What is strategy ?

The word strategy is derived from the word greek word strategia and conventionally used as a military term. It means a plan of action that is designed to achieve a particular goal. Earlier, the managers adopted the day-to day planning method without concentrating on the future work. Later the mangers tried to predict the future events using control system and budgets. These techniques could not calculate the future happenings accurately.

Thus an effective technique called strategy was introduced in business to deal with long term developments and new methods of production. The different concepts of strategy are: It is defined as aplan to different or guide a course of action It is pattern to improve the performance over time It is a fundamental way to view an organizations performance It is a scheme to out-maneuver competitor

Q.4. What is BCP? Discuss its importance and influence on strategic management. How contingency planning is related to BCP?
Ans:

Business continuity plan (BCP) is a process followed by an

organisation to survive in an event that causes disruption to normal business processes. BCP not only includes major disasters (e.g. loss of a building due to natural calamities, fire accident etc) but also routine interruption (e.g. hard disk crash due to virus, major power interruption etc).In such cases BCP ensures that critical operations continue to be available. Document containing the recovery timeline methodology, test-validated documentation, procedures, and action instructions developed specifically for use in restoring organisation operations in the event of a declared disaster. To be effective, most Business Continuity Plans also require testing, skilled personnel, access to vital records, and alternate recovery resources including facilities.

BCP is a collection of procedures which is developed, recorded and maintained in readiness for use in the event of an emergency or disaster. Every organisation is at risk due to natural disasters like flooding, hurricanes or earthquakes, or any common causes of systems disasters. Sometimes it can also be due to human interference like hacking or virus attack. Business Continuity Planning is important to the continued success of an organisation. They are critical for the continuous operations in all types of businesses. Every company needs a detailed contingency plan that ensures continuous business operations in case of any unforeseen, difficult or catastrophic event occurs. Recently most of the organisations rely on technology to do business and give more importance to IT and communication services. They become highly vulnerable to loss of information and service a result of catastrophe. BCP is very important due to the following reasons: Advanced planning Threats Advanced planning Many companies have realised that it is not sufficient to implement a generic BCP. For an efficient response, with respect to continuous operations, it must adopt to specific risks and catastrophic situations which could range from major building loss to local system failure. Organisations must plan for the recovery of critical business functions, using priorities and timescales that were obtained from assessed risks and accompanying data. BCP must cover the requirements of IT, data and voice communications as well as of essential personnel and offsite locations. In todays scenario, it is no longer sufficient for an organisation to recover its technology and communications infrastructure but it must also have accessible people and accommodations in which they can work. Threats Natural disasters are not the only threats to a business operation. Corporate espionage organised crime, hacking, whacking packet sniffing etc are some of the man-made disasters. Hackers could destabilise an organisations entire operation. To respond to this threat, it is important to use resultsgenerated from risk analysis and management activity to undertake focused, organisationspecific security testing, including vulnerability assessment and penetration testing of the network infrastructure. Where an event causes a company to close down its entire network, it is critical to ensure that employees and other users still get access to their data and applications as quickly and securely as possible. To accomplish this, companies

can organise various information management solutions by implementing network management procedures. In spite of giving attention to Business Continuity Planning following recent terrorist activities, organisations are still failing to put strategic contingency plans in place. Gartner, an analyst firm estimates that only 35% of the organisations have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place and fewer than 10% have crisis management, contingency, business recovery and business resumption plans. This is an alarming statistic. Example for corporate espionage and organised crime An employee of Ellery Systems Inc. resigned and took the computer software codes with him. The codes had a potential market value of billion dollars. As they didnt implement BCP, Ellery systems went out of business and its employees lost their jobs. Millions of dollars invested and many years of hard work were lost. Contingency planning is a planning strategy that deals with uncertainty by identifying specific responses to possible future conditions. Contingency planning realises that future is impossible to predict, so it is best to have a variety of flexible and responsive solutions available. It is an alternative course of action that can be implemented in the event when a primary approach fails to function as it should. Contingency plans allow the businesses and other entities to quickly adapt to the changing circumstances. Concepts Contingency plans are developed by identifying possible failure in the usual flow of operations and strategies. Contingency plans should overcome these failures and continue with the functions of the organisation. Organisations create contingency plans to achieve the objectives that are listed below: Day to day operations of the organisation continue without a great deal of interruption or interference. Backup plan is capable of remaining functional as long as it takes to restore primary plan. Emergency plan minimizes inconvenience to customers, allowing the organisation to continue providing good and services. Implementation Contingency plans can be practically applied to any level of organisation as a part of planning process. It involves the following steps: Identify the objectives and targets Identify various strategies that help to achieve objectives and targets. Evaluate the costs and benefits of each strategy, and rank them according to cost-effectiveness or benefit/cost ratios. The ranking can take other significant factors into account such as implementation and other additional benefits.

 Implement the required strategies to achieve the targets. It generally starts with the most cost effective and easy to implement strategies, and working down the list to more costly and difficult strategies. After they are implemented, assess the programs and strategies with regard to various performance measures, to ensure that they are effective. Evaluate overall results with regard to targets to decide if the additional strategies should be implemented.

Contingency plans can be practically applied to any level of organisation as a part of planning process. It involves the following steps: Identify the objectives and targets Identify various strategies that help to achieve objectives and targets. Evaluate the costs and benefits of each strategy, and rank them according to cost-effectiveness or benefit/cost ratios. The ranking can take other significant factors into account such as implementation and other additional benefits. Implement the required strategies to achieve the targets. It generally starts with the most cost effective and easy to implement strategies, and working down the list to more costly and difficult strategies. After they are implemented, assess the programs and strategies with regard to various performance measures, to ensure that they are effective. Evaluate overall results with regard to targets to decide if the additional strategies should be implemented.

Q1. What is meant by Strategy? Differentiate between goals and objectives?

Ans:

Strategy
Strategy is the method by which an organisation systematically achieves its future objectives. A business cannot progress for a long term without a reliable strategy. In this unit, you will learn meaning of business strategies, its conceptual evolution, scope and its importance, distinction between goals and objectives, analysing strategic intent through vision and mission statements and finding out the significance of core competencies of business and critical success factors. Sometimes, when clients hear, What is your strategy?, there is a deafening silence on the other end of the line. Not only do they have no strategy, they have no concept of the meaning of the word. So what is a strategy and how do you develop one?

The American Heritage College Dictionarys first definition of strategy is, The Science and Art of using a nations forces to execute approved plans as effectively as possible. Leaving aside the military aspect of this definition, substitute a few words, and for our purposes, you get, The Science and Art of using a clients resources and skills to execute detailed plans as effectively as possible. Science and Art means that the effort is done in a meticulous way, according to laws of nature, but adjusted and finessed in the moment, as needed when circumstances require it. In practice, what are the most meaningful ideas that need to be understood about strategies? 1. The primary purpose of behaving strategically is to be as effective as possible, i.e. have the bestresults, and to have the intended results. 2. Strategic actions are part of a well thought out, detailed plan, a plan that has the most likelyprobability of success, a plan so well prepared that chance is no longer in play. 3. A client will execute their plan in a logical and realistic progression. Effective strategies are laid out on time lines, so that the client is taking the right action at the right time. With a timeline, the client can release fretting and worrying about any action but the current one. 4. Using a clients resources and skills means that the client looks at their current resources and considers how they can be used to produce the greatest results. Has the client considered all their resources, including those that have just been sitting on a shelf? Assessing skills is equally as important. Which skills bring the greatest satisfaction? Is there a new combination of existing skills that could produce greater financial return in the market place? 5. Plans are detailed. Initially, the client spends some time brainstorming every possible idea they could conceivably put into action as part of their strategy. Later as part of the process, the client chooses some actions and deletes others. These choices are made, based on things such as clients likes and dislikes, likelihood of success, projected results, conditions in the marketplace, time available, and family considerations. 6. Strategies, in the end, are about being executed as effectively as possible. This means that they bring the intended results, and are almost guaranteed to do so. This means that, if executed as planned, there is a high likelihood of success as projected. It also means that skills and resources have been used as efficiently as possible. 7. Lastly, strategies are flexible. Clients should review their strategies regularly (weekly is recommended), and as needed, adjust when the need becomes obvious. If you are reviewing your strategies and evolving them as you go, you can expect even greater results

Goals and Objectives:

Goals and objectives create the foundation for lesson plans. If they are written well, an instructor will have an effective and meaningful structure for discussion, activities, and

assessment. Goals and objectives serve as a reminder that teaching is not an end in itself, but the means to an end. Goals Goals explain the reasoning behind what you will teach in a session. They articulate what you wish to accomplish and help to map your direction.

They address the question: What do I want my students to take with them after the session is completed? Once you've organized your goals, you can decide what content and teaching method will best achieve them. Goals state what a student should be able to do at the end of the library session; they do not describe the learning process. Goals for one session are often related to goals for the entire course. It can be helpful to look at the overall course goals and those of other library instructors. Goals should be clear and reachable. Concentrate on naming the most important broad concepts.

Examples - Goals Worse: Students will go through a sample search in Lexis-Nexis. Better: Students will be able to effectively search a commercial database. Worse: Students will be able to find an online periodical index, open it, perform a search, evaluate their results, refine their search if needed, and then choose three articles for their research paper. Better: Students will be capable of selecting and searching library resources that relate to their discipline. Objectives Objectives are student performances of the concepts described in your session goals. They are often referred to as 'learning outcomes' because they define more specifically what skills students will be able to demonstrate after your session. They can be used to assess the effectiveness of the session. Objectives should always focus on the students, not the instructor. Objectives should address outcomes, not learning processes. Each objective should focus on only one idea. Objectives should measure specific behaviors. Try to avoid using vague verbs such as 'understands' and 'knows.'

Examples - Objectives Worse: Teach students to search the library catalog. Better: Students will be able to perform a title search in the library catalog. Worse: Students should know and apply evaluating strategies for choosing articles. Better: Students will able to distinguish between scholarly and popular magazines. Worse: Students will understand how to use the Boolean operators AND and OR.

Better: Students will demonstrate how to use the Boolean operators AND and OR. Goals What you want students to take with them after the session is completed. Ex: Students will be able to select and search online indexes related to their discipline. Objectives Student performances demonstrating the abilities described in your goals.

Ex: Students will locate indexes as they are grouped by subject and choose one.Next they will perform searches using advanced search techniques.They will then evaluate their search results.

Goals are statements that provide an overview about what the project should achieve. It should align with the business goals. Goals are long-term targets that should be achieved in a business. Goals are indefinable, and abstract. Goals are hard to measure and do not have definite timeline. Writing clear goals is an essential section of planning the strategy. Example One of the goals of a company helpdesk is to increase the customer satisfaction for customers calling for support. Objectives are the targets that an organisation wants to achieve over a period of time. Example The objective of a marketing company is to raise the sales by 20% by the end of the financial year. Example An automobile company has a Goal to become the leading manufacturer of a particular type of car with certain advanced technological features and the Objective is to manufacture 30,000 cars in 2011. Both goals and objectives are the tools for achieving the target. The two concepts are different but related. Goals are high level statements that provide overall framework about the purpose of the project. Objectives are lower level statements that describe the tangible products and deliverables that the project will deliver. Goals are indefinable and achievement cannot be measured whereas the success of an objective can be easily measured. Goals cannot be put in a timeframe, but objectives are set with specific timelines. The difference between organizational goals and objectives is depicted in given table. Difference between Goals and Objectives of Business Goals Objectives Are long term Are usually meant for short term Are general intentions with Are precise statements with broad outcome specific outcome Cannot be validated Can be validated Are intangible can be qualitative Are tangible are usually as well as quantitative quantitative and measurable Are abstract Are concrete