Premium Essay

Review of What Is Strategy

In:

Submitted By wh00118
Words 1250
Pages 5
Review of What Is Strategy

Introduction

The article---‘What is strategy’ is mainly concerned with exploring the definition of the strategy by distinguishing ‘operational effectiveness’ from ‘strategy’. To explore the real meaning of strategy, the author defines this term from three different perspectives: strategic position, trade-offs and fit.

Main part

Understanding of the article

Some concepts of this article are based on theoretical foundations. Firstly, operational effectiveness is based on the Five Forces Frame Work (Porter, 2008), as its definition ‘performing similar activities better than rivals perform them’ (Porter, 1996) links with external environment, especially for the competitors. Another concept ‘strategic position’, performing different activities from rivals’ or performing similar activities in different ways (Porter, 1996), is related to RBV (Barney, 1991), because both them emphasize on the distinctiveness and uniqueness. The other two concepts ‘trade-offs’ and ‘fit’ are based on VRIO criteria (Barney, 2007), which is the basis of the company to generate sustained competitive advantage. The V of VOIR, value, is consistent with ‘trade-offs’, as they indicate that company should decide what to do and not to do. The ‘fit’ is line with the ‘I-inimitability’, since both of them stress that interlinkages among corporate activities makes difficult for organization to imitate.

Wider context of strategy theory

Besides, this article could also be placed into a wider context. Based on Whittington Model (Whittington, 2002), the analysis and interpretations of the author are in line with the classical perspective, which promotes rational strategic-planning with very deliberate, profit-based outcomes. The assumption of analysis and theoretical foundations in this article is profits-maximization and the interpretations for strategy are

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Jay Barney

...Ch. 1,2 ·         Porter (1996). What is strategy, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ·         Assigned questions:       In no more than two double spaced pages, please answer the following questions about         your current or previous firm:       - What is its strategy? ·         Jay Barney, Ch. 1,2 ·         Porter (1996). What is strategy, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ·         Assigned questions:       In no more than two double spaced pages, please answer the following questions about         your current or previous firm:       - What is its strategy? ·         Jay Barney, Ch. 1,2 ·         Porter (1996). What is strategy, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ·         Assigned questions:       In no more than two double spaced pages, please answer the following questions about         your current or previous firm:       - What is its strategy? ·         Jay Barney, Ch. 1,2 ·         Porter (1996). What is strategy, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ·         Assigned questions:       In no more than two double spaced pages, please answer the following questions about         your current or previous firm:       - What is its strategy? ·         Jay Barney, Ch. 1,2 ·         Porter (1996). What is strategy, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ·         Assigned questions:       In no more than two double spaced pages, please answer the following questions about         your current or previous firm:       - What is its strategy? ·         Jay Barney, Ch. 1,2 ...

Words: 470 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Strategic-Management

...senior executive members to refine but the responsibility of all to roll out. Included in the process is comprehensive environmental scanning, strategy formulation (strategic planning), strategy implementation, and monitoring. Students in this course will review how the strategic decision makers within an organisation first identify, define and analyse commercial problems and then develop practical and ethical solutions. It provides a practical guide for, and an initial experience in, strategy formulation and strategic management. Class time will be largely spent in lecture, discussion, case studies and experiential exercises. Students will learn from the theoretical literature, instructor, case studies, videos, research presentations, and from each other. The course materials explain and describe the different aspects, challenges, and stages of strategic management simply and clearly. Goals of the Course To examine and understand the nature and role of strategy, strategic management and strategic leadership within an organization. Learning Outcomes 1. To develop skills in strategic analysis, development and implementation. 2. To explore competing rationales relating to the nature and purpose of business. 3. To critically review the received wisdom on strategic management practice. 4. To review strategic decision-making practises in business. 5. To further develop the presentation skills required to effectively communicate strategic...

Words: 1985 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Mastering the Management System

...Ian Whadcock 1808 Kaplan.indd 62 12/5/07 5:31:55 PM Successful strategy execution has two basic rules: understand the management cycle that links strategy and operations, and know what tools to apply at each stage of the cycle. the Management System by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton NOT LONG AFTER ITS SUCCESSFUL IPO, the Conner Corporation (not its real name) began to lose its way. The company’s senior executives continued their practice of holding monthly one-day management meetings, but their focus drifted. The meetings’ agenda called for a discussion of operational issues in the morning and strategic issues in the afternoon. But with the company under pressure to meet quarterly targets, operational items had started to crowd strategy out of the agenda. Inevitably, the review of actual monthly and forecast quarterly financial performance revealed revenues to be lower, and expenses to be higher, than targeted. The worried managers spent hours discussing how to close the gap through pricing initiatives, capacity downsizing, SG&A staff cuts, and sales hbr.org 1808 Kaplan.indd 63 | January 2008 | Harvard Business Review 6 3 12/5/07 5:32:05 PM | Mastering the Management System campaigns. One executive noted, “We have no time for strategy. If we miss our quarterly numbers, we might cease to exist. For us, the long term is the short term.” Like Conner, all too many companies – including some well-established public corporations...

Words: 9164 - Pages: 37

Premium Essay

Aldi

...STRATEGY 2015 Articles | Books & Chapters | Cases | Core Curriculum Course Modules | Simulations | Video Harvard Business Publishing serves the finest learning institutions worldwide with a comprehensive catalog of case studies, journal articles, books, and elearning programs, including online courses and simulations. In addition to material from Harvard Business School and Harvard Business Review, we also offer course material from these renowned institutions and publications: ƒƒ ABCC at Nanyang Tech University ƒƒ Babson College ƒƒ Berrett-Koehler Publishers ƒƒ Business Enterprise Trust ƒƒ Business Expert Press ƒƒ Business Horizons ƒƒ California Management Review ƒƒ Crimson Group USA ƒƒ Darden School of Business ƒƒ Design Management Institute ƒƒ European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) ƒƒ Haas School of Business ƒƒ Harvard Kennedy School of Government ƒƒ Harvard Medical School/Global Health Delivery ƒƒ HEC Montréal Centre for Case Studies ƒƒ IESE Business School ƒƒ Indian Institute of Management Bangalore ƒƒ Indian School of Business ƒƒ INSEAD ƒƒ International Institute for Management Development (IMD) ƒƒ Ivey Publishing ƒƒ Journal of Information Technology ƒƒ Kellogg School of Management ƒƒ McGraw-Hill ƒƒ MIT Sloan Management Review ƒƒ North American Case Research Association (NACRA) ƒƒ Perseus Books ƒƒ Princeton University Press ƒƒ Rotman Magazine ƒƒ Social Enterprise Knowledge Network ƒƒ Stanford...

Words: 5151 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Mastering the Management System

...www.hbrreprints.org Successful strategy execution has two basic rules: understand the management cycle that links strategy and operations, and know what tools to apply at each stage of the cycle. Mastering the Management System by Robert S. Kaplan and David P Norton . Reprint R0801D This article is made available to you with compliments of SAP. Further posting, copying or distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www.hbr.org or call 800-988-0886. Successful strategy execution has two basic rules: understand the management cycle that links strategy and operations, and know what tools to apply at each stage of the cycle. Mastering the Management System by Robert S. Kaplan and David P Norton . COPYRIGHT © 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Not long after its successful IPO, the Conner Corporation (not its real name) began to lose its way. The company’s senior executives continued their practice of holding monthly one-day management meetings, but their focus drifted. The meetings’ agenda called for a discussion of operational issues in the morning and strategic issues in the afternoon. But with the company under pressure to meet quarterly targets, operational items had started to crowd strategy out of the agenda. Inevitably, the review of actual monthly and forecast quarterly financial performance revealed revenues to be lower, and expenses to be higher, than targeted. The worried managers spent...

Words: 9673 - Pages: 39

Premium Essay

Instructional Presentation

...performance assessment and the EIO4/5 objective assessment. Introduction Welcome to Effective Teaching Practices. Effective teaching depends on effective planning. Teachers need to devote systematic thought to what they want students to learn and to how students will best acquire knowledge and skills. You will learn how to select, develop, and evaluate instructional materials as well as strategies to use to accomplish specific learning goals. You will plan for effective instruction, and then implement those plans. Interactive teaching includes appropriately responding to all of the details that emerge during the presentation of lessons. Teaching is a process. Teachers plan lessons and then present them. They use information about the lesson presentation to make appropriate changes to improve both student achievement and lesson presentation. Outcomes and Evaluations There are 10 competencies covered by this course of study; they are listed in the "Competencies for Effective Teaching Practices: Instructional Presentation and Follow-Up (ETT4/5)" page. The list of competencies is a good overview of precisely what you will know and be able to do at the conclusion of this course of study and demonstrate through assessment. Teaching Dispositions Statement Please review the Statement of Teaching Dispositions. You will complete the following assessments as you work through the course of study. Pre-Assessment You will complete the following pre-assessment: PAE4 Objective Assessment...

Words: 6079 - Pages: 25

Premium Essay

Asahi Case Study

...STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT TEXAS EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAM FALL 2011 Professor David B. Jemison CBA 3.232 Telephone 471-8757 David.Jemison@mccombs.utexas.edu Texts: Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy. (New York: Free Press, l998). Course Description Perspective and Themes This course is about the creation and maintenance of a long-term vision for the organization. This means that it is concerned with both the determination of strategic direction and the management of the strategic process. As such, it deals with the analytical, behavioral, and creative aspects of business simultaneously. The course is organized around six themes in strategic management: the role of the general manager, the components of business strategy, corporate strategy development, divisional-level strategy development, managing strategic change, and the development of general managers. Our perspective in this course is that of the leader whose responsibility is the long-term health of the entire firm or a major division. The key tasks involved in general management include the detection of and adaptation to environmental change; the procurement and allocation of resources; the integration of activities across subparts of the organizations; and, at the most senior levels, the determination of purpose and the setting of corporate direction. General managers, from our perspective, are managers who are in the position to make strategic decisions for the firm. Note that such...

Words: 11018 - Pages: 45

Premium Essay

Strategy Management

...OUTLINE AND AIMS This course provides the student with an understanding of how international business strategy fits into the organisation and running of a company or multi-company corporation. The course consists of 8x three-hour sessions of lectures and case studies. The aim of the module is to introduce the student to the way in which a firm can achieve sustainable competitive advantage through strategy. LEARNIING OUTCOMES By the end of the course students should be able to (1) understand the concepts of strategic management, (2) evaluate the factors that need to be considered in analysing a firm’s external environment, (3) evaluate the internal core competences of a firm, (4) formulate strategy for the firm, (5) understand the nature of corporate strategy, and (6) understand the nature of international strategy. Additional learning outcomes are specified for each session. COURSE CONTENT The course consists of nine sessions: (1) What is strategy? (2) The Market Positioning Approach (3) The Resource Based View of Strategy (4) The Institution Based View of Strategy (5) Diversifications and Acquisitions (6) Strategic Alliances and Networks (7) International Strategy (8) Globalisation and MNC organisation structures (9) Conclusion The course will be taught over nine sessions of 3hrs, namely a lecture of 2hrs and a seminar of 1hr. The lectures are used to illustrate the key points under each topic as well as real business examples. Seminars will be used...

Words: 1703 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Futher

...Application of principles of health administration in several practice settings. Decision making, strategic management, organizational performance, communication, and provider comparisons. Introduction This course is designed to be the capstone course for the Master of Health Services Administration degree. It assumes that the student is in the final semester of graduate work and has successfully completed course work in health issues and policy, health economics, financial management, organizational behavior, quantitative analysis, and health law. The title of the course and its description has been instrumental in shaping the focus of this course and the material to be covered. My particular emphasis will be on management strategy within the context of current theory and practice. We will introduce new concepts, develop and refine old ones, expand upon your theory of management and organizations, and examine present and emerging practices. The course activities have been designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice and strengthen...

Words: 5375 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

How to Write Mba Proposal

...Strategy Formation in Former South African Firms' London Headquarters and in Their South African Your title should be not more than 16 words, must include “South Africa” and/or other relevant countries and should not refer to the methodology (eg A case study of . . .”). Don’t start each word with a capital letter – use ordinary sentence case and only capitalise proper nouns. Operations Sxxxx Cxxxxx Student number: 1234567 Tel: 089 555 5555 Student.wbs@hotmail.com A research proposal submitted by Proposed Supervisor: Dr Txxxx Mxxxxx Your proposal is the plan of your research. You must NOT do any actual research, eg interviews, before the panel. Wits Business School 2nd March 2009 The final Research Report resulting from this proposal was 116 pages long, including references and appendices, excluding the beginning section – dedication, declaration, Table of Contents, etc (see Research Report template at www.wbs.ac.za). This is just about exactly the length expected. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................. LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................III 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 INTRODUCTION........................................................................1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................ 1 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY.................................................................

Words: 8300 - Pages: 34

Premium Essay

Mba General Management

...School of Management Course Syllabus Purpose Seminar/Constructive Action: Intra & Entrepreneurship/Business Planning Course Code: FLD 521 PCA Course Description Students create an intra or entrepreneurial plan for the development and growth of a beneficial and profitable venture incorporating the necessary marketing, financial, legal, organizational and administrative components. Course Objectives After completing the course, the student will be able to: 1. Apply acquired business skills (finance, accounting, marketing, management, negotiation, human relations, legal, and administrative) to create an intra or entrepreneurial business plan for the development and growth of a beneficial and profitable venture. 2. Improve on key business skills including writing, oral communications, goal-setting, and organizational leadership and planning. 3. Produce a business planning document that will enable you to successfully implement your Purpose III Constructive Action project. Course Relevance to CA The course introduces the students to business management: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling that are applicable to managing entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial ventures. This course prepares the students for real life business operations and teaches them practical application of theoretical learning. Course Prerequisite Purpose I Constructive Action Required Textbook: Stutely, R. (2007). The definitive business plan: the fast-track...

Words: 1753 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Nt1310 Unit 3 Case Study

...Question 1 – How would you apply the methods of systematic reviewing to crowdsourced data? What steps would you take to produce the review? The below are steps that I would follow when systematic reviewing crowdsourced data: Step 1 – Client’s Question – It is important to understand the client’s question. From the instruction, it is to see that the client likes to learn about the comments of costumers for existing pizza businesses, particularly about chain pizza restaurant. The question proposed by the client is specific and answerable, which the client has a specific question that pinpoint to existing chain pizza restaurant. Step 2 – Website – The websites that are being used should be identify. Unlike systematical reviewing for articles,...

Words: 1994 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Cloud Computing

...I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Over the years many organizations have invested in massive in-house computing capacities and specialized Information Technology (IT) staff around the world in order to support their primary business processes or to achieve a competitive advantage. According to Porter and Millar IT creates competitive advantage by giving companies new ways to outperform their rivals. To gain competitive advantage over its rivals, a company must either perform these activities at a lower cost or perform them in a way that leads to differentiation and premium price (Porter & Millar, 1999). These days, organizations are looking for IT to operate more efficiently and help to reduce the overall costs. The concept of outsourcing has contributed to this development by transferring entire business functions to an external service provider. A recent phenomenon in the domain of outsourcing is called Cloud Computing. “Clouds are a large pool of easily usable and accessible virtualized resources (such as hardware, development platforms and/or services). These resources can be dynamically re-configured to adjust to a variable load (scale), allowing also for an optimum resource utilization. This pool of resources is typically exploited by a pay-per-use model in which guarantees are offered by the Infrastructure Provider by means of customized SLAs” (Vaquero, 2009). The arrival of the Internet has accelerated the commoditization of IT by providing a perfect delivery...

Words: 4074 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

Marketing Management

...AMN401 Integrated Marketing Communications Assignment Guidelines Topic List …………………………………………………......…………………………….. p.1 Research and Presentation Guidelines …………………………………………......…... p.2 1.0 Target Market …………………………………………………………………………... p.3 2.0 Competitive Profile …………………………………………………………………….. p.4 3.0 Message Review ………………………………………………………………………. p.5 4.0 Channel Review ……………………………………………………………………….. p.6 5.0 Campaign Development ………………………………………………………………. p.8 6.0 Media Strategy …………………………………………………………………………. p.9 Students must select a topic from the list of brands below: Assignment Topics McDonald's www.mcdonalds.com.au/ Kentucky Fried Chicken www.kfc.com.au   Apple - iPhone 6 www.apple.com/au/iphone-­‐6/   Samsung – Galaxy S5 www.samsung.com/au/ Microsoft Surface www.microsoft.com/surface/en-­‐au   Tiffany & Co. www.tiffany.com.au/   T2 Tea www.t2tea.com/   Nespresso www.nespresso.com/au Fitbit www.fitbit.com/au   Kookai   www.kookai.com.au/     Topshop Australia www.topshop.com/     1   Primary Research: A critical component of Integrated Marketing Communications is the use of reputable data to develop and justify strategic decisions. Although this is not a marketing research assignment, our focus will be on how to best utilise both primary and secondary sources of marketing research. Commonly used forms of primary research are survey...

Words: 2106 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Unknown

...The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage Q&A with HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan by Martha Lagace Companies often manage strategy in fits and starts. Though executives may formulate an excellent strategy, it easily fades from memory as the organization tackles day-to-day operations issues, doing what HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan calls "fighting fires." A new book due in August by Kaplan and David P. Norton aims to make strategy a continual process. The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage (HBS Press) shows managers how to weave organizational principles into a more effective management system that respects the differences between strategy and operations yet integrates them in a powerful way. Kaplan and Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a performance measurement system, in 1992. The Execution Premium is their fifth book as coauthors. Kaplan recently explained the ideas behind The Execution Premium and how they bridge the common divide between strategy and operations. Q: What particular issues around execution need to be better addressed in business? A: There are two key issues. First is leadership. Without strong visionary leadership, strategy will not be executed effectively. The second key issue is to recognize that strategy and operations (or tactics) are both important but different. The normal course of events is for companies to focus on day-to-day operations and short-term problem solving...

Words: 2607 - Pages: 11