Colonization and Propaganda in Matigari by Ngugi Wa Thiong´o

Strategy – A View from the Top

What Is Strategy?

Understanding how a strategy is created is very important. It is also very important to understand that there is a connection between good strategic planning and long-term performance. Companies that succeed seem to have a better understanding of the customers’ wants and needs and how they can create value.

It is hard to define a “strategy” in one sentence but it could be defined as the “positioning an organization for competitive advantage”. Its main objective is to create value for stakeholders by providing customer value. (pg. 2) Strategies always change as the context in which strategy is developed always changes. For example, the evolution in the past fifty years has shifted from an industrial economics to a resource-based perspective to human an intellectual capital perspective. The can most definitely change strategies for business owners. New business ideas and concepts are created every day. A lot of different efforts are put into a corporation in order to enhance competitiveness. Sustainable superior performance can only be achieved if a company can reserve differences between itself and its competitors.

Strategic thinking focuses on taking different approaches to delivering customer value and providing a basis for a competitive advantage. A company should choose what activities to perform and how to perform them. A good strategy focuses on creating value by satisfying the needs and wants of customers of the customers better than any other rivals. If a company has a superior strategy it usually can deliver value to its customers better than its competitors. What is valuable today might not be tomorrow. With ideas and wants changing on day to day basis it is important ...

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...nspires them to do their best. (pg. 10)

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategy performance tool. It can be used by managers to keep track and monitor activities and their effects. The four boxes represent the four components of a balanced scorecard which are connected by the business organization's vision and strategy. The four perspectives are interrelate and cannot function independently.

Financial: The costs involved, in terms of rate of return on capital (ROI) employed and operating income of the organization.

Business Process: Consists of measures such as cost and quality related to the business processes.

Customer: Measures the level of customer satisfaction, customer retention and market share held.

Learning and Growth: Consists of measures such as employee satisfaction, employee retention and knowledge management.