What happened to business /industry over the years events
managers dealt with; changes in competitive environment; managers responses; changes in business or corporate level strategy; how did companies grow (by acquisition without much concern for rationale behind their growth and how growth by acquisition affected their future profitability or otherwise?); strategic management techniques to solve business problems Case study: o History; Development; Growth of company over time Chart critical incidents in history to see how a companys past strategy and structure affect it in the present most unusual events/ events most essential for development. Examples of events: founding; initial products how it makes new product market decisions; how it developed and chose functional competencies to pursue; entry into new businesses; shifts in its main lines of business o Identification of companys internal strengths and weaknesses Strengths and weaknesses as they have emerged over time; examination of each of the value creation functions of the company; functions in which company is strong/weak- e.g. some weak in marketing; others strong in R&D o Nature of external environment surrounding company Identify environmental opportunities and threats by applying all concepts on industry and microenvironments to analysis environment company is confronting Important at industry level: Competitive Forces Model (Porters Five Forces Model); stage of the life cycle use each factor in turn (e.g. demographic factors) to see whether it is relevant to company o SWOT analysis Balance strengths and weaknesses against opportunities and threats is company in an overall strong competitive position? Can it continue to pursue its current business or corporate level strategy profitably? What can company do to turn weaknesses into strengths and threats to opportunities? Can it develop new functional, business or corporate strategies to accomplish this change? o Kind of corporate-level strategy company is pursuing Define companys mission and goals
Find lines of business and nature of its subsidiaries
and acquisitions Do they trade or exchange resources? Are gains to be achieved from synergy? Is company just running portfolio of investments? Related or unrelated diversification or both? Conclude whether company operates in just one core business or not Using SWOT debate merits of this strategy is it appropriate given Environment Company is in? Could a change in corporate strategy provide company with new opportunities or transform a weakness into strength? Should company diversity from its core business into new businesses? How and why has companys strategy changed over time What is the claimed rationale for any changes? Analyze companys businesses or products to assess its situations and identify which divisions contribute most/ detract from its competitive advantage Explore how company has built its portfolio over time acquire new business or did it initially venture its own? o Nature of companys business-level strategy If company is single-business company, business level strategy is identical to corporate level strategy If company is in many businesses each business will have its own business level strategy identify companys generic competitive strategydifferentiation, low-cost or focus- and its investment strategy given its relative competitive position and the stages of the life cycle Company may market different products using different business level strategies if it offers low cost product range and line of differentiated products Identify functional strategies that company pursues to build competitive advantage through superior efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness and to achieve its business-level strategy- SWOT provides you with info on companys functional competencies Investigate production, marketing or R&D strategies Pursuing low costs or a differentiation strategy successfully requires different sets of
competencies has company developed right
ones? How can it exploit them? Can it pursue both a low cost and differentiation strategy at same time? SWOT is important + Poters model if industry analysis has revealed threats to the company from environment Can company deal with those threats? How should it change business level strategy to counter them? Strategy implementation or what company strives to achieve its strategy o Companys structure and control systems and how they match its strategy What structure and control systems company is using to implement its strategy; evaluate whether structure is appropriate different corporate and business strategies require different strategies Determine degree of fit between companys strategy and structure does company have right level of vertical differentiation (right number of levels in hierarchy or decentralized control?); or horizontal differentiation? (Does it use a functional structure when it should be using a product structure?); is company using right integration or control systems to manage operations? Are managers being appropriately rewarded? Are the right rewards in place to encourage cooperation among divisions? Organizational conflict power; politics Why are problems in these areas occurring? --> Bad strategy formulations or because of bad strategy implementations? Determine whether there is organizational change has company attempted to alter their strategies or structures to solve strategic problems? What is an appropriate action plan for company to achieve its goals? How should company alter its business level strategy from differentiation to focus? o Recommendations How company should solve strategic problems and increase its future profitability Ways of changing functional, nosiness and corporate strategies and organizational structure and control to improve business performance E.g. increase in spending on R&D; divesting of certain businesses; change from strategy of unrelated to related diversification; increase in level of integration among divisions using task
forces and teams; move to a different kind of
structure to implement a new business-level strategy Maybe create timetable that sequences the actions for changing the companys strategy and a description of how change at the corporate level will necessitate changes at the business level and functional level.