Strategic Management

Assignment I
Descriptive Questions: Individual Assignment
To be submitted in soft copy (PDF format)

NO ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED AFTER STIPUTATED DATE AND TIME SHALL

BE ENTERTAINED / ACCEPTED.

ANY FORM OF PLAGIARISM AND/OR CHEATING DURING

TESTS/EXAMS/QUIZZES/CASE SUBMISSIONS/PRESENTATIONS AND/OR
ACTIONS AGAINST NORMS/RULES/ REGULATIONS OF THE COLLEGE AND
CLASS WOULD BE PENALIZED WITH NQ STATUS.

1. PDF file
2. Submission Deadline: 28th Jan, Saturday
3. To be submitted in HUB

Candidates are required to give their answers in their own words as far as practicable.
Provide illustrations and examples while answering each question.

All questions carry equal marks.

1. Explain the difference between ‘Operational Effectiveness’ and ‘Strategic Positioning’.

When we talk about business strategy, why it is more about ‘strategic positioning’ than
‘operational effectiveness’? How are the concepts of ‘strategic fit’ and ‘strategic tradeoff’
related to the concept of ‘strategic positioning’? Explain with suitable examples.

2. Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and core purpose that remain
fixed, while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world.
The dynamic of preserving the core while stimulating progress is the reason that great
companies became elite institutions able to renew themselves and achieve superior long
term performance. Truly great companies understand that difference between what should
never change and what should be open for change, between what is genuinely scared and
what is not. Explain the major role, key elements and significance of Mission, Vision and
Values for an organization and how they provide the basis for strategy formulation,
implementation and evaluation.

3. Harvard professor Michael E. Porter propelled the concept of industry environment into
the foreground of strategic thought and business planning. The cornerstone of Porter’s
work first appeared in the Harvard Business Review, in which he explains the five forces
that shape competition in an industry. Porter’s well-defined analytic framework helps
strategic managers to link remote factors to their effects on a firm’s operating
environment. Porter’s five forces framework has two main aims: a) to understand the
drivers of competitive behavior in the sector and; b) to evaluate the long-run profit
potential of the sector.

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 Consider a sector (of your choice) of which you want to understand the drivers of
competitive behavior and you will be using this framework for industry/ sector analysis.
List out all the variables which work as determinant(s) of each of these five forces in this
sector. Also list out at least five important aspects that should be considered while
conducting a sound industry analysis.

Also explain the following:

How do five forces of market vary according to the various stages of industry life cycle
and how is such knowledge helpful to the strategic management process of
organizations? How does the characteristics and essence of strategy differ for a business
operating at various stages of its industry lifecycle? Illustrate with example.

4. Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the

capabilities that distinguish it from its competitors. It follows that a central aspect of
strategy formulation is perceptive competitor analysis. The objective of a competitor
analysis is to develop a profile of the nature and success of the likely strategy changes
each competitor might make, each competitor’s probable response to the range of feasible
strategic moves other firms could initiate, and each competitor’s probable reaction to the
array of industry changes and broader environmental shifts that might occur.

Answer the following questions in relation to the competitor analysis as one of the
important part of the strategic analysis:
a. What are four diagnostic components of a competitor analysis, the understanding
of which will allow an informed prediction of the competitor’s response profile?
What are key questions related to these four diagnostic components that you seek
an answer of during competitor analysis?
b. What are the key questions related to the competitor’s response profile that you
seek to get an informed prediction of after analyzing the four diagnostic
components?
c. Explain through an illustrative case, the application and utility of these four
diagnostic components of the framework of competitor analysis.
d. What are specific tools and techniques you can use for the analysis of a competitor
company? Give a short indicative illustration for the use of each.

5. Case formation:

Consider a company (real or hypothetical) and create a section of 3 year strategic plan
with following components.

A. Introduction of the company and its business

B. Mission, Vision and Values

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C. Strategic Intent (read the paper of CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel – posted in
the hub and referred in the class)
D. Business Objectives
E. Strategic Analysis
E.1. External Environmental Analysis (use all the tools you have studied)
E.2. Internal Analysis (use all the tools you have studied)
E.3. SWOT Analysis
Use various tools and frameworks for strategic analysis as you’ve learnt
in the class.
F. Business Strategy
F.1. Strategic Positioning (and sources of competitive advantages)
F.2. Strategic Fit
F.3. Strategic Tradeoff
F.4. Core business strategy (use the frameworks you know – eg. IE, SWOT
matrix, Grand Matrix Framework, SPACE, Strategy Diamond)
+ Broad description about the business strategy (explain in detail)