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
Strategic Management Terms
Porter’s Generic Strategies – Cost Leadership Strategy
Cost Leadership is the strategy that focuses on making the operations more efficient and cutting costs wherever possible. It may result from scale/scope efficiencies, tight overhead control, careful selection of customers, standardization and automation. Cost leadership aims at having the lowest costs in a market. This makes the company best placed to survive a price war and generates the highest margins if a price war does not occur. The largest retail chain in the world, Wal-Mart also believes in cost leadership. According to Michael Porter (1980), the low cost leadership strategy attempts to increase market share by emphasizing low cost relative to competitors. “gives the firm defense against rivalry from competitors because its lower cost means that it can still earn returns after competitors have competed away their profits through rivalry. A low cost position defends the firm against powerful buyers because buyers can exert power only to drive Continue reading
External Expansion or Business Combination Strategies
External expansion refers to business combination where two or more concerns combines and expand their business activities. The ownership and control of the combined concerns may be undertaken by a single agency. Business combination is a method of economic organization by which a common control, of greater or lesser completeness is exercised over a number of firms which either is operating in competition or independently. This control may either be temporary or permanent, for all or only for some purposes. This control over the combining firm can be exercised by a number of methods which in turn give rise to various forms of combinations. In the process of combination, two or more units engage in similar business or in different related process or sages of the same business join with a view to carry on their activities or shape or shape their polices on common or coordinated basis for mutual Continue reading
Mass Customization – Dynamic Stability Product/Process Matrix
Mass Customization Concept “It is the customer who determines what a business is” – Drucker, 1954 The concept of mass customization was coined by Stan Davis in 1987, in his book “Future Perfect”. In this book, he emphasizes that in traditional industrial production there is on the one hand mass production, using economies of scale to produce goods at low costs, but with nearly no variety or on the other hand individual production with a high degree of variety but in small volumes with high costs. Joseph Pine, an IBM-executive turned consultant and author who is the father of the mass customization concept, in his 1993 book “Mass Customization — A New Frontier in Business Competition”, outlines more about Mass Customization. “developing, producing, marketing and delivering affordable goods, and services with enough variety and customization that nearly everyone finds exactly what they want.” – Joseph Pine, 1993 “Mass customization is a system Continue reading
Business Clusters
In a globalized economy, companies can access capital, goods, information and technology from all parts of the world. Thanks to faster methods of transportation and communication, physical location has become less important. Yet, there are geographic concentrations of industrial activities. For example, Silicon Valley in California is reputed for its cluster of computer hardware and software companies. Even though it is a very expensive location, many tech companies continue to perform their key value adding activities in this region. Michael Porter uses the term “clusters” to describe geographical concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular business. Business clusters include suppliers of components, machinery, services and institutions which provide specialized infrastructure. Sophisticated, demanding customers who keep companies on their toes can also be considered a part of the cluster. So can the local government, universities, research centers and think-tanks who play a vital role in encouraging innovation and creating 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