1. Identify and briefly describe the portfolio of businesses in the organization.
Tool & Die Design & Fabrication
- Tool & Die Design & Fabrication refers to the stage wherein issues found during the prototype fabrication needs to be improved prior to any quantity production.
Prototype Fabrication
- The prototype fabrication is the attempt to determine the completeness of the detailed design and to make appropriate corrections to the design documentation as necessary. This phase is a more detailed systems integration phase then the earlier integration that was performed during preliminary design. This phase is also the first integration of all the mechanical components in the assembled unit.
Precision Metal Stamping & Assembly
- Stamping services is the process of creating three-dimensional parts, lettering, and other surface definition onto materials. This is achieved through the use of forms and dies which are forced into the surface of the material by extreme pressure. When removed, the patterns on the forms and dies are indelibly stamped into the material. Many standard and exotic engineering materials can be stamped or formed with pressure, although metal stamping is the primary application. Stamping and forming services providers are able to perform a number of different processes, which lead to different styles of finished product. Some of these stamping techniques include fine blanking, deep drawing, wireforming, and fourslide and multislide stamping.
Electronics Manufacturing Services
- Refers to the design, assemble, produce, and test electronic components and assembles for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Electronics manufacturing services (EMS) has also started to provide design services used in conceptual product development advice and mechanical, electrical, and software design assistance. Testing services perform in-circuit, functional, environmental, agency compliance, and analytical laboratory testing. Electronic manufacturing services are located across the United States and throughout the word and usually vary in terms of production capabilities and comply with various quality standards and regulatory requirements.
R&D and Manufacturer of Consumer Products
- Manufacturer of consumer products refers to the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, by means of tools and a processing medium, and including all intermediate processes.
2. Prepare a list of the identifiable stakeholder groups for the organisation, what they contribute to the organisation, what they expect from the organisation and what the organisation expects from them.
Focus-tech Holding Pte Ltd
64,982,822
17.40
HSBC (Singapore) Nominees Pte Ltd
41,599,000
11.14
DBS Nominees
36,765,905
9.84
Raffles Nominees
19,742,200
5.28
Dr Felix Ong Kim Huat
19,412,992
5.20
Seah Cheong Beng
7,911,544
2.12
Citibank Nominees Singapore
6,397,600
1.71
UOB Kay Hian Pte Ltd
6,152,000
1.65
United Overseas Bank Nominees
5,100,000
1.36
OCBC Securities Private Ltd
4,859,400
1.30
Seah Chiong Kok
4,741,540
1.27
Citibank Consumer Nominees
4,356,200
1.17
DBS Vickers Securities(S)
3,253,012
0.87
OCBC Nominees Singapore
2,804,200
0.75
Hong Leong Finance Nominees
2,648,802
0.71
Kim Eng Securities
2,619,200
0.70
HL Bank Nominees
2,090,000
0.56
Phillip Securities
1,718,340
0.46
Soh Lay Choo
1,449,110
0.39
Chio Kian Huat
1,326,800
0.35
Total
239,930,667
64.23
The company's strategy is developed by the executive management, although it is normally necessary for the approval of the board to be obtained for major transactions or changes in strategy, and sometimes necessary for shareholder approval to be obtained as well. The board usually meets monthly, and performs (or is supposed to perform) the functions of reviewing strategy and monitoring the performance of the executive management. This division of functions between the shareholders, the board, and the executive management is an inevitable consequence of the large size and scale of operation as of most companies.
3. Develop a set of Balanced Scorecard type of "perspectives" which are appropriate to the selected organisation. Develop a corporate strategy map which maps out the organisation's current corporate strategies within those perspectives. Develop an appropriate set of "metric" which can be used for corporate reporting and management purposes.
Relationships with competitors focus particularly on pricing and market positioning. In some markets, competitors have reached a point, in which there are generally understood rules of the competitive game. In others, there is no sense of a repeated game, and competition may be pursued to mutually destructive lengths. Sometimes technological change, or new entry, may shift an industry from stability to instability in its competitive process. Positioning and pricing are relevant to relationships with customers as well as with competitors. Advertising and branding are mechanisms by which firms communicate with their customers, but are also strategic tools governed by competitive interactions.
The strategy of the firm is the match between its internal capabilities and its external relationships. It describes how it responds to its suppliers, its customers, its competitors, and the social and economic environment within which it operates. The analysis of strategy uses our experience of the past to develop concepts, tools, data, and models which will illuminate these decisions in future. Success in business derives from adding value of your own, not diminishing that of your competitors, and it is based on distinctive capability, not destructive capacity. Distinctive capability becomes harder, not easier, to maintain as size increases. Yet in descriptions of both business and public policy, the equation of scale, power, and effectiveness is often simply assumed.
Strategy Map:
Developing strategy map in context of the perspectives recurs attention to understanding the basic structure of strategy, learning and mastering the nature of business relationships, acknowledging Seksun distinctive capabilities offered by its Human Resource people and creating a competitive advantage from these distinctive capabilities.
Metric 1: Market Position and Product Price
An effective metric to consider are the issues of market position and product price. The two key influences on market prices are the costs of firms and the value offered to consumers. The less stable the competitive environment, the greater is the degree to which prices will be determined by cost rather than value. In the worst case, prices can be driven down to marginal or incremental cost. Marginal and incremental costs are often thought to be very low, but I explain how this is often a mistaken view and describe how activity-based costing helps to bridge the gap between theoretical concepts of marginal cost and accounting systems of cost allocation.
In other market environments there is more opportunity for prices to reflect the value of products to customers. In these, market segmentation-the identification of as many distinct product and geographical markets as possible--is a principal means of securing as high a proportion as possible of the value offered to consumers as added value for the firm. There are two necessary conditions for effective market segmentation. There must be economically relevant differences between the separated markets. These may arise from differences in the incomes of customers, or in the ways they use the product, or in competitive structure.
Metric 2: Competitive Environments
Positioning decisions are partly dictated by the firm's distinctive capability. Some firms are naturally suited to up- or down-market positions. But positioning is also a matter of competitive dynamics. When there are few firms in a particular market, clustering behaviour--in which several firms jostle for the same market position--is a likely outcome. As the number of firms in the market increases, they are likely to spread themselves more evenly across the range of available positions.
Increasingly, a product can only be described by reference to a wide range of its characteristics. Many different features of a car are relevant to potential buyers, and a supermarket must decide which selection of many thousands of goods to hold in stock. For commodities like these, successful firms have to make a well-matched selection of product attributes. For these firms, focus--the consistency of attributes with each other--may be as important as position. Shifts of market position, which require changes in customer perception as well as product specification, need to anticipate competitor responses. They raise special difficulties for multiple-attribute products.
Metric 3: Advertising and Branding
While advertising creates brands, there are some differences between the functions of advertising and of branding. Brands are more often discussed than defined. A brand is established when an item sells for more than a functionally equivalent product. It is that characteristic which distinguishes a brand from the name of a product. The most usual reason for a price premium--and the most profitable reason--is that the customer is uncertain about the attributes of the product and is reassured by the supplier's reputation. But brands have other purposes. Some brands are little more than labels, although labels have their uses. Brands may be used by consumers to signal information about themselves to others--these are what are usually meant by brand images. Yet other brands may be attached to distinctive recipes or incumbent positions. The greatest corporate successes built around advertising and branding are those based on brands which have established several of these characteristics.
4. Identify and critically discuss the major corporate strategies that have been employed by this organisation during the last 5 years.
The Seksun group has been shaping itself in growing as a company upon the guiding vision of the simple notions of (1) developing its expertise, (2) Expansion of its company (3) Their commitment and resolve for service and quality (4) and its pursuance for results in conjunction with its set objectives and goals.
In a more definite and recent perspective, Seksun believes that the Hard disk drives (HDD) industry is resuming healthy growth boosted by new applications for HDDs in consumer electronics devices, such as digital music players, digital cameras, digital entertainment systems, etc. Additionally, they also believe that demand for HDD components in these new devices will significantly increase production volumes that will improve the utilization rates of their FIPG operations, allowing it to contribute positively to their net profit last 2005.
The group, however, anticipates prices of raw materials to gain further in 2005. While raw material price increases have been factored into the selling prices for new programmes, the increase in prices of raw materials for existing programmes is likely to be partially or fully absorbed by the group.
Seksun believes that its shareholders will profit from the agreement with ZF Array and the adoption of a strategy to target Seksun's contract manufacturing operations at customers seeking low-to mid-volume production capabilities. This strategy will leverage on ZF Arrays San Jose-based product development centre and Seksun’s lower-cost Asian operating environment. While there would be no material impact on Seksun’s financial performance for FY 2005, they are confident that the expansion of the contract manufacturing operations will produce longer-term benefits for the performance of the Group and better returns for their shareholders.
…“The current year will also see us adopting a strategy to intensify our focus on our contract manufacturing operations for the Consumer Electronics segment…”
Given the above, Seksun expects that they will remain profitable for the current financial year.
Analysis:
…In 1959 BMW was on the edge of bankruptcy. The company recovered to become one of the world's most profitable automobile manufacturers. Honda became the leading supplier of motor cycles in the United States within five years of entering the market…
Success is most illuminating when contrasted with failures. Corporate success, of the kind achieved by BMW, Honda, and Glaxo, is not the realization of visions, aspirations, and missions--the product of wish-driven strategy. It is the result of a careful appreciation of the strengths of the firm and the economic environment it faces. But nor is success often the realization of a carefully orchestrated corporate plan. The strategy of successful firms is adaptive and opportunistic. Yet in the hands of a successful company an adaptive and opportunistic strategy is also rational, analytic, and calculated. The capacity to adapt does not mean waiting for something to turn up for opportunism is only productive for a firm which knows which opportunities to seize and which to reject.
5. Discuss what you perceive to be the corporate direction and governance for this organisation?
Additional directives of which Seksun wishes to achieve are as follows: (1) Proposed listing for China operations in two years. The China operations have the required three year profit track record, having been profitable since inception. According to press reports, after tax profit from Seksun's China operations in 1999, 2000 and 2001 were 10.8m RMB (S$2.4m), 16.5m RMB (S$3.6m) and 30.8m RMB (S$6.8m) respectively, or 39%, 44% and 70% of group net profit (2) Move into contract manufacturing to expand service offering. Seksun bought into a contract manufacturing business last year by paying RM1.85m for a 56% stake in a Johor plant. The motivation was to offer more services its customers to deepen the relationship. The plant is already producing game controllers for the Xbox and Digital Media Recorders (which operates in DVD, SVCD, VCD, CD-Audio, MP3 and MPEG standards) for Seagate. Digital Media Recorders use a built-in HDD. With a full year contribution in FY02, Seksun is targeting to bring the business to profitability this year. (3) Lowest valuations in the sector. Current valuations do not justify Seksun's exposure to the strongest growth trends in the HDD industry and its track record of profit growth in a volatile sector. Unlike many of its peers, Seksun has stayed profitable throughout its operating history, which is a commendable track record given the industry's boom and bust trends.
These programmes are in conjunction with the Seksun group’s mission and vision statements which specifically underscores its quality policy on total customer satisfaction. While delivering products and services which meet all relevant requirements on time and by doing right the first time. Additionally Seksun continually reviews and improves the effectiveness of their quality management system to remain current and competitive.
6. Identify and discuss any current issued of corporate direction and governance for this organisation.
…A company's social responsibility program has three major areas: complying with laws, setting -- and abiding by -- moral and ethical standards, and philanthropic giving…
Social responsibility is a major subject of concern and action for all but the smallest or least aware of companies. Today it is generally accepted that business firms have social responsibilities that extend well beyond what in the past was commonly referred to simply as the "business economic function."
Quite often the responsibility for actions in this area is vested in an individual or small staff, frequently within the human resources management area. Personnel assigned to this area, then, have responsibility for social issues in three major areas: (1) Total compliance with international, federal, state, and local legislative laws and acts (2) Moral and ethical standards and procedures under which the firm will operate (3) Philanthropic giving.
Most companies find it no simple matter to formulate and implement socially responsible actions and programs. However, all companies must become concerned and involved in this area. To operate without major disruptions, a company must at all times be in compliance with legal requirements -- international, federal, state, and local. It must develop, establish, implement, and police a code of ethical and moral conduct for all members of its organization. In the area of philanthropic activity, where there is considerably more latitude of operations in how, when, where, and even if the company or division wants to contribute money or other resources to "worthy causes," the firm must deliberate about and resolve many questions prior to establishing fair and workable guidelines.
In compliance with this business requirement, Seksun has been awarded as among top SGX's "Most Transparent Companies" last 13th September 2002. Furthermore, Seksun has been granted ISO/TS 16949: 2002 Certified IATF Cert. No.:0022032 and ISO 9001: 2000 Cert. No.: 160220
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