5.

6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion

BB835   The dynamics of strategy

5.6: Managerial implications, critical

thinking and conclusion

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion
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1.1

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion

Contents
 Introduction
 Activity 6.1
 Exploring managerial implications through
discussion and debate
 Conclusion
 References

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion

Introduction
As you know, we believe that studying BB835 is not simply an academic activity – so
it is time to reflect, once again, on the managerial implications of the ideas we have
been discussing in this unit. How might those ideas make a difference in your
approach to being a manager? Please take some time to think about the managerial
implications of what you have read. Will those ideas help you in your management
practice and, if so, in what ways?

We would also like you to assess your progress towards developing one of the
programme wide key skills that BB835 wishes to help you develop – namely critical
thinking and your willingness to develop, and defend, a particular view on a question
of theory. To this end in this session we will encourage you to debate a contentious
article on an important strategic theme on which there is often considerable
disagreement.

Once again, we encourage you to compare your views with your colleagues in your
TGF. While we believe that all of the ideas in the unit are interesting, we recognise
that not all of them provide the same opportunity for everybody all of the time. Their
relevance may vary according to the sector in which you are working, or the decisions
you are facing at the present moment. It is still important, however, that you
understand these ideas, and build your confidence in discussing them with your
colleagues – this is what a strategic conversation is all about! So we hope that, once
again, the managerial implications session of this unit will provide you with an
opportunity to explore your own and others' understanding of these ideas and their
associated strengths and weaknesses. Engaging with these activities will help you
prepare for TMA 03 and to make a difference to your organisation during your EBI in
BB839.

Activity 6.1
Timing: This activity is timed to take up to 3 hours.

Purpose: To help you communicate and defend a perspective on an important

strategic debate in order to develop and demonstrate your confidence as a critical
thinker. To continue your preparation for the BB835 examination and for BB839.

In Unit 1 you were introduced to the concept of critical thinking, which is a central
theme of the MBA programme (and which will be an important skill to be
demonstrated in future MBA modules and assessment). Before you start this activity
we suggest that you revisit the introduction of the concept of critical thinking to
evaluate the information, concepts, frameworks and ideas that are presented to you (in
this case in the article we are evaluating) and develop a perspective on their value and
relevance to you as a practicing manager. Do the ideas seem convincing? If so, why?

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion
If not, why not and what additional work might be required to change this
perspective?

Task: strategy or execution: which is more important?

This activity involves reading a short article from an online publication called
‘strategy + business’. The article, entitled ‘strategy or execution: which is more
important?’ asks a fundamental strategic question – is the quality of an organisation’s
strategy the most important outcome of a strategy process or is it the executability of
that strategy (in our terms, the ability of the organisation to implement the strategy
effectively)? As you read the article make notes on:

 how compelling you find the main argument

 examples (perhaps from your own experience) that support the
authors’ perspective
 other examples (again preferably from your own experience) that
challenge the authors’ perspective.

Now go to: 'Strategy or execution: which is more important?'.

When you have completed this activity we suggest that you visit your TGF and form
two debating teams: these might be composed along the lines of those in favour of the
authors’ perspective or those in opposition, or you can ask for your tutor to allocate
you to a ‘team’ randomly. Once in your team, prepare an argument of no less than 300
words, but no more than 500 words, in support of your perspective which you should
then post in the TGF.

Once posted your ‘opponents’ should prepare a brief response challenging your
team’s position and offering analysis and data to support their argument. Your tutor
will then offer views on the quality of the arguments both for and anti the proposition.
Remember that the purpose of this exercise is to evaluate the arguments presented and
consider their validity, reliability and applicability as part of developing your
proficiency as a critical thinker. Try to avoid falling into the trap of relying on rhetoric
to win a debate (that is, persuasive use of language designed to hide a position’s
limitations or weaknesses) weaknesses and limitations related to both positions should
be exposed by those advocating their argument. Good critical analysis involves you
acknowledging that the position you support has limitations as well as strengths.

View answer - Task: strategy or execution: which is more important?

Exploring managerial implications through

discussion and debate
In Activity 6.2 we ask you to reflect back on work that you did earlier in Units 4 and 5
and to write up some of your earlier notes on some of the key ideas specifically as

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion
they relate to your organisation; then post this work in your TGF and participate in a
discussion of the implications of these ideas facilitated by your tutor.

Activity 6.2
Timing: Allow at least 3 hours for this activity; this will include writing up notes,
posting to your TGF and engaging in tutor-mediated discussion.

Purpose: To explore the managerial implications of the ideas you have been
introduced to in Unit 5 with a particular reference to their implications for your own
organisation (or one with which you are familiar), by discussing them with the rest of
your TGF.

Task: Exploring managerial implications of Unit 4 and 5 ideas

Refer back to two or three of a number of earlier activities (Activity 3.2 and
Activity 4.2 from Unit 4 and Activity 3.1, Activity 3.4, and Activity 4.2 from
Unit 5) which each asked you to apply BB835 module concepts to your own
organisation, or one with which you are familiar . These activities involved:

 Identifying your organisation’s mission and understanding its

contribution to achieving organisational objectives
 Mapping your organisation’s stakeholders and understanding the
implications of their demands
 Considering whether managing for stakeholders offers your
organisation any meaningful benefits.
 Choosing a well-known for-profit organisation; describing its
corporate strategy, and looking for evidence of market penetration,
market development, and/or product development, as well as
evidence of Ansoff’s growth vectors; reflecting on what this tells you
about the organisation, and/or the industry in which the organisation
is involved. And additionally, considering these same questions for
Amnesty International, a well known not-for-profit organisation.
 Plotting diversification activities for your chosen organisation on the
framework in Figure 3.2; asking yourself about the extent of
operational relatedness, and the extent of corporate relatedness, that
you can identify.
 Noting areas where your chosen organisation is seeking to take
advantage of drivers of cost leadership; reflecting on why the
organisation may have chosen to focus on that particular driver or set
of drivers – or commenting on why the organisation does not appear
to be taking advantage of any drivers that you can identify.

For each of these activities we asked you to prepare a 200-word commentary. Now
select at least one each from Unit 4 and Unit 5 up to a maximum of three in total
(hence no more than 600 words in total) which addresses the following themes:

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion
 How relevant were these ideas for my work role?
 What insight might the application of these ideas provide for your
organisation?
 Whether or not your organisations would be in a position to make a
strategic decision based on the issues raised by these ideas.

Having prepared your 600 words, post your work in your TGF and let your tutor
know that you have done so. As your colleagues also post their insights, read them
and compare and contrast their views with your own.

As we asked you to do at the end of Unit 3, ask yourself if you can see any common
themes emerging from your application of the core concepts of the unit? If you can, or
even if you can’t, what does this tell you?

 Do your comments and the comments of your colleagues highlight

any key differences between the organisations concerned?
 Can differences be explained by differences in sector or country – or
some other factor that you have identified?
 Are you and your colleagues identifying the same strengths and
weaknesses in the core concepts covered in the unit, or not?

When you have reflected on the meaning of the work that is coming out of the TGF,
join your tutor who will be looking to develop a debate on the meaning of the
similarity or dissimilarity that is emerging. We have allowed a total of three hours for
this activity; please try to ensure that you take this important opportunity to reflect
upon both your own views on the managerial implications of these ideas as well as
those of your colleagues and your tutor.

We strongly encourage you to engage as frequently as you can in TGF debates in

order to explore different interpretations and thoughts on these important ideas. Not
only will these debates help you to prepare for later TMAs, they will also prepare you
for your work at the residential school and the B839 EBI. They will also help you to
become the type of reflective practitioner we want you to be.

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion

Conclusion
During this unit we have explored the question of choice from the perspective of the
strategy process. We have highlighted the options available to organisational decision
makers and discussed the circumstances in which those options may be considered.
We have also offered some tools to enable you to begin evaluating the
appropriateness of these options. However, we have not as yet discussed how strategy
is made to happen in organisations, and it is to that important issue that we now turn
in Unit 6.

When you are ready, move on to Unit 6: Making a strategy happen in

organisations.

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References
Favaro, K., Hirsh, E. and Rangan, K. (2012), Strategy or Execution: Which is more
important? [online], available at http://www.strategy-
business.com/article/cs00005?
gko=733e9&cid=20121009enews&utm_campaign=20121009enews
, (Accessed May 2013).

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5.6: Managerial implications, critical thinking and conclusion

Task: strategy or execution: which is more

important?
Answer
Your tutor will provide feedback for this exercise in the TGF.

Back

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