either chooses not to vote or becomes an independent. These political realignments take place in elections involving the U.S. Presidency and the U.S. Congress and are signified by power changes of the Republican and Democratic parties that constitute ideological changes both issues and party leaders.  Other important factors are legislative changes which affect campaign financing rules and voter eligibility. Central to realignment is that there is a change in voter’s behavior. 2016 Election Results In the 2016 election, although Trump is winning at the time of this writing the Electoral College by a margin of 290 to 228 votes; Clinton is winning the overall popular vote by more than 600,000 votes. In addition, in this election, American voters gave the Republican Party a clean power sweep – the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. One key to the Trump victory was that he won the  popular vote in three of the so-called â€Å"Blue Wall† States: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Blue Wall States are those who have solidly supported the Democratic Party over past ten or so presidential elections. With respect to the electoral votes:  Pennsylvania has 20, Wisconsin has 10, and Michigan has 16.  Although these states were essential in propelling Trump to victory, it is important to note that his margin of victory from these three states totaled approximated 112,000 votes. If Clinton had won these three States, she would be the President-elect instead of Trump.   In the ten Presidential elections prior to 2016, Wisconsin had only voted Republican on two occasions – 1980 and 1984; Michigan voters had voted Democrat in six straight Presidential elections prior to 2016; and as well, in the ten Presidential elections prior to 2016, Pennsylvania had only voted Republican on three occasions – 1980, 1984 and 1988. V. O. Key, Jr. and Realigning Elections American political scientist  V.O. Key, Jr. is most well-known for his contributions to behavioral  political science, with his major impact being on election studies.  In his 1955 article A Theory of Critical Elections, Key explained how the Republican Party became dominant between 1860 and 1932; and then how this dominance shifted to the Democratic Party  after 1932 by using empirical evidence to identify a number of election which Key termed as â€Å"critical,† or â€Å"realigning† which resulted in American voters changing their political party affiliations. While Key specifically starts with 1860 which was the year that Abraham Lincoln was elected, other scholars and political scientists have identified and/or recognized that there have been systematic patterns or cycles which have regularly taken place in the U.S. national elections.  Ã‚  While these scholars are not in agreement as to the duration of these patterns: periods that range from every 30 to 36 years as opposed to 50 to 60 years; it does appear that the patterns have some relationship with generational change. Election of 1800 The earliest election which scholars have identified as realigning was in 1800 when Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent John Adams. This election transferred power from George Washington and Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party to the Democratic-Republican Party which was led by Jefferson. Although some argue that this was the birth of the Democratic Party, in reality, the party was established in 1828 with the election of Andrew Jackson. Jackson defeated the incumbent, John Quincy Adams and resulted in the Southern States taking power from the original New England colonies. Election of 1860 As stated above, Key explained how the Republican Party became dominant starting in 1860 with the election of Lincoln. Although Lincoln was a member of the Whig Party during his early political career, as President he led the U.S. to abolish slavery as a member of the Republic Party. In addition, Lincoln and the Republic Party brought nationalism to the United States on the eve of what would become the American Civil War. Election of 1896 The overbuilding of railroads caused several of them, including the Reading Railroad, to go into receivership which caused hundreds of banks to fail; resulting in what was the first U.S. economic depression and is known as the Panic of 1893. This depression caused soup lines and public ire towards the present administration and made the Populist Party the favorite to take power in the 1896 Presidential election. In the 1896 Presidential election, William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan and while this election was not a true realignment or did it even meet the definition of a critical election; it did set the stage for how candidates would campaign for office in subsequent years. Bryan had been nominated by both the Populist and Democratic parties. He was opposed by the Republican McKinley who was backed by a very wealthy individual who used that wealth to conduct a campaign that was intended to make the populace fearful of what would happen if Bryan won. On the other hand, Bryan used the railroad to make a whistle-stop  tour giving twenty to thirty speeches daily.  These campaign methods have evolved into the modern day. Election of 1932 The 1932 election is widely considered as the most well-known realignment election in U.S. history. The country was in the middle of the Great Depression as a result of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Democratic candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal policies overwhelmingly defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover by a margin of 472 to 59 Electoral Vote. This critical election was the underpinnings of a massive overhaul of American politics.  In addition, it changed the face of the Democratic Party.   Election of 1980 The next critical election occurred in 1980 when Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeated the Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter by the tremendous margin of 489 to 49 Electoral Votes. At the time, approximately 60 American’s had been held hostage since November 4, 1979, after the U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been overrun by Iranian students. The Reagan election also marked a realignment of the Republican Party to being more conservative than ever before and also brought about Reaganomics which was designed to fix severe economic issues that confronted the country.  In 1980, the Republicans also took control of the Senate, which marked the first time since 1954 that they had control of either house of Congress. (It would not be until 1994 before the Republican Party would have control of both the Senate and the House simultaneously.) Election of 2016 – Realigning Election? The real question with respect as to whether the 2016 election victory by Trump is a â€Å"political realignment† and/or a â€Å"critical election† is not easy to answer a week after the election.  The United States is not experiencing internal financial distress or facing negative economic indicators such as high unemployment, inflation, or increasing interest rates. The country is not at war, although there are threats of foreign terrorism and social unrest due to racial issues.  However, it does not appear that these were major issues or concerns during this election process.   Instead, one could argue that neither Clinton or Trump were viewed by voters as being â€Å"Presidential† due to their own ethical and moral issues.  In addition, since lack of honesty was a major hurdle which Clinton attempted to overcome throughout the campaign, it is quite plausible that out of fear of what Clinton would do if elected, voters chose to give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress.