It is believed that strategic decision making is the responsibility of top management. However, it is considered useful to distinguish between the levels of operation of the strategy. Strategy operates at different levels of organization viz-Ã -viz: Corporate level Business level Functional level There are basically two categories of companies; one, which have different businesses organized as different directions or product groups known as profit centers or strategic business units (SBUs) and other, which consists of companies which are single product companies. Eg. Reliance Industries and Ashok Leyland Limited. The SBU concept was introduced by General Electric Company (GE) of USA to manage product business. The fundamental concept in the SBU is the identification of discrete independent product/market segments served by the organization. Because of the different environments served by each product, a SBU is created for each independent product/segment. Each and every SBU is different from another SBU due to Continue reading
Strategic Management Basics
Modes of Strategic Management
Modes of strategic management are the actual kinds of approaches taken by managers in formulating and implementing strategies. They address the issues of who has the major influence in the strategic management process and how the process is carried out. Research indicates that managers tend to use one of three major approaches to, or modes of strategic management: entrepreneurial, adaptive, and planning. The mode selected is likely to influence the degree of innovation that occurs within the organization. Innovation is particularly important in the context of strategic management, because organizations that do not continually incorporate new ideas are likely to fail behind competitively, particularly when the environment is changing rapidly. 1. Entrepreneurial Mode “Entrepreneurial mode is an approach in which strategy is formulated mainly by a strong visionary chief executive who actively searches for new opportunities, is heavily oriented toward growth, and is willing to make bold strategies rapidly” (Management, Continue reading
The Concept of Strategic Groups
Meaning of Strategic Groups Strategic group is a group of firms within an industry which face the same environmental forces, have same resources and follow similar strategy in response to the environmental forces. These strategies include pricing practices, level of technology investment and leadership, product scope and scale capabilities, and product quality. By identifying strategic groups, analysts and managers are better able to understand the different types of strategies that multiple firms are adopting within the same industry. For example, the restaurant industry can be divided into several strategic groups including fast-food and fine-dining based on variables such as preparation time, pricing and presentation. The number of groups within an industry and their composition depends on the dimensions used to define the groups. The concept of strategic groups in strategic management stems from an observation by Hunt (1972). Hunt coined the term strategic groups to describe a group of firms Continue reading
The Link Between Innovation and Strategy
Innovation is usually defined as the successful commercial exploitation of new ideas or simply as the successful implementation of new ideas. This encompasses ideas that are ‘new to the world’, ‘new to an industry’ or merely ‘new to a particular firm’. The prominence given to the role of innovation in strategy is to a large extent the result of the prevailing social and economic conditions. In what Peter Drucker – the most influential management thinker of the second-half of the twentieth century – termed the ‘knowledge economy’ that has emerged due to the rise of the service industry and decline of manufacturing since the end of the Second World War, business organizations have increasingly had to react to change more rapidly if they wish to succeed in the marketplace. Indeed, so important is the successful implementation of new ideas that Drucker famously reflected that: ‘Business has only two basic functions Continue reading
Stakeholder, Dynamic Capabilities and Sustainable Development Approaches to Strategic Management
Strategic management is the process regulated and formatted by the top level management in accordance with the policies and the rules of the top level management. These are developed in order to acquire the market share as well as to attain the goals and the objectives in the target market. The strategies developed and adopted by the management are the tools through which the efficiency could easily be enhanced in order to attain the desired goals and the objectives for the organization. Apart from these, there are certain actions which are implemented by the top level management on behalf of the directors and the organizational owners in order to attain the better and effective outcomes. For implementation of the tools and the techniques, organization is required to analyze the internal and external environment. This will help the management to adopt certain crucial set of strategies through which organization could be Continue reading
Role of Strategic Management in the Survival of Organizations
Strategic management is considered to be the collection of the ongoing processes and activities that an organization uses so that to systematically coordinate and align the resources and actions with the vision, mission, and strategy all through the organization. The activities in strategic management usually transform the static plan in the system that provides strategic performance feedback in decision making and enabling the plan to grow and evolve as the requirements and several other circumstances change. Strategic management has emerged as a primary value in helping organizations to successfully operate in complex, dynamic environments. In order for organizations to be competitive in the complex, dynamic environments, the organizations are supposed to be less bureaucratic and should be more flexible. In environments that are stable, competitive strategy involves defining the competitive position and then defending it. With strategic management, it allows companies to be more flexible. Organizations are supposed to develop Continue reading