The following 6 questions. they need to be essays. each answer needs to be one page long for each question. Class is Management Strategy Grad Level
Strategic Management
Strategic Management develops a set of tools and conceptual maps for uncovering systematic relationships between the choices managers make and the performance the firm realizes. The objective is to develop and implement a strategy that allows managers to exercise more control over the firm’s direction and to chart a course that enhances the firm’s performance.
1. Define the role of Business Strategy within a business. Discuss the differences between strategic thinking and planning. Provide examplesto support your position. Finally, how would you describe a successful strategy? Strategy must be both developed and implemented o To be a useful guide for decision-making, any coherent strategy has components that are distinguished from vision, mission and values.
2 Identify and describe the elements of a Business Strategy in some detail. Then write (create) a Strategy Statement (as best that you can) for a company of your choosing.
Value Creation and Competitive Advantage
Value creation is at the heart of any successful strategy. A firm creates value only if it is able to organize activities that transform inputs into outputs that the firm’s customers are willing to pay more for than the costs to the firm. But to achieve superior performance, the firm must also be able to capture the value it creates (retain profits). In order to make and capture value, the firm must have a sustainable competitive advantage.
3. Describe how a company creates “Value”. Who determines “Value”? Explain! What are the various ways a company can make and sustain competitive advantage? Provide examples to support your position. Is there any criteria that helps a company evaluate whether or not it has a sustained competitive advantage, if so, what is the criteria? Organization Design and Competitive Advantage Organization is central to whether or not the firm’s is able to be competitive. The firm’s internal context is defined as its assets and way those assets are organized. The first step is to understand the problem that the organization design is supposed to solve. This problem has two parts: the coordination problem and the incentive problem. With a clear picture of what the organization design needs to achieve, managers have several tools or levers: architecture, routines, and culture (or ARC).
4. Describe the essence of ARC and how it relates to an organizations need to achieve a competitive advantage. Provide an example that illustrates how the elements of organization design can interact and how organization and strategy can be linked.
Organization and Strategy, Aligning Strategy and Organization
The firm’s organization must not only be internally consistent it must also be aligned with its strategy. We also emphasized that the firm’s competitive advantage is likely to change over time and that how the firm learns and, therefore, its capacity to seek new competitive advantage, is governed by its approach to exploitation and exploration.
5. Discuss this concept of Exploitation and Exploration in more detail. Now, discuss in detail how ARC applies to both “Explorers” and “Exploiters”. Finally, provide an example of a Company that you would classify as an “Explorer” and one that you would classify, as an Exploiter” and briefly explain the why of your decision.
Industry Attractiveness & Analysis
The President, CEO and or a general manager of a firm, in any industry needs to answer two related questions: • What characteristics of my industry are important determinants of my firm’s profitability? • Given the industry that I participate in and my firm’s assets, what strategic actions can I take to improve the firm’s performance (defined as PIE)?
6. Briefly explain the framework for assessing the attractiveness of an industry. Explain how a company can create or lose value within an industry (PIE), if it understands and applies the framework properly. Now select a company, identify the industry that it participates in, identify its value chain and keep it simple (lobster industry, as an example), select only one (1) factor within the framework that is applying pressure upon the firm within the industry and explain the dynamic of how that factor contributes to the value of the firm (PIE).
