Recommended reading: Strategic Control and Operational Control Effective strategic control systems tend to have certain qualities in common. These characteristics/qualities can be stated thus: Suitable: The control system must be suitable to the needs of an organization. It must conform to the nature and needs of the job and the area to be controlled. For example, the control system used in production department will be different from that used in sales department. Simple: The control system should be easy to understand and operate. A complicated control system will cause unnecessary mistakes, confusion and frustration among employees. When the control system is understood properly, employees can interpret the same in a right way and ensure its implementation. Selective: To be useful, the control system must focus attention on key, strategic and important factors which are critical to performance. Insignificant deviations need not be looked into. Continue reading
Strategic Management
Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the systematic identification of specifying the firm’s objectives, nurturing policies and strategies to achieve these objectives, and acquiring and making available these resources to implement the policies and strategies to achieve the firm’s objectives. Strategic management, therefore, integrates the activities of the various functional sectors of a business, such as marketing, sales, production etc. , to achieve organizational goals. It is generally the highest level of managerial activity, usually initiate by the board of directors and executed by the firm’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team.
The BCG Growth Share Matrix
In the late 1960s a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group presented his ideas about cash deficient and growth deficient businesses and the need for a balance between cash generators and cash users. After that the Boston Consulting Group developed a portfolio business model based on this thinking. The model, the BCG matrix or growth share matrix, was based on the Boston Consulting Group’s knowledge and work in the area of the experience curve and of the product life cycle and how they relate to cash generation and cash requirements. The growth share matrix was intended to analyze a portfolio from a corporate perspective because it is only at that level that cash balance is meaningful. A business may, however, be segmented further using this diagnostic tool to understand the positions of its various product lines or market segments. This portfolio can therefore be made up of products in a Continue reading
Stakeholders Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
There are various definitions proposed by various scholars for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but still, it remains uncertain and is poorly defined with few explanations. First, the issues that a CSR must address should be easily interpreted so that it includes virtually everyone and everything. Second, with its unique, often particular characteristics, different stakeholder groups tend to focus only on specific issues that they believe are the most appropriate and relevant in organizations’ corporate social responsibility programs. Thus, the beliefs about what constitutes a socially responsible and sustainable organization depend on the perspective of the stakeholder. Although the most basic definition CSR describes it as a social obligation for an organization, which is conceptually and operationally diverse. Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of Continue reading
Takeover – Definition and Types
Acquisition can be undertaken through merger or takeover route. Takeover is a general term used to define acquisitions only and both terms are used interchangeably. A Takeover may be defined as series of transacting whereby a person, individual, group of individuals or a company acquires control over the assets of a company, either directly by becoming owner of those assets or indirectly by obtaining control of management of the company. Takeover is acquisition, by one company of controlling interest of the other, usually by buying all or majority of shares. Takeover may be of different types depending upon the purpose of acquiring a company. A takeover may be straight takeover which is accomplished by the management of the taking over company by acquiring shares of another company with the intention of operating taken over as an independent legal entity. The second type of takeover is where ownership of Continue reading
Strategic Control and Operational Control
Strategic Control Strategic control focuses on the dual questions of whether: (1) the strategy is being implemented as planned; and (2) the results produced by the strategy are those intended.” Strategic control is “the critical evaluation of plans, activities, and results, thereby providing information for the future action”. There are four types of strategic control: premise control, implementation control, strategic surveillance, and special alert control Premise Control: Planning premises/assumptions are established early on in the strategic planning process and act as a basis for formulating strategies. Premise control has been designed to check systematically and continuously whether or not the premises set during the planning and implementation processes are still valid. It involves the checking of environmental conditions. Premises are primarily concerned with two types of factors: Environmental factors (for example, inflation, technology, interest rates, regulation, and demographic/social changes). Industry factors (for example, competitors, suppliers, substitutes, and barriers to entry). Continue reading
Mckinsey’s 7S Framework
The Mckinsey’s 7S Framework suggests that there is a multiplicity of factors that influence an organization’s ability to change and its proper mode of change. Because of the interconnections of the variables, it would be difficult to make significant progress in one area without making progress in the others as well. There is no starting point or implied hierarchy in the shape of the diagram, and it is not obvious which of the seven factors would be the driving force in changing a particular organization at a certain point of time. The critical variables would be different across organizations and in the same organizations at different points of time. History of Mckinsey’s 7S Framework The 7S Framework was first mentioned in “The Art Of Japanese Management” by Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos in 1981. They had been investigating how Japanese industry had been so successful. At around the same time Continue reading