Week 2

Strategic Management

Strategic management consists of the analysis, decisions, and actions undertaken by the organization so that they can create and maintain competitive advantages. There two main elements that go to the heart in the field of strategic management. First, the strategic management of an organization undertakes three ongoing processes: analysis, decisions and actions. Strategic management is concerned with the analysis of strategic goals as well as internal and external analysis of the organization’s environment. Another one is that strategic decisions must be made by the leaders. These decisions cover two basic questions. They are:  What industries should we compete in? And How should we compete in those industries?  It involves the domestic and international operations of the organization.  And last are the actions that should be undertaken since decisions taken are not that useful unless it is acted upon.  Organizations must take correct actions to implement their strategies.  For this, the leaders should must use proper and correct resources so that they achieve what their strategies were really made for.

Second element is that the study of strategic management is important to find out the reasons for why some of the organizations do better than the others.  So it is very important for the managers of the organizations to decide how the organization should compete so that they can gain advantages which can be enjoyed by the firm for longer period. It focuses on two fundamental questions. They are: how should the firm compete in a marketplace to achieve competitive advantage? And how can the organization competitive advantages in the marketplace that are not only unique and valuable but also difficult for competitors to copy or substitute?

Therefore, we can say that strategic management is a process which consists of set of decisions which is usually made by the managers which is useful to determine the long-run and success of the organization. It involves the process of analysis of internal and external environment, long term planning or strategy, implementation of strategy and evaluation.

Similarities between Business Strategy and Military Strategy

On the basis of experience, in business strategy, leaders of the business cannot make correct strategies without experience to survive in the competitive corporate world whereas in military strategy, military officers should must be experienced so that they can survive in war and maintain their security as well.

On the basis of extensive preparation, in business strategy, the business leaders should must be well prepared to create and implement successful strategies and in military strategy, extensive preparation is important in military perspective.

On the basis of SWOT analysis, in business strategy, proper analysis of the businesses’ strengths and opportunities and as well as their weaknesses and threats is required so that they can stand out from their competitors and in military strategy, SWOT analysis is needed to own self and enemy.

Difference between Business Strategy and Military Strategy

On the basis of purpose, the main purpose of business strategy is to maximize the value of the shareholders and the main purpose of military strategy is to maintain their security.

On the basis of success, in business strategy success is required so that the business can survive in competitive market and in military strategy, success is essential to survive in war and maintain security.

Strategic Analysis

Strategic analysis is the method about observing and looking what is happening and what will happen outside the organization in present and in future. It tackles with two basic questions: how you are going to be affected by what is happening? And how will you respond to those changes.

Strategic analysis helps to predict what might happen, evaluate how likely it is to happen and prepare for the happening. It will lead to clear and more relevant goals, better quality decisions, and a more secure future as it prepares you for what will happen.

It is also known as “external environmental analysis” since it is an important phase in strategic planning. It is the connection between making right direction and making the right decisions. Better decisions can be made only if one is able to understand the outside influence to which may have to tackle with in future.You will make better decisions if you understand the influences from the outside world to which you might have to respond in the future.

     Strategic development

      

      Strategy development is even known as strategic planning and is important to create and run a business. In simple words it is like a game plan in which specific goals and objectives are set but they have the capability of being changed according to the changing competitive market. Hence, the managers have to change their strategy as the changes occur in technologies, flow of information, competition and political changes. Managers should be flexible so that they can make changes to be successful. There are four components of strategic development and they are: awareness, planning, development and results.

     Strategic Implementation

     

     Strategic implementation is the process of developing, utilizing and integrating the overall organization’s structure in order to pursue the strategy made and gain its competitive advantage. Strategies made in an organization are not useful unless it is implemented into actions as it is planned. Therefore, strategy implementation is an important process.

Experience with today’s case study

The case study that we had to do was kind of confusing and hard when I first started reading. It was about UK and how towns there had developed. After a bit if individual and group work I was able to answer the questions.  

CASE STUDY: TEXAS IN THE SHIRES

Question1. I think the cities like Milton Keynes, Peterborough and Swindon  are growing rapidly because of following reasons:

1.    They are connected with motorways to London.

2.     Swindon and Peterborough are located near Cambridge and oxford. In addition, different developing activities took place in these places.

3.     Likewise, these cities advertised about them to attract families and businesses.

4.     There are large lands available where roads and building sites can be constructed.

5.      Companies like Amazon are attracted to these cities due to good motorways and closeness to railways.

     

Question 2. The strategy can be called mad because they are moving away from the homely suburban feel that they are known for. It is funny that most of the development activities have been carried out by the immigrants. In addition the construction works are also polluting the environment.

Question 3. These cities are trying to attract universities students and therefore establishing different restaturants, bars, hotels and college. This is a very good strategy because students from different part of the UK who belong to different culture will migrate to these cities. This not only increases love and respect to each other but also helps promote deiversity.

      Question 4. Yes, I would love to live in any of these three towns because they have everything from cheap housings to motor ways and road ways to nearest big cities. The diversity in culture, religion and language makes these cities even amazing. In the same way the business and employment opportunities is one of the main reasons why I would like to live in these towns.