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What Is Business Strategy

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Submitted By Somadipta
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Business Strategies

14.1 Introduction business strategy describes how a particular business intends to succeed in its chosen market place against its competitors. It therefore represents the best attempt that the management can make at defining and securing the future of that business. A business strategy should provide clear answers to the questions:

A s s

s

s

What is the scope of the business (or offering) to which this strategy applies?
What are the current and future needs of customers and potential customers of this business? What are the distinctive capabilities or unique competence that will give us competitive advantage in meeting these needs now and in the future?
What in broad terms needs to be done to secure the future of our business?

These questions should have been addressed during the process of strategy formulation. The processes and techniques and processes described in Part III may have contributed to answering them. In this chapter, we are concerned with some of the practical issues that arise when thinking and analysis leads into action and commitment. We are concerned also with what makes the difference between good and indifferent business strategies. We suggest that a good business strategy will meet six tests of quality: s s s s s s

It will be correctly scoped.
It will be appropriately documented.
It will address real customer needs.
It will exploit genuine competencies.
It will contribute to competitive advantage.
It will lay the ground for implementation.

The paragraphs below examine each of these tests in turn.

business strategies

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14.2 The scope of business strategy ach separate ‘business’ should have its own business strategy so that a multiple business enterprise will have a number of separate business strategies. This raises the practical question of how to define the scope

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