A great deal must be learned about an organization so that strategy formulation decisions can be based upon appropriate information. It almost goes without saying that strategists must understand all there is to know about the internal operations of an organization before strategy can be effectively formulated and implemented. The external influences acting on the firm also must be analyzed, documented, and understood to mange and implement the strategies effectively. An organization’s environment consists of two parts: The industry within which it operates (for multi-business firms, the industry is usually considered the activity’ in which the firm generates the majority of its revenue), and other environmental dimensions–economic, political/legal, social and technological. Very often financial analysis will bring to light several financial strengths and weakness that are indicative of strategic or operating capabilities and problems within the various strategy levels and within functional areas. Financial analysis is typically followed by internal Continue reading
Strategic Management Basics
Linkage Between Business Models and Innovation
The question of what a business model is often remains relatively vague. The main reason for this is because business people have an intuitive understanding of business models. This is normal, since the business model is about how an organization makes money, which is a manager’s job after all. However, there is often a lack of a more precise and shared understanding of what a business model is. Yet, such a common understanding is required if we want to have high quality discussions of one’s business model and make important business model decisions. Alexander Osterwalder has come up with the 9 building blocks approach to describe business models. This approach has the characteristics of any other type of model (e.g. in architecture or engineering). It is a simplified description and representation of a complex real world object. It describes the original in a way that we understand its essence without Continue reading
The Nature of Strategic Planning
Organizations exist to make contributions to society. An organization is a collective enterprise, a group of individuals that provides society with more than individual enrichment. If it fails to maintain its contribution to society, especially through value creation, it can disintegrate. When an American automobile manufacturer stops providing customers with quality cars, customers buy cars elsewhere, perhaps from a Japanese automobile company. If too many customers buy foreign cars, the American manufacturer can become bankrupt. If a church fails to serve its members, it will lose its congregation. And if a university no longer offers sound academic programs, students will transfer to other schools. Thus when an organization no longer provides beneficial services or products to its stakeholders, society perceives little need for its existence. Strategy is concerned with the grand picture of how organizations serve society, and strategic planning is concerned with how organizations intentionally and systematically make decisions Continue reading
Strategic Intent – Definition and Meaning
Strategic Intent refers to a “high level statement of the means by which an organisation achieves its VISION”. Today Managers in different organisations are working hard to match the competitive advantage of their global rivals but in order to do the same most of them end up only imitating what their competitors have already implemented. Imitation doesn’t really create the Strategic Intent as competitors have already mastered those techniques and have exploited the first mover advantage. Hence mere imitation doesn’t lead to competitive revitalization. Strategic Intent drives organisations, individuals and groups to meet the challenge of change in business today. Strategic Intent as a concept was born in Post-World war II Japan when it dramatically emerged as world leader in economy. Japanese Organizations had set goals for themselves that might have been considered by most of the Western Organizations of that time as highly unrealistic. But with very few resources Continue reading
PEST Analysis – External Business Environment Analysis
A PEST analysis is a way to analyze the general external environment of an organization. Every organization has an external environment. The external environment is quite important because it is the environment in which a company operates. PEST analysis is a useful tool for understanding the “big picture” of the environment in which industry is operating, and environmental understanding will bring the advantage of the opportunities and guide to minimize the threats. PEST components are Political, Economic, Social and Technological. The PEST analysis is used to identify forces in the macro-environment that are affecting the business at present and are likely to continue to affect the business in the future. Macro-environmental analysis is interested in factors in the wider environment that influence the demand for the product or service offered by a company; demand for the product or service; the manner in which the product or service is distributed; the Continue reading
SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
SWOT which stands for an abbreviation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats; is an analysis that defined as method to examine organization’s internal factors dealing with strengths and weaknesses, and its environmental opportunities and also the threats. SWOT analysis usually use in the preliminary phase of decision making as a general tool which it designed for being antecedent to strategic planning in different case and applications. SWOT Analysis can be used as a model, process, technique or framework to provide information about those factors strengths, of an organization by having many applications with possibility of being used in all the levels of the organization. SWOT analysis is a part of the strategic planning process. Companies have some internal and external forces in the business environment. As a first step of a strategic planning system, the strategic factors that are related with the potential of the company, should be identified and Continue reading