1) Trying to fit the strategy of the police department, and government agencies
ID: 338990 • Letter: 1
Question
1) Trying to fit the strategy of the police department, and government agencies in general, to a
generic strategy, what is the generic strategy they fit into? Explain why.
2) Analyze the police department in terms of the Value Chain model. How do the different
activities of the police department that are mentioned in the case fit to the value chain model?
Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI "Ths govsrmment is ksen towards computerisation; housver, since the numbsr of psopls in the dspartmsnt is so large, I am confused up to which level of the hierarchy to target and what modules of the softwars should bs implemsntsd at ths bsginning. Also, ths kind of training that has to bs impartsd and ths content of ths training programms are difficult to dstsrmine. Mr. Ajay Vasav, Inspector General of Police of ASWI (A state in Westem India) he shared his apprehensions about the computerisation process in the state. This initiative was being taken when the Government of India had envisaeed a centralised crime and criminal tracking system to harness th e power of information INTRODUCTION According to Ajay, policing is one of the most difficult jobs in the government as it requires 52x 7 x 24 vigil (52 weeks in a year, seven days a week, and 24 hours a day). Any improper action, whether taken before time or delayed, may hurt the case. There were many duties that the police had to perfom, which ranged from maintaining law and order, monitoring anti-national activites, controling crme, providins protection and so on. Ihe geographic span in which the partment worked was vast. Ajay sharecd, "A nural police station may havs scores of villagss under its jurisdiction. Whils sack police station and polics-chowksy' has limited authority, the criminals and offsndsrs do not uork in limited arsas. Their domain overlaps various polics tsrritories. Effscties policing reauirss intsractions and sharing of information at ths polics-chowksy, polics station, district, inter- district, intsr-state and intsrnational levsl In such conditions, it is crucial that polics personnel frsqusntly sxchangs information which comes to thsir notics. In othsrs words, to bs sffectios, evsry polics personnsl should havs the rigkt information available to them to taks ths right dscisions at the right tims." Ajay shared that till until recently, the information system in the police had been manual, quite archaic and did not make use of available or latest technology. Emphasis was on the recording of facts than on dissemination and use of information. The officials of the police department understood that it twas time to adopt technology and replace manual records and dissemination of information with electronic records and disseminationExplanation / Answer
Major HBR cases concerns on a whole industry, a whole organization or some part of organization; profitable or non-profitable organizations. Student’s role is to analyze the case and diagnose the situation, identify the problem and then give appropriate recommendations and steps to be taken.
To make a detailed case analysis, student should follow these steps:
STEP 1: Reading Up Harvard Case Study Method Guide:
Case study method guide is provided to students which determine the aspects of problem needed to be considered while analyzing a case study. It is very important to have a thorough reading and understanding of guidelines provided. However, poor guide reading will lead to misunderstanding of case and failure of analyses. It is recommended to read guidelines before and after reading the case to understand what is asked and how the questions are to be answered. Therefore, in-depth understanding f case guidelines is very important.
STEP 2: Reading The Computerisation of a Police Department
To have a complete understanding of the case, one should focus on case reading. It is said that case should be read two times. Initially, fast reading without taking notes and underlines should be done. Initial reading is to get a rough idea of what information is provided for the analyses. Then, a very careful reading should be done at second time reading of the case. This time, highlighting the important point and mark the necessary information provided in the case. In addition, the quantitative data in case, and its relations with other quantitative or qualitative variables should be given more importance. Also, manipulating different data and combining with other information available will give a new insight. However, all of the information provided is not reliable and relevant.
When having a fast reading, following points should be noted:
When reading the case for second time, following points should be considered:
After reading the case and guidelines thoroughly, reader should go forward and start the analyses of the case.
STEP 3: Doing The Case Analysis Of Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI:
To make an appropriate case analyses, firstly, reader should mark the important problems that are happening in the organization. There may be multiple problems that can be faced by any organization. Secondly, after identifying problems in the company, identify the most concerned and important problem that needed to be focused.
Firstly, the introduction is written. After having a clear idea of what is defined in the case, we deliver it to the reader. It is better to start the introduction from any historical or social context. The challenging diagnosis for Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI and the management of information is needed to be provided. However, introduction should not be longer than 6-7 lines in a paragraph. As the most important objective is to convey the most important message for to the reader.
After introduction, problem statement is defined. In the problem statement, the company’s most important problem and constraints to solve these problems should be define clearly. However, the problem should be concisely define in no more than a paragraph. After defining the problems and constraints, analysis of the case study is begin.
STEP 4: SWOT Analysis of the Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI HBR Case Solution:
SWOT analysis helps the business to identify its strengths and weaknesses, as well as understanding of opportunity that can be availed and the threat that the company is facing. SWOT for Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI is a powerful tool of analysis as it provide a thought to uncover and exploit the opportunities that can be used to increase and enhance company’s operations. In addition, it also identifies the weaknesses of the organization that will help to be eliminated and manage the threats that would catch the attention of the management.
This strategy helps the company to make any strategy that would differentiate the company from competitors, so that the organization can compete successfully in the industry. The strengths and weaknesses are obtained from internal organization. Whereas, the opportunities and threats are generally related from external environment of organization. Moreover, it is also called Internal-External Analysis.
STRENGTHS:
In the strengths, management should identify the following points exists in the organization:
WEAKNESSES:
OPPORTUNITIES:
THREATS:
Following points can be identified as a threat to company:
Following points should be considered when applying SWOT to the analysis:
STEP 5: PESTEL/ PEST Analysis of Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI Case Solution:
Pest analyses is a widely used tool to analyze the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environmental and legal situations which can provide great and new opportunities to the company as well as these factors can also threat the company, to be dangerous in future.
Pest analysis is very important and informative. It is used for the purpose of identifying business opportunities and advance threat warning. Moreover, it also helps to the extent to which change is useful for the company and also guide the direction for the change. In addition, it also helps to avoid activities and actions that will be harmful for the company in future, including projects and strategies.
To analyze the business objective and its opportunities and threats, following steps should be followed:
PEST FACTORS:
POLITICAL:
ECONOMICAL:
SOCIO-CULTURAL:
STEP 7: VRIO Analysis of Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI:
Vrio analysis for Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI case study identified the four main attributes which helps the organization to gain a competitive advantages. The author of this theory suggests that firm must be valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and perfectly non sustainable. Therefore there must be some resources and capabilities in an organization that can facilitate the competitive advantage to company. The four components of VRIO analysis are described below:
VALUABLE: the company must have some resources or strategies that can exploit opportunities and defend the company from major threats. If the company holds some value then answer is yes. Resources are also valuable if they provide customer satisfaction and increase customer value. This value may create by increasing differentiation in existing product or decrease its price. Is these conditions are not met, company may lead to competitive disadvantage. Therefore, it is necessary to continually review the Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI company’s activities and resources values.
RARE: the resources of the Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI company that are not used by any other company are known as rare. Rare and valuable resources grant much competitive advantages to the firm. However, when more than one few companies uses the same resources and provide competitive parity are also known as rare resources. Even, the competitive parity is not desired position, but the company should not lose its valuable resources, even they are common.
COSTLY TO IMITATE: the resources are costly to imitate, if other organizations cannot imitate it. However, imitation is done in two ways. One is duplicating that is direct imitation and the other one is substituting that is indirect imitation.
Any firm who has valuable and rare resources, and these resources are costly to imitate, have achieved their competitive advantage. However, resources should also be perfectly non sustainable. The reasons that resource imitation is costly are historical conditions, casual ambiguity and social complexity.
ORGANIZED TO CAPTURE VALUE: resources, itself, cannot provide advantages to organization until it is organized and exploit to do so. A firm (like Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI) must organize its management systems, processes, policies and strategies to fully utilize the resource’s potential to be valuable, rare and costly to imitate.
STEP 8: Generating Alternatives For Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI Case Solution:
After completing the analyses of the company, its opportunities and threats, it is important to generate a solution of the problem and the alternatives a company can apply in order to solve its problems. To generate the alternative of problem, following things must to be kept in mind:
Once the alternatives have been generated, student should evaluate the options and select the appropriate and viable solution for the company.
STEP 9: Selection Of Alternatives For Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI Case Solution:
It is very important to select the alternatives and then evaluate the best one as the company have limited choices and constraints. Therefore to select the best alternative, there are many factors that is needed to be kept in mind. The criteria’s on which business decisions are to be selected areas under:
Alternatives should be measures that which alternative will perform better than other one and the valid reasons. In addition, alternatives should be related to the problem statements and issues described in the case study.
STEP 10: Evaluation Of Alternatives For Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI Case Solution:
If the selected alternative is fulfilling the above criteria, the decision should be taken straightforwardly. Best alternative should be selected must be the best when evaluating it on the decision criteria. Another method used to evaluate the alternatives are the list of pros and cons of each alternative and one who has more pros than cons and can be workable under organizational constraints.
STEP 11: Recommendations For Computerisation of a Police Department in ASWI Case Study (Solution):
There should be only one recommendation to enhance the company’s operations and its growth or solving its problems. The decision that is being taken should be justified and viable for solving the proble
2) Analyze the police department in terms of the Value Chain model. How do the different
Activities of the police department that are mentioned in the case fit to the value chain model?
As a professional police department, the basis of our value proposition should recognize this simple customer/provider relationship. We do not want to provide services by simply answering calls. We could do the bare minimum, given we are the monopoly in the local peace and order business. Instead, we want to put our best foot forward and do everything we can to provide services that are valued by the community. Some of the value-adding mechanisms are transparent and readily visible, such as expectations with regard to how officers and police employees communicate and interact with the public. But many value-adding activities are subtle. Examples of these activities that are in the background can be found in the efficiency of police department functions, and how well those functions play together.
Everything of value that is produced, is produced by organizations that add value at every opportunity as the product or service is developed. Ideally, every activity in the police agency will add value to the services that the citizens in the community (the customers) receive. To determine how well we are doing, we can take a look at the organizational components and operations of the agency in terms of a value chain and analyze the value that each adds.
Based on the work of Michael Porter, a value chain analysis presents a holistic approach to the organization (Solutions: Business Problem Solving by Bolland and Fletcher, 2012). Just as the term chain suggests, all of the operations in a police department are dependent on the strength of one another.
Businesses use this method to help create a competitive advantage in their environment. Police departments may not be in competition for business, but they are certainly competing for trust and support from the citizens they serve.
To create a visual representation of the department’s value chain, the staff and administration functions are grouped separately from the line and service producing functions.
A police department value chain might look something like this:
The actual functions can be adjusted to suite the department. A reasonable question could be asked: I have an organizational chart, can that be used instead? It can; but organizational charts spider out from central points and do not emphasize the interdependence of the functions of the police department. Remember, we are looking at a holistic view of the entire operation as a whole organism, not the singular parts.
The only big difference between business and police departments with regard to value chain analysis is the consideration of financial costs and profits. While it is true that policing is not making any money, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have to spend what we have wisely, so there is good reason to look at the return on our investments and identification of opportunity costs.
Now what?
Start looking at the value chain from 36,000 feet, and glide down from there. The value chain identifies the broad categories of roles and responsibilities, and reminds us that operations and functions do not work in silos and vacuums.
Each operation and function will need individual attention, narrowing the focus and mapping process flows in each to make sure there are no hindering constraints and identify the components that are effectively creating value. When looking at the links in the value chain, helpful considerations include:
So?
All of the links of a given chain usually look alike, and are assumed to be strong. But any chain that is put under stress is going to eventually present a link that was not as strong as we thought. The best way to prevent failures is to regularly inspect the chain closely and make sure each link is intact and is solid.
We can do this in a police department, and create an environment and culture that adds value to the services we offer.
What barriers to value creation have you seen in police departments?
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