COMSATS UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD, LAHORE CAMPUS

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

Sessional II

Course Title: Strategic Management

Course Code: MGT 501

                                                            Dr. Waheed Akhter

                                                    ASSISTANT PROFE

SSOT

Course Moderator

Syed Nauman Ahmad

SUBMITTED BY

Aneela Ashraf SP17-BBA-036

Section B
Question Number 1:

In strategic management process can lead to understanding and commitment from organizational
members. Individual appreciate having the opportunity to contribute ideas and to gain a better
understanding of their firms. Industry, competitors and markets. To perform an external audit, a
company first must gather competitive intelligence and information about economic, social,
cultural, legal trends. The advantages of external audit procedures are significant enough to make
the hassle for companies well worth it in the long term. They can help to spot and ward off
corruption and mistakes before they become overgrown and past the point of problem solving
and correction. The role of the external auditor is to provide unbiased eyes for an organization so
it knows its strengths and growth areas and can move forward in a positive way. External audits
are not perfect, but they do offer many benefits above a regular internal audit. They are more
impartial than internal audits or External auditors have no job outside of conducting your audit.
They provide validation or invalidation of concerns raised during your internal audit. External
audits are typically more impartial than internal audits, but they are not without their
limitations. The disadvantages of external audit procedures are they are not totally impartial
because the auditors are still paid by you or external audits can sometimes be cost prohibitive for
small businesses. Moreover you have to educate the external auditor about your company or
external audits require a lot of time and jumping through hoops. Usage of the entity management
calculation and judgement in the various values recorded in the financial statements. E.g.
depreciation, allowance for doubtful debt. Usage of sampling basis to draw conclusions about a
broad population that cannot be tested by the auditor. It could be due to cost-benefit woes or
there are just not many services available.

Question Number 2:

Yes, I agree with this statement that technological advancements can create new markets, result
in a proliferation of new and improved products, change the relative competitive cost positions in
an industry, and render existing products and services obsolete. The reason is that these changes
can reduce or eliminate cost barriers between businesses create shorter production runs, create
shortages in technical skills, and result in changing values and expectations of employees,
managers and customers. Technological advancements can create new competitive advantages
that are more powerful than existing advantages. Organizations that traditionally have limited
technology expenditures to what they can fund after meeting marketing and financial
requirements urgently need a reversal in thinking. The pace of technological change is increasing
and wiping out businesses every day. An emerging consensus holds that technology management
is one of the key responsibilities of strategists. Firms should pursue strategies that take advantage
of technological opportunities to achieve sustainable, competitive advantage. Like internet has
changed the very nature of opportunities and threats by altering the life cycles of products,
increasing the speed of distribution, creating new products and services erasing limitations of
traditional geographic markets, and changing the historical trade-off between production
standardization and flexibility. The internet is altering economies of scale, changing entry
barriers, and redefining the relationship between industries and various suppliers, creditors,
customers and competitors.

Question Number 3:

I disagree with this statement organizations should take sufficient account of the capabilities and
limitations of the production or operations function in formulating strategies. There is much
reason for concern that many organizations have not taken sufficient account of the capabilities
and limitations of the production or operation function in formulating strategies. Scholars
contend that this neglect has had unfavorable consequences on corporate performance.
Production capabilities and policies can also greatly affect strategies. Production and operation
activities often represent the largest part of an organization human and assets. In most industries,
the major cost of producing a product or service are incurred within operations, so production or
operations can have great value as a competitive weapon in a company’s overall strategy.
Strengths and weaknesses in the five functions of production can mean the success or failure of
an enterprise. Or many production or operations managers are finding that cross-training of
employees can help their firms respond faster to changing markets. Like through process these
decisions include choice of technology, facility layout, process flow analysis, and facility
location and transportation analysis. Distances from raw materials to production sites to
customers are a major consideration. These operation management deals with inputs,
transformations and outputs that vary across industries and markets. Manufacturing operations
transforms or converts inputs such as raw materials, labor, capital, machines, and facilities into
finished goods and services. These activities often represent the largest part of an organization.
Managers are finding cross training of employees can help their firms respond faster to changing
markets. Moreover workers can increase efficiency, quality, productivity and job satisfaction.