‘’A company’s strategy is managements game plan for growing the business, stacking out a market position, attracting and pleasing customers, competing successfully, conducting operations and achieving targeted objectives’’ (Thompson, Strickland & Gamble 2008). Porter (1996) states strategy as choosing different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value. Markides (1999) states strategy as a position a company takes to answer certain questions about the organization. Strategy can be viewed as a way to which the organization achieve its competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is the way in which the organization meet consumer needs better than their rivals. Strategy is used in decision making in which managers monitor the ever changing external environment, in which an effective strategy would allow the organization to use resources and capabilities to exploit opportunities and limit threats (Ireland & Hitt 1999). Strategy therefore can be defined in a number of ways. Strategies are devised to achieve certain goals. A company may seek a strategy to identify who are the customers, which services to offer and how they can operate efficiently.
Strategy entails an organization matches its resources and capabilities to the external environment to achieve competitive advantage (Lado & Wilson 1994). Organizations set goals to achieve. The organization will therefore analyse the problems which the firm face, and then formulate a strategy and implement it to achieve competitive advantage.
Strategic making process therefore:
1. Set a corporate vision, mission and values and the organisation goals and objectives.
2. Analyse the external environment
3. Analyse the organization internal environment
4. Select strategies that help th...
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...an be achieved by product performance, marketing as profits may fall. Therefore a company may seek to formulate and execute a strategy that addresses how to deal with new entrants, suppliers, their customers– how best to serve them and to deal with substitutes for example providing comfort in low budget vehicles to serve the need for customers who need low maintenance vehicles but seeking luxury at the same point (Porter 2008).
CONCLUSION
Strategy is pivotal to the success of the business. It encourages the organisation matches its resources and capabilities to the external environment to achieve competitive advantage. Luck can make a business successful but a business strategy can provide a guide line to follow to achieve competitive advantage. One can safely say that strategy rather than luck is important to the future running of the business
23), a strategy is competing differently using a set of actions to perform better over rivals and achieve greater profitability. It is about choosing to be different and making the correct choices to provide direction and guidance to employees and the company on what to do and what not to do.
Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., & Strickland III, A. J. (2014). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage; Concepts and cases. (19th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Strategy is a clear vision of the outcomes to be reached, resources necessary to reach those outcomes, and relationships with clients, competitors and other participants of the external environment. Operations strategy, as the main part of corporate strategy has to develop common policies and plans for the most efficient use of company resources.
A company’s strategy is actually the plan through which the company aims at its growth, at gaining market shares, customers and its position in the market. Furthermore, the specification of a company’s strategy leads the company through being successful and competitive to achieve its objectives. The business model of a company determines if the followed strategy makes sense and if it leads to profits, which is the main objective of business activities. The difference between a company’s business model and a company’s strategy is their scale of focus. From the one hand strategy relates to the general directions and approaches that a company follows
According to Johnson et al (2013) and John (1997), strategy can be defined as a general scope or long-term direction of a firm. Johnson et al (2013) state that strategy has three levels which refer to corporate, business and operational levels. In Lynch’s view (2006), there are two elements in corporate strategy that are corporate-level and business-level. This essay will focus on both corporate and business-level strategy. To conclude Lynch (2006) and Johnson et al (2013)’s points, corporate-level strategy can be identified as a purpose or overall scope of an organization. Business-level strategy is related provide the best value for products or services to compete in the specific markets. For example, innovation or response to competitors are usually the tactics of business-level strategy (Johnson et al.,
Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. E. (2008). Crafting & executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage (16th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M. A., Strickland III, A. J., & Thompson A. A. (2012). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Crafting a sound competitive strategy is fundamental to running a business. This statement is simple to write but a complex undertaking in practice. Competitive strategy is the mechanism used by organizations to create value for customers and gain an advantage over competitors. The organization gains a competitive advantage through activities that encompass designing, producing, marketing and supporting products2etc. The business strategies organize these activities to create a synergistic effect that maximize value for customers.
“Strategy” is an action oriented involves goal directed setting and integrate an organization’s skills and resources with the opportunities and threats in its environment.
Thompson, A.A., Strickland, A.J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 custom edition (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin
All in all, there is no denying that being able to come up with a successful business strategy, management should consider various factors, like the flexibility of a strategy, two different views of capturing competitive advantages, and the significance of competitive advantages. Vu’s article does good job detailing different aspects of a good business strategy. As managements become more aware of how to develop business strategies, the economy will boost
Business strategy is the means by which firm’s plans to achieve its goals and objectives. It can also be termed as organization long-term planning. The strategy covers periods between 3-5 years and sometimes longer. Businesses use two major types of strategy, general or generic and competitive strategies. The overall strategy involves strategies of growth, globalization and retrenchment. The competitive advantage includes low pricing, product and customer differentiation. We will look at the business strategy used by Marks and Spenser (Cole, 1997). The company is a British multinational located at Westminster London and specializes in clothes and luxurious food products.
Numerous definitions of strategy exist, in most circumstances strategy can loosely be explained as an overall plan of deployment of resources to ascertain a favourable position within a market (Zablah, Bellenger and Johnston 2004; Grant 1994, p 14). Further, imbedded in many successful organisations are strategies, the importance of which is to remain relevant in the market, and successful in the various attributes of business; profiteering, employee motivation, maintaining sustainable core competencies, effectiveness in operation, or efficiency in the conduction of operations. Therefore challenges involved in the formulation and implementation of a strategy can revolve around the overall external market, as well as internal
Throughout the global economic environment the desire to out-perform the competition is always present. In every situation, the companies who do better are the ones with superior strategy (Rothaermel, 2013). Strategic management is therefore important in every company, no matter what industry or market they operate in; and as stated by M. Carpenter and G. Sanders, 2013, is described as "The process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy". Strategic management is a constant topic under discussion with different schools of theorists with different beliefs and attitudes which is described as "A tense array of disagreement" (Rees, 2012).
Strategy formulation is the process of establishing the firm's mission, goals, and choosing among alternative strategies or plans; it involves and implies that preparing the best approach to respond to the circumstances of a firm's environment, whether or not its conditions are known in advance; being strategic and tactical, then, means being clear about the management's aims; being aware of the company's resources, and incorporating both into being consciously responsive to a dynamic environment (SM, 2010). As nearly all businesses have limited resources, top leaders and management must determine which alternative plans or strategies will do well to the organization most; strategic management requires attention to the big picture and the motivation to adapt to circumstances, and consists of the following aspects: