STRATMAN - Quiz/Assignment 1

• Strategy


  The means to ends, and these ends concern the purpose and objectives of the organisation. They are the things that businesses do, the paths they follow, and the decisions they take, in order to reach certain points and level of success.
• Policy


  The prescribed guidelines for governing actions of an organisation with respect to given objectives
• Tactics


  The specific activities which deliver and implement the strategies in order to fulfil objectives and pursue the mission
• Policy


  Comes before strategy
• Strategy


  Comes before tactics
• Policy, strategy and tactics are closely interrelated and play crucial roles in the management of a company
• Major contributors to the conceptualisation of strategy


  • Alfred D Chandler
  • Kenneth Andrews
  • Igor Ansoff
  • William F Glueck
  • Henry Mintzberg
  • Michael E Porter
• Levels of strategy


  • Corporate level strategy
  • SBU level strategy
  • Functional level strategy
• Schools of thought on strategy formulation


  • The Design School
  • The Planning School
  • The Positioning School
  • The Entrepreneurial School
  • The Cognitive School
  • The Learning School
  • The Power School
  • The Cultural School
  • The Environmental School
  • The Configuration School
• Strategy


  The means to ends for an organisation
• Strategy


  A plan or course of action
• Strategy


  Related to the organisation's activities which are drawn from the policies, objectives and goals
• Strategy


  Mostly about the long-term actions, moulded by overall purpose & mission of the organisations
• Strategy


  • Should lead to competitive advantage and help win market battles against competition
  • Must be backed by resources & skill-sets
• Operations (Tactics)


  Must align with Strategy
• Strategy


  Must adapt to environmental influences and help to deliver on various expectations
• Strategy


  Different from Policy and Tactics
• Evolution of strategy as a concept


  • Different authors' view of strategy
• Strategy


  Operates at different levels of an organisation (corporate level, SBU level, functional level)
• Strategy formulation schools of thought


  • Prescriptive school
  • Descriptive school
  • Integrative school
• Strategic management


  An art as well as science of formulating, implementing and evaluating decisions across functional areas to help an organisation in achieving its objectives
• Advantage of strategic management


  • Helps organisations to formulate better strategies by following a methodical, rational approach while making strategic choice
• Financial benefits of strategic management practices


  • Increased sales
  • Improved profitability
  • Enhanced productivity
• Non-financial benefits of strategic management


  • Enhanced awareness of external threats
  • Improved understanding of competitors' strategies
  • Increased employee productivity
  • Reduced resistance to change
  • Clearer understanding of performance-reward relationships
  • Promotes interaction among managers
  • Encourages order and discipline
  • Creates efficient and effective managerial systems
  • Establishes confidence in current business strategy
  • Provides basis for identifying and rationalising the need for change
  • Helps the employees to view change as an opportunity
• Additional benefits of strategic management


  • Permits organisations to identify, prioritise and exploit opportunities
  • Gives an unbiased and real picture of management problems
  • Provides guidelines to stimulate coordination and control of activities
  • Reduces the impact of adverse conditions and changes in the business environment
  • Helps in taking good decisions to support established objectives
  • Allows effective allocation of time and resources to identified opportunities
  • Helps in reducing the wastage of resources and time
  • Encourages internal communication
  • Integrates the behaviour of individuals into total effort
  • Defines clear individual responsibilities
  • Promotes forward thinking
  • Provides cooperative and integrated approach to deal with problems and opportunities
  • Stimulates a favourable attitude toward change
  • Creates discipline in the management of a business
• Limitations of strategic management


  • Analysing a complex and dynamic environment
  • Plans, frameworks and system mean rigidity
  • Limitation in implementation
  • Inadequate appreciation by the management
• Mistakes in strategic management


  • Undertaking strategic planning only to satisfy company policy or regulatory requirements
  • Using it to get control over decisions and resources
  • Top managers not actively supporting the strategic planning process
  • Top managers taking independent decisions which conflict which conflict with the strategic planning process
  • Failing to inform the plan to employees
  • Delegating planning to some third party or planner rather than including the concerned managers
  • Failing to involve key managers or employees in different stages of process
  • Failing to make use of the plan as a standard for measuring performance
  • Viewing planning to be an unnecessary or unimportant exercise
  • Failing to generate a conducive climate in the organisation which may support the change
  • Being engrossed in current problems that strategic planning has neglected or has paid insufficient attention to
  • Being very formal in planning and completely overlooking flexibility and creativity
• Thompson and Strickland (2001)


  A company’s strategy consists of the combination of competitive moves and business approaches that managers employ to please customers, compete successfully, and achieve organisational objectives.
• Michael Porter


  he has described strategy as:

  “.. developing and communicating the company’s unique position, making trade-offs, and, forging fit among activities.
• According to Kotler


  “Policies define how the company will deal with stakeholders, employees, customers, suppliers, distributors, and other important groups. Policies narrow the range of individual discretions so that the employees act consistently on important issues.”
• Strategic Management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organisation to achieve its objectives.
• Strategy is defined as “the direction and scope of an organization over the long term”