business strategy

• planned strategy

  the strategy the managers intend to implement
• emergent strategy

  develops over time as a businesses actions lead to patterns in behaviour

  can be adapted
• benefits of a emergent strategy

  save time and money that would otherwise be spent on strategic planning

  they stay relevant as they are easy to adapt to the changing environment
• drawbacks of a planned strategy

  will become out of date

  cost a lot of time and money

  senior managers who implement the strategy could be too busy to fully oversee everything
• drawbacks of a emergent strategy

  might not be clear about what the end goal is

  can be difficult for large companies to implement because the different parts need to be coordinated
• problems that may arise when implementing a strategy

  lack of resources may make it harder

  employees may not embrace the change

  changing the structure of the company can cause difficulties
• risks that arise when deciding on a strategy

  internal and external environment always changes

  stakeholder often want different things from a business

  hard to judge the future success of a strategy
• contingency planning

  plan B

  a plan devised for an outcome other than in the usual plan

  used for risk management
• benefits of having a contingency plan

  can help a businesses respond to lots of different crisis
• drawbacks of a contingency plan

  businesses can't plan for every unforeseen event

  is very expensive so its not worthwhile to use for every decision made
• benefits of a strategic plan

  gives the business a clear direction

  makes managers aware of strengths and weaknesses and its external threats and opportunities
• strategic drift

  businesses failure to recognise and respond to changes within its business environment
• causes for a strategic drift to happen

  new technology, changes in consumer tastes , legal/ political and economical factors
• what are the techniques that businesses use to monitor a strategy?

  market analysis and management information systems
• market analysis to measure strategy

  shows if assumptions about the market are correct

  use primary and secondary research in the market research to check how the strategy is doing
• management information systems as a measure of strategy

  computer systems that collect and process data about a business to show the current state of the company

  use mathematical techniques to interpret data