week 4

Name one 'strategist' for each of the following five categories, and explain why you consider them to have strategic ability and strategic impact in their field.  

1.     Business leader - Larry Page and Sergey Brin founder of Google and Eric E. Schmidt Executive chairman: They are the business leaders of today's online business as they have come up with different strategic ideas for the development of Google. whatever queries, questions, confusions etc people have they search in Google. The strategic ability of Google has been advanced, now they are providing there facility even in the smart phone so as per the impact in their field, the number of users are increasing day by day which makes their company in the top position.

2.     Inventors - Bill Gates Microsoft founder, he is one of the strategist inventor. He invented Microsoft and implemented his implementation strategically in the technology field. Now everyone use Microsoft tools for doing simple to complex work. The continue advancement of Microsoft has even made the Microsoft in top position.

3.     Sport Manager - Mark Bartelstein, he developed Priority Sports and Entertainment firm representing the two big sports football and basketball. He has been organizing different fooball and basketball games in different countries from which more people are interested in sport and entertainment.

4.     Civil right campaigner - Anuradha Koirala, she is social activist and run civil right campaigner of different social activities. She is the founder and director of Maiti Nepal and She is a strategist of Civil right as she develop the firm Maiti Nepal to rescue the women who are force to stay in brothels and other women who are suffering in other countries. Hence the strategy has a great impact in society and she is providing home run by Maiti Nepal for those women who are helpless.

5.     Musician - Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a colombian singer, dancer, song writer, record producer, choreographer and model. She is also a strategist musician as she compose same music in different country languages as a result people can listen her songs in their language. She even give music and song for the big events like FIFA. Hence the strategic impact has increased the fans.   

What sort of strategy job would you like to do? What skills Do you have that would be valuable in a strategy role? What skills do you think you need to work on?

I would like involve in the strategic job like business planning and  Human resource management. The skills that i have are analytical skills, interpersonal skills which are useful to identify and evaluate problems and generate the creative ways to solve problems and manage and lead people. The other skills that i need to work on is the communication skills and critical thinking ability.

week 3

Why is strategy making like a science and why is it also like an art or craft?

                                                              

Strategy making is like science because

1.     Both in science and strategy making various analyses are performed before developing anything.

2.     Both have set of rules and different analytical tools.

3.     In science and strategy making all the information should have logical values.

4.     Both in science and strategy making the idea is developed and then implemented and adjustments are applied if necessary.

5.     In science and strategy making the strategy is analysis of single person and rational.

Strategy making is like an art or craft because

1.     Strategy making and art or craft involves group work and sometime there occurs conflict, politics and compromise.

2.     Like art or craft, strategy making is a creative and unpredictable process.

3.     Strategy making and art or craft is exploratory and emerging factor.

In your own words and using referenced quotes describe the difference between intended strategy and emergent strategy?

The differences between intended strategy and emergent strategy are as follows:

1.     According to the (Mintzberg and Waters 1985, p.257) intended strategy is the strategy expressed in preferred strategic direction intentionally developed by managers and emergent strategy is creative ideas that generated through everyday routines, activities of internal and external environment.

2.     Intended strategy is a long term planned strategy which is carefully planned in advance to operate smoothly in future. Whereas emergent strategy is the unintentionally planned actions that organizations perform to the market and environment forces that emerges incrementally.

3.     In intended strategy organization figure out best strategy among many strategy by internal and external environment analyses. Whereas in emergent strategy organization find out the strategy by exploring within organization.

4.     Intended strategy is formal and structure but emergent strategy is informal and unstructured.

5.     Intended strategy is the process of think and act where strategies are developed by various analyses and then implemented whereas emergent strategy is trial and error process where strategy is implemented in less analysis.

6.     At first strategy is planned in intended strategy but in emergent strategy, strategy is experimented at first.

7.     Intended strategy is strategic planning where there is strategic leadership, vision and command whereas emergent strategy is strategic and critical thinking where there is logical decision are made in short period.

Choose 2 of the 10’s schools of strategic thought and describe them in your own words. Try and provide a real world example for e.g. an organization or a situation.

Learning school

In this school, strategy is developed by learning, doing experiments and adapting. Hence strategy keeps on coming as everyone continues to learn and act and develop. So in Learning School strategies are developed informally, sometime step by step and unexpectedly, usually in collective process.

For real world example Samsung Company is the best example for learning school because Samsung has been emerging and innovating new ideas to the market by learning continuously about the market demands. Now Samsung is providing its galaxy smart phone models which are more than our real galaxies. Samsung keep on learning the consumer mind and they are providing the smart phone from high range to low range with android operating system. So now Samsung has hold its position as strong competitors in the market and still it is continuing its learning and experiments.

The cultural school

In this school strategy are often develop based on the shared beliefs and values. Culture plays the main role in the adjustment of strategy and for the success. The strategy that developed is the cooperative cultural strategy of an organization.

For the real world example Mc Donald’s is the best one because when Mc Donald’s entered in the Indian market they change their strategy according to the Hindu culture because Hindu culture are against of beef and Mc Donald’s main recipe is beef but for standing in the Indian market they need to plan according to the culture, so they started their business in Indian market by using potato instead of beef, which was creative cooperative cultural strategy.

Write about your experience with today’s case study. What answer did you give to the question?

The case study was very interesting as it describes the Google strategy to compete in the market. The topic itself is very interesting and from topic we can get ideas like what kind of strategy Google will emerge to hold its position as strong competitor against Facebook.

How long Google's magic last?

Would you describe Google’s strategy as more deliberate or more emergent? (List reasons for each)

The Google has more emergent strategy because of following reasons:

1.     As technology develops Google come up with new strategy.

2.     Google introduced android operating system in smart phone without cost, where other companies charge installing cost.

3.     Google developed its own library of online apps, and provided free service for which users need to make Google account, which was the good emergent strategy to retain and attract more people.

4.     Google also came up with Google instant service which saves time of user when searching information.

5.     Google introduced social layer service from which users can share useful information to his social circles and people can see what their friends have been watching on the service.

6.     Google invested in a wind energy project which was different to its core business.

7.     Google has also invested in self driving car which is the emergent strategy which has already covered over 140,000 miles on the country’s road.

What are the advantages of being very ‘experimental’? (List)

The advantages of being very experimental are

• Organization can generate more ideas to improve its product.
• Organization can be a monopoly market by introducing new product and be the business leader.
• Increase the revenue as there will be no competitor
• Being experimental helps to implement best strategy among the best as strategy come up with every activity.
• It helps to be more practical in dynamic business environment.

What are the disadvantages of being very ‘experimental’? (List)

The disadvantages of being experimental are

• The experimental strategic implementation may not be success as customer perception might change.
• There is high risk as there will not be enough research and analysis.
• Both time and money may get waste.
• Organizational conflict may occur as everyone has different perception which results in slow decision making.

What do you think of their strategy? (Try to justify and support your views)

I think Google emergent strategy is one of the best strategy because in the technology world every time we seek information online and our first preference will be Google. Google has been emerging its strategy to provide information from every source either in the written form or video clips. Every time we access online source we Google will be there for us and this is also the source of income of Google as whenever we click a link Google can ping carefully targeted ads. Hence Google has successfully established its brand name to all people minds and heart and this all because of their emergent strategy.

Even now Google has provided their services in the smart phone by providing android operating system from which we can get free online service of Google like games, software etc. Also now Google has provided service using our contacts to make communication easy and in cheap price. Hence in this IT world using emergent strategy Google is gaining its competitive advantages and standing as a strong competitor in the market.

Reference list 

Mintzberg, H., and Waters, J., A. . (1985). "Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent." Strategic Management Journal (pre-1986), 6(3), 257.

12manage, 2014. Mintzberg's 10 Schools of Thought: Summary, Forum and Expert Tips. [Online]

Available at: http://www.12manage.com/methods_mintzberg_ten_schools_of_thought.html 

week 2

What is strategy? Why is it important for any organization?

Strategy is a planned actions devised with the information from internal and external environment in a very systematic way to achieve a certain goal effectively and efficiently. Johnson and Scholes (2011) as cited by (Riley, 2012) describe strategy as the long term direction of an organization to achieve advantage utilizing its resources under a dynamic environment to meet the stakeholder and market expectations.

Hence a strategy is the process of analyzing the past and present environment to collect the information and utilize the resources to achieve organizational goal by setting different planned actions.

Strategy has been widely developed in all organization as it plays an important role in organization long term process. Strategy is essential to the success of any organization for the following reasons.

Strategy for unpredictable future

As we know future is unpredictable and if organization doesn't have any plan for the future problems then organization would fail in long term. Strategic planning helps to create different alternatives solutions by analyzing past and present environment. So for unpredictable future risk, having strategic planning is very important for any organization for long term. 

Strategy for understanding organization

Strategy helps organization to understand the key requirements for the success by providing the clear understanding of organization core potential and strength. It also addresses the weakness of organization and threats. Using strategic planning organization  can get information about its positions in market. Hence strategy helps organization to understand its capabilities which helps organizations to focus on the things which delivers their best performance, effectiveness and productivity.

Strategy for overall direction

Strategy provide an overall strategic direction to organization and its functional areas like finance, marketing, human resources management etc to achieve success. As every functional area is very important , strategic planning provide detail set of actions that need to be performed so that each functional area can give their best performance. Hence strategy is very important for any organization for overall direction.

How is business strategy similar to military strategy? How is it different?

Similarities between business strategy and military strategy

1.     Both organizations strategy need effective leadership.

2.     Both organizations strategy are concerned with competition and ways to succeed against opponents.

3.     Both organizations strategy require human resource to achieve the objective.

4.     Both business and military strategy main objective is to gain competitive advantage by utilizing competitor's weakness (Scribd., 2010). 

Difference between business strategy and military strategy

1.     Business strategy focuses on the stakeholder value but military strategy focus on country and people security.

2.     Business strategy focuses on the horizontal structure i.e. less defined chain of commands, but military strategy is vertical structure i.e. well defined chain of commands from top to bottom. 

3.     Business strategy developed, implemented and evaluated depending on the market competition, inflation, economic growth etc but military strategy is devised depending on he assumption of international conflict.

What do you understand by the terms "strategic analysis", "strategic development" and "strategic implementation"

Strategic analysis

It is the process of analyzing different external  and internal environment of an organization by conducting research using different strategic analysis tools like PEST, SWOT, PORTER Five force etc to develop the strategy.

PEST analysis provides the framework information of macro environment as it deal with political, economical, social and technological factor.

SWOT analysis is the strategic analysis method of evaluating the organization strength, weakness, opportunity and threats.

Porters five forces analysis help to understand the competition level in the business and helps in effective business strategy development.

Hence strategic analysis provides organization an effective path for the achievement of goal in the process of developing effective strategic plan.

Strategic development

It is the process where the strategy is developed using various external environment information. Organization uses their available resources, capabilities and design strategies that will help the organization achieve its goals.

Strategic development helps organization to set specific objective and in the process of development strategy, organization conduct different market research and competitive analysis using various strategic tools like SWOT. Hence strategic development enables organization to see as a whole, from inner position to market position.

Strategic implementation

It is the process of implementing the strategy plan into actions. It includes assigning the responsibility of specific task to specific departments so that each individual of each department can perform according to the assigned task. It also include managing the operation by monitoring results, comparing to benchmarks and best practices with the organizational standard standard objectives, evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of planned strategy, controlling for variation and making modification to the operation if necessary.

Write about your experience with week's case study. What answer would you give?

In the case study there were many towns but only three towns are more developed because those three towns analyzed their opportunities and used  their strengths strategically to develop their towns. 

Case study- Texas in the shires

Q.1. Why are Milton Keynes, Peterborough and Swindon growing rapidly? (List as many reason as you can)

1.     The cities was willing to growth and was not afraid of development.

2.     Peterborough, Milton Keynes and Swindon were chosen as locations for expansion in 1950s and 1960s.

3.     Three cities roadways were linked to London and have decent train links.

4.     Milton Keynes, the best performing of the three, is almost exactly half way between London and Birmingham. Swindon is between London and Bristol, and benefits from the vitality of nearby Oxford, just as Peterborough does from Cambridge.

5.     Both Milton Keynes and Peterborough used marketing strategy using TV advertisement campaigns to attract families and business in 1980.

6.     Milton Keynes used their resources like plot of lands to build roads and other infrastructures. In Swindon the edge of the city was marked by building sites and brand new houses.

7.     Three cities used cost leadership strategy resulting in cheap cost houses.

8.     To attract skilled staff and young human resources they planned to build decent bars, restaurants and universities on the center of cities.  

Q.2. Why might Their growth strategy be 'mad'?

       The cities are growing rapidly and population is also increasing, as much of the growth comes from immigrants. The cities are planning to build 14200-17500 houses in different area in decade. This growth and development might affect some long-standing residents as they are not comfortable about their increasing number which may check expansion. And not everyone like jungle of concrete so their growth strength strategy might be mad.

Q.3. What do you think -is it good strategy to continue with? (state your reasons)

Yes, it is good strategy to continue with, because of following reasons:

1.     It helps to develop nation economy and power.

2.     More people will be qualified as new universities will develop.

3.     Growth strategy helps nation to get modernized and continue with globalization process.

4.     As population will increase day by day, building new houses can provide shelter to people. 

Q.4. Would you live in any of these three towns? (list the reason why or why not)

        Yes, i would like to live in these towns because:

1.     These cities are all on motorways connected to London and have decent train links.

2.     Housing and commercial property costs much less as compared to other cities, i.e. compared to similar sized house in London these cities provide similar sized house in third of the lesser price.

3.     These cities are building university, so it can be beneficial to graduate from local university rather than going other counties for further study.

Reference list

Riley, J., 2012. Business Strategy. [Online]

Available at: http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm

[Accessed 21 September 2014]. 

Scribd.,2010. Business vs Military Strategy.[Online]

Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27131913/Business-vs-Military-Strategy

week 1

Expected learning from this module

From this module i am hoping to learn various practical strategic management tools which can be practically applied to analyse different strategic choices and implement the best decision. As market condition is dynamic in nature business need different strategy to remain stable in the competition, so i am hoping to learn the strategic ways to analyse the market which helps to maintain the business condition stable as well as i am hoping to learn analysis of contemporary organisation to develop creative and persuasive proposals as we need to deliver different strategic ideas and plans to direct organisation towards the future goal.  

I am hoping to learn different forms of strategy to apply those strategic activity and learn how to enhance transferable skills as we keep learning every time and if we can utilize that learning then we can enhance our creativity and skills. Hence i am hoping to learn all strategic analysis forms, ways and activity to enhance strategic skills like strategic ways of communicating, making decision and implementing to lead organisation smoothly towards the future goal. 

How might this module be useful after graduating?

By learning this module i will have knowledge about range of strategic management frameworks analytical concepts and techniques which will be very useful to analyse organisational situation. After graduating i can apply strategic management frameworks and strategic tools to start my own business to get complete information before starting the business. So by using the strategic tools like SWOT analysis i can identify my strength and weakness that i can have inside my business and opportunity and threats that i can grab and avoid outside the business. Hence using various strategic tools i can continue with strategic framework to plan the business that has high market and allocate resources to start the business. After graduating i can develop strategic option and implement business ideas as during study i need to learn various strategy process from managing to evaluating and reporting performance and evaluate the impact after implementation to achieve better result.

Hence this module can be useful in every business because every time we need move further ahead so we need strategy to achieve success either it can be developing own business or managing other business. So after graduating this module will be useful in all strategic process. 

Three things that i will do that will help me to learn and get good marks on this module

1.     Pay full attention: I will pay my full attention during the class which will helps to learn more as i will listen more. By paying full attention  i can participate fully in the tutorial class with lots of questions and by getting clear about all problems i can get good marks on this module.

2.     Get full attendance and punctual: If i don't miss any class then i can get all the knowledge that our teacher deliver to us and with punctuality i can learn full class hour. Hence by getting full attendance and punctuality i can learn and get good marks.

3.     Giving best to complete every assessment:  By giving best to complete assessment help to learn because to give best i need to research more and by researching more i will learn more. Hence by help of assessment i can get good marks in this module.

Three things that other could do that help would help me to learn and get good marks on this module

1.     Lecturer: Module lecturer is very important person to learn and get good marks as lecturer will teach every information  which will help us to learn and get good marks. They will even provide addition information to learn more and get good marks.

2.     Classmate: They are the person with whom we can get help to learn and get good marks as sometime we might get confuse while studying then in absence of module lecturer we can seek help of our classmate to solve the problem. Hence classmate can provide friendly environment help to learn and get good marks.

3.     Internet: Online learning is very popular and easy way of learning. We can get many information and if we get confused and have any problem about the module then we can easily surf through the internet to get required information as there will be many information we can search information which we can understand easily. Hence internet also help me to learn and get good marks on this module.