Q1 . WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY STRATEGY ?

WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS DIMENSONS OF

STRATEGY ?
Strategy is an action that managers take to attain one or more of the organization’s goals.
Strategy can also be defined as “A general direction set for the company and its various
components to achieve a desired state in the future. Strategy results from the detailed strategic
planning process”.

A strategy is all about integrating organizational activities and utilizing and allocating the scarce
resources within the organizational environment so as to meet the present objectives. While
planning a strategy it is essential to consider that decisions are not taken in a vaccum and that
any act taken by a firm is likely to be met by a reaction from those affected, competitors,
customers, employees or suppliers.

Strategy can also be defined as knowledge of the goals, the uncertainty of events and the
need to take into consideration the likely or actual behavior of others.

Strategic management process involves the entire range of decisions. Typically,

strategic issues have six identifiable dimensions:
* Strategic issues require top-management decisions

* Strategic issues involve the allocation of large amounts of company resources

* Strategic issues are likely to have significant impact on the long-term prosperity of the firm

* Strategic issues are future oriented

* Strategic issues usually have major multifunctional or multibusiness consequences

* Strategic issues necessitate considering factors in the firm's external environment.

Q2. STATE THE VARIOUS NEEDS OF STRATEGY ?

Guide

A well defined business strategy will offer a guide on how your business is performing
internally. Also, how you are performing against your competition and what you need to stay
relevant into the future.
Trends

A strategy can identify trends and opportunities in the future. It can examine the broader
changes in market such as political, social or technological changes, as well as consumer
changes, and can develop tactics so your business can modify and develop to suit these future
changes.

Vision

A business strategy creates a vision and direction for the whole organisation. It is important
that all people within a company have clear goals and are following the direction, or mission of
the organisation. A strategy can provide this vision and prevent individuals from losing sight of
their company’s aims.

Competitive Advantage

Finally, by creating a business strategy a company can create a competitive advantage and
ultimately understand more about themselves and where they are going.

Q3. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STRATEGY ?

Strategic management offers the following benefits:

It allows for identification, prioritization, and exploitation of opportunities.

It provides an objective view of management problems.

It represents a framework for improved coordination and control of activities.

It minimizes the effects of adverse conditions and changes.

It allows major decisions to better support established objectives.

It allows more effective allocation of time and resources to identified opportunities.

It allows fewer resources and less time to be devoted to correcting erroneous or ad hoc
decisions.

It creates a framework for internal communication among personnel.

It helps integrate the behavior of individuals into a total effort.

It provides a basis for clarifying individual responsibilities.

It encourages forward thinking.

It provides a cooperative, integrated, and enthusiastic approach to tackling problems and
opportunities.

DISADVANTAGE -

A Complex Process
Strategic management involves continuous assessments of critical components, such as
external and internal environments, short-term and long-term objectives, organizational
structure, and strategic control. These components are interrelated, so a change in one
component may affect other areas.

Time Consuming
Managers spend a great deal of time preparing, researching and communicating the strategic
management process, which may impede day-to-day operations and negatively impact the
business. For example, managers may overlook daily issues needing resolution, and
inadvertently cause a decrease in employee productivity and short-term sales. When issues are
not resolved in a timely manner, higher employee turnover can result. This could force a
company to redirect critical resources, putting strategic management initiatives on a sidetrack.

Difficult to Implement
The implementation process requires a clearly communicated plan, implemented in a way that
requires full attention, active participation, and accountability of not only company leaders, but
also of all members across the organization. Managers must continuously develop and improve
synergies among employees to ensure buy-in and to garner support for the company’s
objectives and mission. There are instances where this can become particularly challenging. For
example, if a manager was involved in the strategic formulation process, but not equally
involved in the implementation process, he in turn may not feel accountable for decisions
made.

Requires Skillful Planning

Although strategic plans help reduce uncertainty in meeting long-term objectives, the planning
process itself provides opportunities for missteps. An organization needs to anticipate the
future, which involves various degrees of change as well as risks. In order to avoid pitfalls,
managers need to have the right skill sets to plan the strategy and mitigate risk factors. For
example, managers should monitor as well as develop business contingency plans to address
possible future changes in the external environment, such as market conditions, competitive
forces, and economic factors that may negatively affect the business.
Q5. WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS KINDS OF STRATEGY ?

Competitive Strategy
Competitive Strategy is defined as the long term plan of a particular company in order to gain
competitive advantage over its competitors in the industry. It is aimed at creating defensive
position in an industry and generating a superior ROI (Return on Investment).

Corporate Strategy
Corporate strategy is hierarchically the highest strategic plan of the organization, which defines
the corporate overall goals and directions and the way in which will be achieved within
strategic management activities. It is a long-term, clearly defined vision of the direction of a
company or organization

Business Strategy
A business strategy is an outline of the actions and decisions a company plans to take to reach
its business goals and objectives. The strategy defines what the business needs to do to reach
its goals, which can help guide the decision-making process for hiring and resource allocation

Functional Strategy,
A functional strategy is the approach a business functional takes to achieve corporate and
business unit objectives and strategies by maximizing resource productivity. It deals with a
relatively restricted plan that provides the objectives for a specific business function .

Operating Strategy
Operations strategy is the plan developed by the management team of an organization to
allocate funding to the business. This plan is constructed after the overall strategy of the
business has been created; thus, the operations strategy supports the strategic direction of the
firm.

Q6. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ?

Strategic management is the ongoing planning, monitoring, analysis and assessment of all
necessities an organization needs to meet its goals and objectives. Changes in business
environments will require organizations to constantly assess their strategies for success. The
strategic management process helps organizations take stock of their present situation, chalk
out strategies, deploy them and analyze the effectiveness of the implemented management
strategies. Strategic management strategies consist of five basic strategies and can differ in
implementation depending on the surrounding environment.

Strategic management provides overall direction by developing plans and policies designed to
achieve objectives and then allocating resources to implement the plans. Ultimately, strategic
management is for organisations to gain a competitive edge over their competitors

Identify Opportunities
Strategic management is necessary to identify opportunities. Tap into opportunities and
identify strengths and weaknesses by studying the internal structure of your organization.
Within every team, there’s unrealized potential

that needs your attention. You may even discover new ways to implement existing strategies.

Prepare For The Future

Strategic management helps you prepare for the future. Organizations can benefit from
understanding the importance of strategic management because it can help you prepare for
contingencies. A business environment is dynamic and fast-paced. Evolve and adapt your
strategies to keep abreast of vital changes in the business sphere.

Be Action-Oriented
Don’t become complacent in your management style. If you’re driven by action and purpose,
you can easily alter policies and business plans to drive the organization forward. A sound
action plan is sustainable and important for the growth and survival of your company.

Strengthen Organizational Structure

Working in a team is important to achieve shared goals. Each member is dependent on another
for guidance, especially in a stressful situation. This gives rise to the need for strategic
management. You can reflect on your organization’s internal structure and make changes
wherever you feel necessary. Only a strong organizational structure can endure testing times .

Sustained Competitive Advantage

It’s necessary to have a sustained competitive advantage in today’s market. To do well
compared to other players in the market and avoid failure when faced with setbacks, build a
plan that’s viable and long-lasting.
The importance of strategic management lies at the intersection of your company’s internal
and external environments. Constructing a strategic vision with long-term objectives in mind is
useful for achieving organizational goals.

Q7. STEPS/PROCESS/PHASES OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ?

Clarify Your Vision
The purpose of goal-setting is to clarify the vision for your business. This stage consists of identifying
three key facets: First, define both short- and long-term objectives. Second, identify the process of how
to accomplish your objective. Finally, customize the process for your staff, give each person a task with
which he can succeed. Keep in mind during this process your goals to be detailed, realistic and match
the values of your vision. Typically, the final step in this stage is to write a mission statement that succ y
communicates your goals to both your shareholders and your staff.

Gather and Analyze Information

Analysis is a key stage because the information gained in this stage will shape the next two
stages. In this stage, gather as much information and data relevant to accomplishing your
vision. The focus of the analysis should be on understanding the needs of the business as a
sustainable entity, its strategic direction and identifying initiatives that will help your business
grow. Examine any external or internal issues that can affect your goals and objectives. Make
sure to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of your organization as well as any threats
and opportunities that may arise along the path.

Formulate a Strategy
The first step in forming a strategy is to review the information gleaned from completing the
analysis. Determine what resources the business currently has that can help reach the defined
goals and objectives. Identify any areas of which the business must seek external resources. The
issues facing the company should be prioritized by their importance to your success. Once
prioritized, begin formulating the strategy. Because business and economic situations are fluid,
it is critical in this stage to develop alternative approaches that target each step of the plan.

Implement Your Strategy

Successful strategy implementation is critical to the success of the business venture. This is the
action stage of the strategic management process. If the overall strategy does not work with
the business' current structure, a new structure should be installed at the beginning of this
stage. Everyone within the organization must be made clear of their responsibilities and duties,
and how that fits in with the overall goal. Additionally, any resources or funding for the venture
must be secured at this point. Once the funding is in place and the employees are ready,
execute the plan.

Evaluate and Control

Strategy evaluation and control actions include performance measurements, consistent review
of internal and external issues and making corrective actions when necessary. Any successful
evaluation of the strategy begins with defining the parameters to be measured. These
parameters should mirror the goals set in Stage 1. Determine your progress by measuring the
actual results versus the plan.

Q.8 STATE HOW STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT CAN BE ANALYSED ?

The 4 Steps of Strategic Planning Process

Environmental Scanning. Environmental scanning is the process of gathering, organizing and

analyzing information.

Strategy Formulation. Strategy formulation refers to the process of choosing the most
appropriate course of action for the realization of organizational goals and objectives and
thereby achieving the organizational vision

Strategy Implementation. Strategy implementation is the process of turning plans into action
to reach a desired outcome. ... The success of every organization rests on its capacity to
implement decisions and execute key processes efficiently, effectively, and consistently

Strategy Evaluation. Strategy evaluation means collecting information about how well the
strategic plan is progressing.  Strategic Evaluation is defined as the process of determining the
effectiveness of a given strategy in achieving the organizational objectives and taking corrective
action wherever required.

Unit 2
Q1. WHO IS A STRATIGIST ? DESCRIBE HIS TASK AND ROLE ?
A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a
strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and
mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends will be achieved
by the means

A strategist is someone who is skilled in planning the best way to gain an advantage or to
achieve success,

The Role of Strategist in Organizations

A powerful strategist plays the major important roles like sooth sayer, sculptor, politician, guru
and jail buster.

1.A strategist must be a soothsayer or seer who helps his team to imagine the future world
within which they will be competing. They begin by reading the palm of the organisation and
also identify its competencies and unique strengths. They then use the crystal ball of scenarios,
and imaginative thinking to help the team to visualize the future within which the business will
operate.

2.A strategist should also be a sculptor like an artist ‘who carves a form’ out of raw materials.
The sculptor strategist creates a unique role or purpose for the organisation. They predict the
reason why the organisation will be successful within the soothsayer’s imagined future. The
sculptor begins by defining the organisation’s future target markets. They then provide the
future shape of the organisation by defining why its future customers will choose to support it,
rather than any future imagined competitor. So the strategist changes systems, structures,
rewards, alliances, products and services to ensure that everything supports the organisational
purpose.

3.A politician is someone who is ‘skilled in the art of maneuvering and manipulation.’ The
politician strategist knows the power players in the organisation. They know what drives each
leader and they also know who is motivated by what external and internal factors.

4,A guru is ‘a person who gives personal spiritual guidance to his disciples.’ The strategist guru,
shows how each individual employee in the company, can contribute to the greater, noble goal.
They help individual employees to discover their inimitable personal purpose. Then they show
them how to channel their energy and talent towards living their purpose, whilst acting in ways
that support the company’s goal.

5.A strategist must also plays a role of jail buster, while at work, many employees find that their
talents, passions, creativity, imagination, and energy are locked behind bars of the company
culture. Timid managers who want to ‘be in control’, and ‘avoid making mistakes’, often hide
the keys to creativity, energy, passion, self-assurance, and innovation. The jail buster strategist
shows employees how to break out from their prison of tediousness and fear without alerting
their fearful managers. They provide the key to unlocking their talents, creativity, and energy.

Q2. WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS FUNCTIONS OF GENERAL

MANAGEMENT IN FORMILATING THE STRATEGIES OF AN
ORGANISATION ?

Functions of strategic management:

Development of company strategy and vision
– It involves defining the vision and mission of the organization, which in essence means the
purpose of its existence. It also involves the development of the company’s strategy in order to
chart out its future growth pattern based on some specific actions. Strategic management
identifies what those actions will be and then shares those with the teams that implement.

Identification of products and markets

– Growth for an organization means constant innovation to maintain its competitive edge as
well as market share. One of the functions of strategic management is to identify the new
products and new geographies that the organization needs to explore. It also means the
evaluation of the viability of existing product, service and market, and assessment of whether
to continue or not.

Focus on Company’s brand positioning

– The company has a brand value and position that people identify it by. Strategic management
means upholding, sustaining and reinforcing this brand positioning. This is done by ensuring
that the strategy is aligned to the brand, as well as all the internal and external actions.

Alignment across businesses or departments

– Strategic management ensures that no business segment or department in the organization is

working in silos. When planning takes place, the views of all departments and businesses are
considered. The final decisions are shared and discussed to ensure that there is an alignment of
organizational purpose and goals. This is the role of strategic management.

Planning and Course Correction

– Strategic management is all about planning for the business. This planning is similar to a
SWOT analysis which identifies the new opportunities and threats to existing business as well. It
also means that one of the functions is to course correct the business performance in case it is
not following the right growth rate.

Q3. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SHAREHOLDER IN STRATEGIC

MANAGEMENT ?
The shareholders of any company have a responsibility to ensure that the company is well run
and well managed. They do this by monitoring the performance of the company and raising
their objections or giving their approval to the actions of the management of the company.
Boards and managers don’t agree on everything but they both agree that they need a strategic
plan. One thing that they don’t always agree on is how to clarify the role of the board and the
role of management in developing and implementing the strategic plan.

SHORT NOTE –
BOARD OF DIRECTOR- A board of directors is an executive committee that jointly
supervise the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit
organization such as a business, nonprofit organization, or a government agency

Essentially it is the role of the board of directors to hire the CEO or general manager of the
business and assess the overall direction and strategy of the business. The CEO or general
manager is responsible for hiring all of the other employees and overseeing the day-to-day
operation of the business.

CEO- A chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest-ranking executive in a company, whose
primary responsibilities include making major corporate decisions, managing the overall
operations and resources of a company, acting as the main point of communication between
the board of directors (the board) and corporate The CEO of a corporation or company typically
reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the business,[1]
which may include maximizing the share price, market share, revenues or another element. In
the non-profit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the
organization's mission, such as reducing poverty, increasing literacy, etc.
ENTREPRENEUR - An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business, bearing
most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. ... The entrepreneur is commonly seen as
an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures.

Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy, using the skills and initiative necessary to
anticipate needs and bringing good new ideas to market. Entrepreneurship that proves to be
successful in taking on the risks of creating a startup is rewarded with profits, fame, and
continued growth opportunities. Entrepreneurship that fails results in losses and less
prevalence in the markets for those involved.