Strategic Ass

7/31/2019 Strategic Ass.

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Question 1:

With the aid of a clear and understandable diagram, show that a strategy is a child of

context.

According to Systemic Approach, strategy is a child of context meaning somethingsituational, (contingential, and contextual), social, political, geographical, cultural, etc. This

follows that; a strategy must be contingent on that context rather than absolute.

For that reason, there are two major sources of factors that can influence strategy. The first

source is the firm (goals and values, resources and capabilities, structure and systems). The

second one is the industry environment (vendors, customers and competitors- VCC).

THE LINK BETWEEN

Strategy, Firm and Environment

Vendor means a company which supplies parts or services to another company, it is also

called supplier. It refers to a retail salesperson without an established place ofbusiness, suchas a street vendor. From the above diagram, it can be realized that, vendors influence the

strategy formulation. In formulating and crafting the companys strategy, reliable and lest

cost vendors must be taken into consideration in the given strategy. The convincing power of

vendors must be less than the organization in question.

In short, the strategy is influenced with what is called supply chain management. The

strategy should take into account the activities, costs, sets associated with purchasing for

example, fuel, energy, raw materials, parts and components, merchandise, and consumable

items from vendors, receiving, storing and disseminating inputs from suppliers, inspectionand inventory management.

Customers refer to individuals or businesses that purchase the goods or services produced by

a business or company. The customer is the end goal of businesses, since it is the customer

who pays for supply and creates demand.

THE INDUSTRY

ENVIRONMENTVendors

Customers

Competitors

THE FIRM

Goals and ValuesResources & Cap.

Structure and

Systems

STRATESTGY
http://www.investorwords.com/992/company.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/4822/supply.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/part.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/6664/service.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/4228/retail.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/salesperson.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/623/business.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/vendor.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/vendor.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/623/business.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/salesperson.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/4228/retail.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/6664/service.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/part.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/4822/supply.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/992/company.html


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The strategy is influenced by the customers in the sense that, businesses will often make thestrategies that would be able to attract and please customers for profit maximization. The

companies often compete through advertisements or sales in order to attract and please a

larger customer base. The Companies should craft the strategy that will enable them closely-monitor the relationships that they have with their customers, eliciting feedback to see if

new products should be created or adjustments be made to what is currently offered.

The strategy is also influenced by brand preferences and customers loyalty. The company

must crafted to the level that buyers are strongly are attached to established brands. In turn,this will make be intricate or costly for a customer to a switch to a new brand.

entails the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure thebusiness of a third party by offering the most favorable terms. The two parties competing are

called competitors, who also have some influence on strategy.

Any strategy is influenced by the

in five areas of the overall market such as competitive pressures associated with

the market maneuvering and jockeying for buyer patronage that goes on among

rival sellers in the industry, new entrants in the market, substitute products,

supplier and buyer bargaining power and supplier seller collaboration.

A Strategy must consider strategic approaches to building competitive

advantages including striving to be industrys low-cost provider, out competing

rivals based o such differentiating features as high quality, wide product

selection, reliable performance, excellent service, attractive styling, and

technological superiority, or unusually good value for the money. It must be the

strategy that makes the company more competitive than the rest of the

competitors in the market.

Furthermore, the strategy is a child of context by considering the especiallyits goals and values, resource and capabilities, and structure and systems.

Starting with goal and values, the strategy always intends to achieve the firms

goals at the same time sticking on the firms values. On the other hand, the

strategy is made out of the firms long or short term goals. It is two ways track.

of the firm determine the firms strategy. To come up

with a strategy, resources and capabilities of the firm must be considered

especially in implementation of the strategy. Is it possible or not possible to

implement the strategy made using the available resources and capabilities in

the firm? The strategy is made of the resources and capabilities available.

The strategy influences the designing of the of the firm.

The management, administrative systems, departments, sections, units or

organizational chart and hierarchy of the given firm developed basically from

the strategy. The big aim of these structures and systems is to ensure that, the

strategy put forward by the company is achieved successfully.


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Question 2:

It is phenomenal that enterprises, business and non-business have strategic plans. But,

quite a good number of them do not perform well. What is the importance of corporate

strategic plans?

Corporate Strategy is a strategy that looks an organization at a very broad term commonly

describing any thinking that looks at the bigger picture. It is a very broad term which

commonly describes any thinking that looks at the bigger pictures (Business Dictionary.com(2010). Corporate Strategy refers to the overall scope and direction of a corporation and the

way in which its various business operations work together to achieve particular goals.It canalso means the overarching strategy of the diversified firm according to Wikipedia, Free

Encyclopedia.

Corporate Strategy is one of the four distinct types or levels of strategy which consists of

the kinds of initiatives the company uses to establish business positions in different

industries, the approaches corporate executives pursue to boost the combined performance of

the set of the businesses the company has diversified into, and the means of capturing cross-business synergies and turning them into competitive advantage (Thompson A.A, 2004; 24).

It is true that, enterprises, business and non-business have good strategic plans but again agood number of them do not perform well. The following are the reasons on why they

(strategic plans) do not perform well:

Failure for the company or organization to execute by overcoming the four key

organizational hurdles such as cognitive hurdle, motivational hurdle, resource hurdle andpolitical hurdle

Failure for the company or organization to understand the customer for example on why do

they buy, whether there is a real need for the product from the customers, and inadequate orincorrect marketing research.

Inability of the company or organization to predict environmental reaction such as what willcompetitors do, what the possible fighting brands, price wars and whether the government

will intervene.

Over-estimation and under-estimation of time requirements of resource competence such as

if the staff, equipment, and processes can handle the new strategy; and failure to develop new

employee and management skills.

Poor communications including insufficient information sharing among stakeholders and

exclusion of stakeholders and delegates contribute also for the failure of strategic plan

performance.

The other reasons are failure for the company or organization to coordinate, to obtain senior

management and employees commitment, to follow the plan, and manage change.

On the other hand, corporate strategy has various importances regardless of the abovefailures. Corporate strategy is supposed to be the means by which an organization achieves

and sustains success. These importances are explained below regarding basically on the

tasks associated to the corporate strategy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopolyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_managementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_warshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_warshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_managementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopolyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer


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Basically, the tasks/importance of corporate strategy include diversification achievement,boosting the combined performance of the set of business the company has diversified into,

capturing cross-business synergies 1+1=3 effects, and establishment of investment priorities

and steering for competitive advantage.

Corporate Strategy generally is important in the process of making decision- as it gives the

direction of the organization, motivations to mangers and employees to work hard meeting

the organizational goals, in effective and efficient manner, and it provides systematic

approaches towards uncertainties and risks.

It is a bench mark of evaluation and controlling of the organizational performance throughfrequent review; guides the implementation of the planned objectives and firms towards

profit maximization.

It enables the organisation to compete successfullyover its rivals through high quality,wide product selection, reliable performance, excellent service, among many. Most managers

believe that, a corporate strategy implies a strong focus on competition, since competition

takes place almost exclusively at the offering level; most organisations concentrate their

strategic efforts on constantly improving the goods and services they offer.

It aligns the different elements of a business together and make sure that all of the peoplein your organization clearly understand where the company is going and what's required in

order to get there as well as what role they will play in executing the company's overallsuccessful strategy

It helps companies accelerate its sales, by providing the Sales & Marketing talent it needs

to grow its business. It leads the companys management to recruiting and consulting partner

to mid-market and emerging growth companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare

and business service sectors

It facilitates the companys diversification implying the strategies of managing a group of

businesses. Through this, the company is now able to improve the attractiveness andperformance overall business lineup and making a rational business whole of its collectionover individual business (Thompson, 2004; 191).

In conclusion, the need of leaders with limited tenure to point to achievements, the tyrannyof meeting the expectations of the financial markets and most management teams extensively

rely on forecasting and planning may among the factors that may contribute to avoid failures

of corporate strategy. Therefore, in order to avoid corporate strategy failure, there must be

good leadership that should always be committed and lead the organization excellently

hence experiencing the above explained importance of strategy.

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_management

http://www.articlesbase.com/corporate-articles/http://www.investorwords.com/5234/vendor.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_managementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_managementhttp://www.articlesbase.com/corporate-articles/http://www.articlesbase.com/corporate-articles/http://www.investorwords.com/5234/vendor.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/5234/vendor.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/5234/vendor.htmlhttp://www.articlesbase.com/corporate-articles/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_management

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