The Ashridge Model Applied to Twitter

Frequently, the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model

The Ashridge Sense of Mission Model is frequently utilized by different companies to develop and interpret their strategic missions. The approach has four different parts which include the business purpose, strategy, values, and behavioural standards. According to Mark and Parker (2011), a company has to ensure that all four dimensions defined by the Ashridge model are fully evaluated and reflected throughout the decision-making process. The next section will, therefore, briefly describe each of the four components and finally assess the extent to which Twitter has attained them within the mission.

Application and Discussion of the Four Features of the Ashridge Model to Twitter

Purpose

The success of a company is contingent upon the appropriateness of its purpose. For instance, Twitter aims to offer enhanced material sharing across the world by overcoming traditional communication barriers. The objective has been partly achieved in the past owing to acute competition in the market. Analytically, the achievement of the strategic mission can be attributed to various developments that have taken place at the company. For instance, the firm has innovated unique services to satisfy social media needs by developing different programs and data structure that promote effective and efficient data sharing; while guaranteeing the security of the information being exchanged among people across the stage. The services and products include Mobile Applications, Desktop Applications, Twitter Cards, SMS, Mobile Web and website Twitter.com (Twitter, 2013).

However, when evaluated using the Ashridge Model, there seem to exist many loopholes and failures in the achievement of the purpose defined by the organization. There is an absolute need to be clearer about the chief goals and determine the scope of activities within the company other than attempting to deviate from the primary purpose. Additionally, because of the change in the core corporate intend that has seen the company to heavily capitalize on investors’ wealth maximization, Twitter should reposition the brand by coming up with a precise motive behind the shift in their purpose and most importantly, strive to incorporate secondary activities that are concerned with revenue generation within their principal goal (Twitter, 2016).

Strategy

A strategy refers to a set of plans towards the achievement of the predefined goals and objectives (Twitter, 2016). For a company to be successful there are some key factors that must be emphasized during the policy preparation. For instance, during the formulation stage, the corporation should ensure that the strategy highlights how the services will be accessed, priced, and positioned. In addition, the strategy must highlight the means of promotion. Comparing to Ashridge Sense of Mission model guidance, the Twitter has achieved some substantial milestones in developing innovative technologies. The improvement and advancement in technology has been achieved through research and development (Twitter, 2013). As a result, organization acquired the competitive advantage that has helped the company to outwit competitors when public media sites are referenced.

Creativity, innovation, and ideas distribution have been cherished by all individuals within the firm (Twitter, 2013). Furthermore, Twitter has enhanced efficiency by installing real-time data architects that have allowed back to end communication between the servers for easier data sharing. In addition, the installation of the real-time data transferring architecture has yielded the instantaneous material sharing among unique users (Twitter, 2014). Automatic security update software has also been designed to help in protecting information breach by third parties without user consent.

However, the use of Ashridge Mission Model reveals that there are many factors that have not been achieved within the current strategy; and some have fully been overlooked. Therefore, for Twitter to continue being effective, it has to ensure that its strategic mission is restructured to take into account all factors within the company. For example, the firm has shifted its focal point and has begun offering services like the Twitter card and promoted accounts among other online products which have increased their general performance and productivity, although downplaying their strategic focus on being a global leader in the social, media technology and innovation (Twitter, 2016). Consequently, with an increase in competition and need to enhance the convenience of communication, there is a great need for Twitter to re-examine its current strategy to promote its purpose.

Values

Values define the moral principles and beliefs that strengthen culture within an organization. From Ashridge Mission Model perspective, Twitter has a strong art of collaboration and corporation between its departments that has improved employee cohesiveness. Furthermore, the company has embraced a distinct sense of loyalty (Twitter, 2014). The resilient ethical values have promoted a sound teamwork within the organization.

Behavioural Standards

Behavioural Standards refers to policies, standards, principles, and guidelines that have been established by a corporation to promote moral uprightness. Among the moral conduct include customer service improvement. Customer service has been revamped at the company for friendly interactions. Ethical practices have been upheld by the company through a practical implementation of the governing and regulating policies by employees (Twitter, 2014).

Analysis of the Case Evidence on Mission, Values, and Strategy

Twitter came up with an ambitious mission of reaching approximately 1 billion online users globally to give it the leeway of raising nearly $1 billion by 2013 (Mark & Parker 2011). According to the recent reports published, the organization intends coming up with a special message that will not only attract new clients but also significantly retain the existing ones. New advertisers have been brought on the board as one of the best ways to broaden their scope of actions and revenue generation (Twitter, 2016). The increased income can be used to promote efficient performance, maintain the company financially stable supports asset acquisition as well as revamping of innovation in the organization.

Among the values, which have been supported, the development of an effective and reputable company with a lively public image has been brought up. Recently, GAAP guidelines have been adopted and used in the preparation and presentation of financial statements. Similarly, employees are required to perform their actions based on the company’s mission statement which establishes the code of conduct for numerous parties. Workers are expected to promote ethical behaviours through their daily interactions with customers by being loyal (Twitter, 2016). Professionalism has been adopted and encouraged by the management throughout the company operations.

In regard to strategy, the company has a well-designed plan that has enabled the marketing of its services through different product mix methods. Innovation has been coined as the sole motive of the firm development. In spite of that, the analysis of Twitter using Ashridge model reveals the corporation has not yet achieved a strong mission sense in the market. The firm has highly engrossed on revenue generation events with the main aim of promoting shareholder wealth (Twitter, 2016). As a result, customer needs have been unaddressed. Values have been well defined and implemented by the company (Mark & Parker, 2011). Nevertheless, because of a weak strategic mission, the following recommendations are made: the company should aim at working on its primary activities before targeting shareholders’ wealth maximization (Twitter, 2013). Secondly, there is a need to focus on corporate purpose by concentrating on a formidable brand loyalty. Of great importance is to ensure that the business defines its purpose, strategy, value, and other related standards that determine ways in which they can be achieved.

Twitter’s Mission Evaluation in Regard to Four Recently Developed Expansion Strategies

In regard to the above analysis that has been aided by the Ashridge model, Twitter has achieved a strong sense of mission. However, many hitches still exist in the purpose. Whereas, in the recent past, the company has changed its objective to target approximately 1 billion subscribers on their platform by 2013 (Mark & Parker, 2011), the vision seems to be highly achievable based on the current structure that is characterized with enhanced financial performance. Nevertheless, the achievement and realization of a strong strategic mission are yet to be resized in regard to global customer accessibility as the inclusion of more users on the platform remains a cardinal thing to enhance their position in the market (Twitter, 2016).

Question 2.

Snyder’s Theory of Decision-making

Different strategic decision-making models and theories will be used to well perceive the strategic decision in the case study provided. In this case, the best model to analyze Twitter’s tactical decision-making process would be Snyder’s Theory of Decision-making. Through this approach, the company scrutinizes all the pertinent material, encompassing relevant critical evidence and situations prior coming up with the most prudent decisions. Additionally, the approach recommends the provision of a dynamic process through which decision-making tools are fully utilized (Twitter, 2016). In doing so, the philosophy underscores the need to offer equal opportunity to the entire organization before making decisions.

In regard to Twitter’s strategic decision-making process, the company has developed exhaustive procedures that help in the gathering of all supportive material within the organization before finalizing a resolution. The prospect to transform the firm can only be achieved through a sound decision-making process that is conducted based on a consultative approach as advocated by the model. Lastly, to promote expansion ambitions, the company usually has to engage managers to capitalize on their wide experience. However, the strategic decision making at the company remains cautious. A deliberate strategy is used to ensure that consumers use information out of their choice; and therefore the need to keep on changing to promote their desires (Mark & Parker, 2011). Twitter has embraced a deliberate strategy to formulate key decisions as it aims to develop a unique brand image that has the capacity of differentiating it from other social media platforms. The main reasons why the approach has been embraced in the decision-making process are to ensure that the focus is directing to coming up with tactful marketing strategies that are as a result of deep discussions and deliberations between the top management in the company by the use of different applicable tools that are used to enhance rational decisions. Because of the possible changes regarding operations, deliberate strategies offer Twitter a board specification of a comprehensive strategic plan. Specifically, the approach is used to attain a particular set of objectives within a specified period. The overall goal is to ensure that employees remain focused on the core activities and ensure they achieve the required goals. Top management decisions are adopted deliberately as they seek to enhance customer satisfaction and give them better interaction compared to competitors (Twitter, 2014). Moreover, the act of ensuring that the services offered to subscribers are free of charge; can be considered to be deliberate in nature as the company intends to entrench its popularity. Similarly, the intended strategy is being used by Twitter to foster its objectives. Through this method, all resolutions are engineered by the top management and communicated downward. As a result, functional structure and chain of commands are created within the framework to ensure that top executive decisions are fully implemented by lower-level employees. Specifically, the intention of utilizing this method is to ensure that specific objectives are met regarding what competitors are doing and have accomplished in the market. The method is highly volatile, and thus there may be regular negotiation, comprise, and bargain as many people have to be involved in strategy formulation.

The Sources of Twitter’s Competitive Advantage and if they have been Sustained

Cost Leadership

Twitter customers are freely allowed to sign up for accounts on their websites as no subscription fee is required. Customers access their records freely, and no monthly payment to sustain the account. As a result, this has enhanced the accessibility of the social media platform and therefore allowed more subscribers to use it. Moreover, compared to other competitors, advertisers on Twitter are charged less. The strategy is being used to ensure that a large market base is reached at a lower cost (Mark & Parker, 2011). By preserving such status in the market, Twitter has achieved the cost leadership as its core competitive advantage.

Differentiation

At the core of Twitter, innovation is the product and service differentiation. The aim of promoting diversification is to enhance the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the firm from close opponents by providing unique platforms which strategically satisfies customer’s wishes. For instance, the use of Twitter cards, ads advertisement and promoted accounts, tweets, and Sponsored Trends Have offered a wide range of services that users can select from. Consequently, the analysis reveals that this form of competitive advantage has been achieved and sustained fully (Twitter, 2016).

Creativity and Innovation

Innovation has been used as one of the core competitive advantages that Twitter has used to develop different architectures which have promoted real-time material sharing; and automatic updates which periodically automate customer security features. The aspect has been sustained through frequent research and development that is aimed at promoting the access to Tweeter hand page. The move has increased user subscription rate to the websites and thus able to boot revenues through the ads that accompany their pages (Twitter, 2014). The use of modern technology to offer unique services has been the main reason why the firm has become the leader in social media communication globally. The creativity on the platform has become the most important factor that has attracted many users.

Strong Brand Name

Over the years, Twitter has created a strong public image using its brands such as bluebird and mascot. For instance, Twitter is the only company that has a comprehensive market position regarding micro-messaging. In addition, the company has been able to build on the real-time aspect through its platform to enhance wide networking capability at a much faster rate. The public preference can also be attributed to the real-time information exchange feature; and therefore giving the users the maximum control over the nature of the information they wish to share and get informed about. For instance, unlike other social sites, Twitter allows direct online video streaming on a real-time basis and giving other subscribers the opportunity to comment on them. Importantly, the strong brand name has frequently been associated with the preference that celebrities have towards it compared to other sites (Twitter, 2016).

References

Mark, K. & Parker, S. (2011) Twitter, extracted from: Ireland, R.D., Hoskisson, R. E., & Hitt, M.A. (2013) The Management of Strategy: Concepts and Cases, 10th International Edition, South-Western, Cengage Learning, pp. 371-377

Twitter (2013) Annual Report 2013, Twitter, Inc.

Twitter (2014) Annual Report 2014, Twitter, Inc.

Twitter (2016) Annual Report 2015, Twitter, Inc.