Assignment No.

Programme Name : MBA Semester: III Credit: 4

Course Title : Strategic Management Course Code: 20ODMBT721

Submitted Date: 2021 Last date of Submission:30th Nov2021

Max. Marks: 30 Weightage: 15 Marks

Instructions:
 Sec-A is compulsory which consists of Ten Short Answer Questions (1 mark per
question). Answer length should be approximately 100 words.
 Attempt any Five questions from Sec-B out of Seven questions (4 marks per question).
Answer length should be approximately 800 words.

Section –A(10 Marks

1. Explain the term strategic management.

Answer. Strategic Management is an interdisciplinary course that combines many diverse
elements into a unit. Strategic Management includes the identification and description of
strategies that managers may deploy to achieve superior competitive advantage and
organizational performance. A firm is believed to have competitive advantage if it is more
profitable than all other establishments in the same industry. It is a collection of decisions and
activities taken by a manager that determines the performance of a firm. A major role of strategic
management is the complete incorporation of the functional areas of the business and ensuring
that these functional areas synergize well.

2. What is Benchmarking?
Answer. The idea of finding what is the best presentation being accomplished, whether
your organization, by a contender, or by an extraordinary industry. Benchmarking is an
improvement instrument whereby an organization quantifies its presentation or cycle against
other organizations' accepted procedures, decides how those organizations accomplished their
exhibition levels.
3. Elaborate Vision, Mission, and Objectives.
Answer. Mission: Clarifying the statement of purpose and characterizing the business is the beginning stage
of business arranging. Association characterizes the fundamental explanation behind their reality regarding a
statement of purpose.
Vision: When the firm communicates its desires as an essential purpose should give unmistakable outcomes. Those
outcomes will be the acknowledgment of the association's vision. Vision demonstrates a definitive motivation
behind being here.
Objectives :Your objectives fall under every one of your objectives and address more modest objectives to assist you
with getting. Consider them venturing stones. Your goals will likewise help you measure your advancement and
achievement.
4. Explain the five factors of Porter's model.
Answer. Michael Porter (Harvard Business School Management Researcher) planned
different crucial systems for building up an association's technique. Quite possibly the most
prestigious among directors settling on essential choices is the five serious powers model that
decides industry structure.
• Threat of new possible contestants. • Threat of substitute item/services. • Bargaining force of
providers. • Bargaining force of purchasers. • Rivalry among current contenders.
5. Explain Mintzerbg’s 5p’s of strategy
Answer. Henry Mintzberg, the Canadian management scientist in 1987, distinguished five
visions for strategy in organisations. He called them the 5 P's of Strategy and were Plan, Pattern,
Position, Perspective and Ploy. The aforementioned five components enable an establishment to
implement a more effective strategy. A strategy is aimed at the future, is concerned about the
long term and considers different aspects of an organization.
6. Explain vertical and horizontal integration strategy.
Answer. Vertical Integration: While seeking after a vertical reconciliation methodology, a
firm engages in new parts of the value chain. This methodology can be alluring when an
association's providers or purchasers have an excessive amount of control over the firm and are
getting progressively productive at the association's cost
Horizontal Integration: Flat incorporation is the procurement of a business working at a similar
level of the value chain in a similar industry. This is as opposed to vertical incorporation, where
firms venture into upstream or downstream exercises, which are at various phases of creation.

7. Explain diversification strategy.

Answer. At the point when an organization separates its items, it is frequently ready to
charge a top-notch cost for its items or administrations on the lookout. Some broad instances of
separation incorporate better help levels to clients, better item execution, and so forth, in
examination with the current contenders.
8. Define strategy implementation. .
Answer. Strategy Implementation is an interaction that sets strategies and procedures in
motion to arrive at wanted objectives. The essential arrangement itself is a composed record that
subtleties the means and cycles expected to arrive at plan objectives and incorporates criticism
and progress reports to guarantee that the arrangement is on target.

9. Define Social Responsibility

Answer. The role of social policy is related to economic, social and political. The search
for coordination and coherence of policies should consider the fact that ideas on social policy
and its role in development have changed over time. This presents difficulty to find a clarity on
approaching social investment, equity and poverty alleviation.
10. Explain process of evaluating strategies.
Answer. Strategy Evaluation equal significance as strategy formulation since it helps
analyse the effectiveness and efficiency of the all-inclusive plans in realising the desired results.
Managers can also ascertain how appropriate the current strategy is in today’s dynamic world
with technological, socio-economic and political innovations. Strategic Evaluation is the last
phase of strategic management.

Section –B(20 Marks)

2. Explain the concept of value chain with the help of figure and suitable
examples.
Answer. A value chain is a business model that describes the full range of activities needed
to create a product or service. The purpose of a value-chain analysis is to increase production
efficiency so that a company can deliver maximum value for the least possible cost.
Value Chain Analysis is the structure most regularly used to direct the analysis of any company's
strengths and weaknesses. In this structure, any business is viewed as various connected
exercises, each delivering an incentive for the client. By making extra value, the firm may charge
more or can convey the same incentive at a lower cost, both of this prompting higher overall
revenue. This eventually adds to the association's monetary presentation. This idea is valuable
for getting the upper hand moreover.
The value chain examination framework is quite possibly the main Strategic Management Model
for breaking down an organization's circumstance. Value chain examination in essential service
is embraced to assess an organization's Value chain components. Value chain analysis recognizes
every component of the association's Value chain's strengths and weaknesses. It can't be utilized
to distinguish outer freedoms and threats.
For example,  Inbound logistic are those that are related to accepting, putting away, and taking
care of contributions to the creative interaction. These incorporate material taking care of;
putting away items in the stockroom, planning vehicles for the vehicle of materials/items, and
gets back to providers.  Operations involve bundling, machining, testing, hardware support, get-
together, and different exercises related to changing contributions to definitive items. This is the
actual interaction of making, testing, and bundling the item.  Outbound logistics are those
performed to gather, store, and convey items to clients. Material dealing with, conveyance
vehicles, request preparing, and booking are remembered for outbound logistics.  Marketing is a
component of essential exercises in value chain analysis. It is worried about giving the purchaser
data, instigation, and freedoms to purchase the item. It incorporates special exercises like
publicizing, deals advancement, advertising, individual selling, sales force, determination of
conveyance channel, evaluating of items, and different exercises identified with giving methods
by which clients can purchase the items.  Service worries about exercises related to upgrading
and keeping up the items' incentive to clients, as a fix of machines, the establishment of
hardware, preparing to client's inventory of parts, brief reaction to client's inquiry, and so forth
all these essential exercises are available in fluctuating degrees in each firm and, hence, merit
consideration in the company's inward examination.
The help exercises in the value chain analysis are fundamental for supporting the essential
exercises to occur. The help exercises in the value chain analysis have markers. For example, 
Firm's Framework.  Human asset the Executives.  Technological Improvement.  Procurement
of assets, account, stock, and so forth. Altogether, all these help exercises, and essential exercises
make the value chain. The chain includes an income edge because a mark-up over the expense of
permitting value-making exercises is usually important for the cost borne by purchasers.

3. What is External Strategic Analysis?

Answer. External analyses can help businesses adapt to change and streamline their current
products to fit the needs of their customer base better. Regardless of whether you are a business
owner or finance professional, conducting an external analysis can help guide your company to
success. First, however, you need to understand the benefits and necessary components of an
external review.
External analysis, also called environmental analysis, is the process by which businesses
objectively assess the changes made to their industry and broader world that could affect their
current business operations. Companies do this to ensure they can adapt to changes and continue
to succeed within an industry.
The difference between external analysis and internal analysis is the area of focus. External
analysis focuses on how external factors such as industry trends affect a business and its success.
In contrast, an internal analysis focuses on the internal processes of a business, such as company
culture and employee onboarding and how those factors affect the success of the business.
Encourages business growth into new areas
External analyses can benefit businesses by encouraging them to be proactive in how they
operate their company. For example, if a retail company sees a trend in free trade clothing among
the public, this might help them decide to expand their business model to include the sale of free
trade products.
Helps anticipate and adapt to change
External analysis helps businesses adjust to potential changes within their industry that could
save their business. For example, a catering company changes the way they store their food
products to comply with new FDA regulations. This helps them maintain their status as a
catering service.
Creates opportunities to rise above the competition
Conducting an external analysis can help businesses identify operational elements that they could
change or improve to set them apart from their industry competitors. For example, a staffing
solutions firm identifies that they provide the same staffing solutions as their competitors:
marketing, business administration and IT.
Elements of an external analysis
Businesses should complete individual analyses of the following elements to conduct an external
analysis successfully:
Supply chain
Industry
Economic trends
Competitors
Market demographics
PEST analysis
Supply chain
A business's supply chain is a component of an external analysis because it focuses on the
following factors:
The source of raw materials
The manufacturing process that turns raw materials into company products
The transportation of the finished products to retail locations
Industry
A business's industry, or more specifically its market, is another essential component of external
analysis. This component requires businesses to consider the following factors:
Present risks and opportunities within their industry
Current size of the industry
Projected growth of the industry
Alternative industries to explore
Economic trends
Watching for potential changes in economic trends such as interest rates, inflation, trading laws
and recession levels helps businesses adapt. More specifically, it helps a business owner
determine how these elements could affect how much they profit during a given period.
Competitors
Another component to consider in a business's external analysis is its competitors. Focus on
areas such as: Number of current industry competitors with similar products, prices, target
audience and overall company size
Potential barriers to entering a new industry such as government laws, product saturation or
brand loyalty
Acceptable pricing businesses can assign to goods that encourage sales while maintaining profit
and staying on the same level as competitors
Effects that competitors' goods will have on another business's sale of the same type of goods
Results of complementary products or services on the business's success
Market demographics
Market demographics help businesses determine if their current products and marketing tactics
meet the needs of their target audience. Factors include:
Age
Income/economic status
Location of residence
Hobbies and interests
How your products or services help improve their life.
PEST analysis
Another way to evaluate all of the external factors that could influence a business is by
conducting a PEST analysis. This method allows business owners to look at the political,
economic, social and technological influences on their success:
Political: Laws, regulations and trade barriers
Economic: Inflation, exchange rates and interest rates
Social: Age and population
Technological: New industry technology and R&D investments

4. Discuss different strategic levels in organizations.

Answer. Strategy forms the basis of every decision that needs to be taken in an
organization. A strategy that is poorly chosen and formulated by the top leadership has a direct
influence on the efficacy of the workers in almost all departments of the organization. The three
levels of strategy are: Corporate-level strategy, functional level strategy and Business-level
strategy. The three levels of strategy together can be illustrated with the help of a so-called
“Strategy Pyramid”
Corporate-level strategy is distinct from Business-level strategy and Functional-level strategy.
Although Corporate-level strategy has been placed at the top of the pyramid we shall start the
article by discussing about Business-level strategy first.
Business-level Strategy
People are familiar with Business-level strategy and involves asking questions like: “How do we
compete?”, “How can we gain a (lasting) competitive advantage over our competitors?”. A good
understanding of what business is all about and its external environment is central to be able to
answer these questions. After satisfactorily carrying out the strategic analysis, the topmost
management, with the assistance of frameworks such as the Porter’s Generic Strategies, Value
Disciplines, and Blue Ocean Strategy can engage in formulation of the strategy. Finally, the aim
of the Business-level strategy is to gain a competitive advantage by offering true value for the
end-customers while it also helps the organization in becoming a unique player who is hard-to-
imitate in the competitive sphere.
Functional-level Strategy
Questions like “How can business-level strategy be supported in functional departments like
Production, Marketing, HR and R&D?” concerns Functional-level strategy. Such strategies are
mostly aimed at helping to improving the efficiency of the company’s operations in these
functional departments. Within these functional departments, the workers frequently refer to
their ‘Marketing Strategy’, ‘R&D Strategy’ and ‘Human Resources Strategy’.
The intended goal is alignment of these functional strategies to the maximum, with the general
business strategy of the organization. Suppose the business strategy is meant to offer products to
young adults as well as students, the company’s marketing department should be using the
appropriate (social) media channels to accurately target these prospective customers.
Corporate-level Strategy
The corporate-level strategy concerns about the management deliberating on ways to increase
competitive advantage in multitude of lines of businesses the firm is operating in, apart from a
prioritization of these businesses. It is about creating a portfolio; by selection of an optimal set of
businesses and determining on how these can be amalgamated into the corporate as a whole.
Major investment and divestment decisions are frequently taken at this level by the top
management.
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) is an integral part of corporate-level strategy. The need for
stitching together an internally consistent corporate-level strategy due to the company operating
in multiple business areas through diverse business units with unique business-level strategies
necessitates corporate-level strategy.
Levels of Strategy Business strategy is the most common level strategy and exists in strategic
commercial units and helps devise goals to gain a competitive advantage in a particular market.
If a certain company consists of multiple strategic business units (SBU’s), a Corporate strategy
that unites all SBU’s through a corporate configuration is required. The top leadership of the
company needs to decide on the allocation of resources and the avenues for investment and
divestment.

6. Explain the model of strategy implementation. .

Answer. Strategy implementation is the translation of chosen strategy into organizational

action so as to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation is also defined as the

manner in which an organization should develop, utilize, and amalgamate organizational structure,

control systems, and culture to follow strategies that lead to competitive advantage and a better

performance.

Organizational structure allocates special value developing tasks and roles to the employees and

states how these tasks and roles can be correlated so as maximize efficiency, quality, and customer

satisfaction-the pillars of competitive advantage. But, organizational structure is not sufficient in

itself to motivate the employees.

An organizational control system is also required. This control system equips managers with

motivational incentives for employees as well as feedback on employees and organizational

performance. Organizational culture refers to the specialized collection of values, attitudes, norms

and beliefs shared by organizational members and groups.

Following are the main steps in implementing a strategy:

Developing an organization having potential of carrying out strategy successfully.

Disbursement of abundant resources to strategy-essential activities.

Creating strategy-encouraging policies.

Employing best policies and programs for constant improvement.

Linking reward structure to accomplishment of results.

Making use of strategic leadership.

Excellently formulated strategies will fail if they are not properly implemented. Also, it is essential to
note that strategy implementation is not possible unless there is stability between strategy and each
organizational dimension such as organizational structure, reward structure, resource-allocation
process, etc.

Strategy implementation poses a threat to many managers and employees in an organization. New

power relationships are predicted and achieved. New groups (formal as well as informal) are formed

whose values, attitudes, beliefs and concerns may not be known. With the change in power and

status roles, the managers and employees may employ confrontation behaviour.

Prerequisites of Strategy Implementation

Institutionalization of Strategy: First of all the strategy is to be institutionalized, in the sense that the
one who framed it should promote or defend it in front of the members, because it may be
undermined.

Developing proper organizational climate: Organizational climate implies the components of the
internal environment, that includes the cooperation, development of personnel, the degree of
commitment and determination, efficiency, etc., which converts the purpose into results.

Formulation of operating plans: Operating plans refers to the action plans, decisions and the
programs, that take place regularly, in different parts of the company. If they are framed to indicate
the proposed strategic results, they assist in attaining the objectives of the organization by
concentrating on the factors which are significant.

Developing proper organisational structure: Organization structure implies the way in which
different parts of the organisation are linked together. It highlights the relationships between
various designations, positions and roles. To implement a strategy, the structure is to be designed as
per the requirements of the strategy.

Periodic Review of Strategy: Review of the strategy is to be taken at regular intervals so as to identify
whether the strategy so implemented is relevant to the purpose of the organisation. As the
organization operates in a dynamic environment, which may change anytime, so it is essential to
take a review, to know if it can fulfil the needs of the organization.

Even the best-formulated strategies fail if they are not implemented in an appropriate manner.
Further, it should be kept in mind that, if there is an alignment between strategy and other elements
like resource allocation, organizational structure, work climate, culture, process and reward
structure, then only the effective implementation is possible.

7. Explain behavioural issues in strategy implementation.

Answer. The key component is the behaviour of employees that influences the success of
any organization. Any strategic policy implementation requires the support, discipline, and
motivation from all employees including the manager. It is crucial to remember that any
organizational change is not a process that is just involved with the elegant and ever-more
complex organizational structures. It is more about its humane side, that is, changing people’s
behaviour, attitude and feelings.

Influence Tactics: An organizational leader has to successfully implement strategies and aim to
achieve the desired objectives. . To achieve the objectives, the leader has to thus alter the
behaviour of their superiors, peers, and subordinates. To do so, they must first develop the future
vision, communicate it and also motivate the organizational members towards its achievement.
Power: A person can influence others’ behaviour. Leaders often have to use their power in
influencing others in an organization to implement strategies. Formal authority is a power that
comes with the leaders’ position in the overall organization. However, they cannot use this
power to influence outsiders like customers and government officials. In such cases, the leaders
have to use something that is more than that of a formal authority. For example, their expertise,
their charisma, power of rewards, power of information, legitimate power, or sometimes even
coercive power.
Empowerment is a way of influencing behaviour : Sometimes, the top executives empower their
lower-level employees through training g, self-managed workgroups , and aggressive use of
automation. Political implications of Power: Organizational politics are those activities that some
people use to acquire or enhance power and other resources so as to achieve desired outcomes in
an organizational setting that is characterized by several uncertainties. All organizations must
attempt to manage such political behaviour
Leadership style and Culture change : An organization’s Culture is defined to be a set of values,
beliefs, and behaviours that helps its members to understand what it stands for, how it does
things, and what it considers important. An organization’s culture should be appropriate and be
in support of it. Further, the culture should have some values in it. To change a corporate culture,
people often have to be persuaded to abandon several of their existing values and beliefs, the
behaviours that result from them, and instead, adopt new ones.
As seen above, in McKinsey model, the seven areas of any organization are divided into ‘soft’
and ‘hard’ areas. The ‘hard’ elements are Strategy, Structure and Systems and are much easier to
identify and manage. The ‘soft’ areas, although harder to manage, are the foundation of an
organization and are considered to create a more sustainable competitive advantage.
• A Strategy is a plan that is developed by an organization in an attempt to achieve sustainable
competitive advantage to be able to successfully participate in the market. In the 7s McKinsey
model, a sound strategy is one that is clearly articulated, is long-term, is reinforced by strong
vision, mission and values and thus helps the organization to achieve competitive advantage. But
it is difficult to judge if such a strategy is aligned with the other elements well if it is analysed
alone. Hence, the important factor in the McKinsey7s model is that a great strategy should not be
looked at alone, but to see if it is aligned with the other elements. For example, a short-term
strategy may generally not be a good choice but if it is well aligned with the other 6 elements,
then it can generate the desired results
• Structure is the way the different business divisions and units in a company are organized. It
also includes the information of the hierarchy of accountability or in simpler words, who is
accountable to whom. Simply put, structure is an organizational chart and is one of the easiest
and most visible way to change the framework.
• Systems represent the processes and procedures in an organization that reveals its business’
daily activities and how the decisions are made in the organization. Systems are the area that
decides how any business is being done and thus should be the primary focus for all managers
during any changes in the organization.
• Skills represent the abilities that the employees use to perform well. They also comprise of
competences and capabilities. During any change, the question that most frequently rises is what
skills will really be needed for an organization to reinforce its new strategy or structure.
• Staff deals with how many and what type of employees the organization will need and how will
they be recruited, or trained, or rewarded and motivated
Once a strategy is established, it is hard to make changes in it. Therefore, it is the
strategymaker’s responsibility to select a strategy compatible with the organization’s prevailing
corporate culture. If that is not possible, then once a strategy is chosen, it is the responsibility of
the strategy implementer to bring changes in the corporate culture that hinders effective
execution of a chosen strategy.