MGT 133 CH1 (INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT)

Strategos

The word strategy has been derived from Greek word

generalship or art of general

“strategos” meaning?

Generalship

this referred to the way military leaders planned and directed armies to win battles. The idea was that a general had to carefully plan moves, allocate resources, and outsmart opponents to secure victory.

Strategy

In modern times, especially in business, concept of strategy is borrowed from this military origin. Instead of winning battles, organizations use strategy to gain competitive advantage—which means putting themselves in a stronger position than their competitors.

leverage our know-how

“Our strategy is to ___?___in the formulation and manufacture of polymer-based composites, concentrating on geographic areas in Southern Africa where demand is growing and we can provide superior technical support

Internal capabilities

the company’s strengths, financial resources, skills, technology, brand reputation, know-how, etc

External capabilities

customers, suppliers, competitors, and the overall market environment

intelligent opponents

means rivals, competitors, or even external forces (like new technologies, regulations, or substitute products) that can react to what you do.

priori

means beforehand (planned in advance). Here, strategy is seen as a deliberate plan or guideline created before decisions are made or actions are taken.

posteriori

means after the fact

Strategic management

is concerned with making decisions about an organizations’ future direction and implementing those decisions. It is about analyzing the situation facing the firm, and on that basis of this analysis formulating a strategy, implementing that strategy and finally evaluation of strategies

Vision

represents the desired state that the organization aspires to achieve in the future.

Mission

refers to what an organization is and why it exists. What business are we in? What will it be? And what should it be?

Goals/objectives

designate specific results the businesses want to achieve. ___?___

define strategies or steps to attain the identified goals

Values

clearly stated principles about the organization's vision, mission, and principles.

Strategic position

This is concerned with identifying the impact on strategy of the external environment, an organization’s strategic capability (resources and competences) and the expectations and influence of stakeholder

Strategic choices/options

This involves the options for strategy in terms of both the directions in which strategy might move and the methods by which strategy might be pursued

Strategy in action

This is about ensuring that strategies are working in practice by considering the strategy development process, structuring, resourcing, strategic change and actual practice of strategy

Corporate Level strategy

occupies the highest level of strategic decision-making and covers actions dealing with the objective of the firm, acquisition and allocation of resources and coordination of strategies of various strategic business unit for optimal performance

Business-Level Strategy

is applicable in those organizations, which have different businesses and each business is treated as strategic business unit (SBU).

SBU strategic business unit

is to identify the discrete independent product/market segments served by an organization.

Functional-level strategy

deals with the single functional operation and the activities involved, decisions according to functional lines such as R&D, marketing, production, finance etc