Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow.
Strategic Management: A Taiwanese story about strategy and structure Before 2000 the Taiwan-based company Acer had competing strategies. For 15 years one part of the firm had been building computers for other PC sellers who would put their own labels on the machines, while another part sold very similar computers under the company’s own brand. The latter strategy was predicated on direct sales to consumers, which had brought the firm into direct competition with companies such as Dell. However, in 2000 the firm decided to adopt a new business strategy in order to increase its global market share. Acer’s manufacturing division was made an independent company (Wistron) and this enabled a smaller and more nimble sales firm to emerge. The strategy based on direct sales was discarded and replaced with a strategy focused on selling as many low-cost laptops and netbooks as possible to consumers but via a network of partners and retailers. A new logo was adopted to reflect this new strategic direction, which had proved very successful despite the industry downturn. By 2008, Acer had replaced Hewlett-Packard as the market leader in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, partly as a result of Acer’s success in the booming netbook market. This strategy enabled the firm to become the world’s second largest PC vendor. However, in 2011 tensions at board level over the firm’s strategic direction culminated in the resignation of Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci. The difference in opinion appears to be about whether the firm’s future lay in PC’s or mobile devices. Acting CEO J.T Wang announced that the PC would continue to be the firm’s core business. In 2009 the firm entered the smartphone market with the launch of four different smartphones and the promise of more in the pipeline. Unlike Apple, which was focused on developing one phone only, Acer’s strategy is based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment. In march 2011, Acer announced that revenue projections for the first quarter in 2011 will fall short of expectations by about 10% due to weaker demand in the PC market in the US and Europe. (Source: New York Times, 2009, Bloomberg Business Week, The Financial Times, PC Pro)
QUESTION 1 (60) Discuss the purpose of Strategic Human Resource Management for organisations today. In your discussion, identify which organisational strategies have been employed by ACER over the years, justify your answer using evidence provided in the case study and discuss how these organisational strategies affect the HR strategy.