Business Policy and Strategy

When a certain point is reached regarding a company’s success, a set of different opportunities arise and partnerships may unfold. However, with every possible strategy available, risks and benefits also come into play; without discarding any of them beforehand, every option is a strong candidate until a final decision is made. In this case study we will analyze the current business strategy pertaining

Distinguishing one 's firm from the alternatives is a major concern for any business. Strategic analysis provides the starting point in the strategic management process organizations use to evaluate and choose the competitive advantages that distinguish them from other organizations within the market. Dominating businesses should also "choose among alternative grand strategies to guide the firm 's activities, particularly when they are trying to decide about broadening the scope of the firm 's activities beyond its core business (Robinson & Pearce, 2009)."

Analyze the external and internal environment for opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.

CEO: Serve as the team leader and final decision maker for the company. The CEO is the face of the organization and will be the primary voice for any public statements made.

Identify elements of the external environment and internal resources of the firm to analyze before formulating a strategy.

Selecting a business strategy that details valuable resources and distinctive competencies, strategizing all resources and capabilities and ensuring they are all employed and exploited, and building and regenerating valuable resources and distinctive competencies is key. The analysis of resources, capabilities and core competencies describes the external environment which is subject to change quickly. Based off this information a firm has to be prepared and know its internal resources and capabilities and offer a more secure strategy. Furthermore, resources and capabilities are the primary source of profitability. Resources entail intangible, tangible, and human resources.

A chief executive officer (CEO) is the head of the company that ultimately finalizes all decisions for a company. He or she is in charge of every decision that is made. The CEO only reports to one body, which is the board of directors (BOD). The TJX companies CEO is Ernie Herrman. The TJX Companies trace back to 1919 when they were Marmaxx, and now they have 3600 hundred store in 9 different countries on 3 different continents. They have stores by different names, the ones that are located in the USA are: Marshalls, TJMaxx, Home Goods, and Sierra Trading Post. This is a discount retail company that buys their product from other brand, designers, stores, or manufacturers in bulk or out of season merchandise. Their company is growing every day. They opened the Home Goods and Sierra Trading Post, which is based online, stores only a few years back and that is when the company name switched from Marmaxx to TJX Companies.

In this question we saw how to use industry and competitive analysis to assess the attractiveness of a company 's external environment. In this chapter, we discuss how to evaluate a particular company 's strategic situation in that environment. Company situation analysis centres on five questions:

Secondly, the author highlights the way how business entities can achieve sustainable competitive edge through improving strategic planning practices in a fundamental manner. It has to be acknowledged that one and half decade has passed since the publication of the article and the principles outlined in the article are not revolutionary by today’s standards, however, there are solid reasons to believe that the article has contributed to the emergence of companies with revolutionary approach to business.

Like most multinational corporations, the shareholders own the company and they may also be the board of directors. A Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be appointed to nominate and manage the operation of the company as a whole. A Chief Operating Officer (COO) will be managing the company’s day-to-day operations and reports them to CEO. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will be managing the finance and account together with the

1. The purpose of business strategy is to ensure that the business achieves its goals. It is the method by which goals are achieved. The business strategy helps decide how to use the resources of the firm. The strategies also lay down what a firm will produce and the manner in which it will produce. For example, a company making cars may decide to invest in a large plant to realize economies of scale and reduce costs so that either it can lower its prices to gain a large market share or it can earn higher profits and grow financially.

An analysis of the external environment includes the factors in a business’s external environment about a business's industry, competition, and political and social environments, and affects the firm’s strategy (Aaker, 2001).

Many factors shape and form the operations strategy of a corporation, for example, the ever increasing need for globalizing products and operations and thus reducing the unit cost, creating a technology leadership position, introducing new inventions, taking advantage of mass customization, using supplier partnering, and looking for strategic sourcing solutions. All of these factors require an external or market-based orientation; these are the changes that take place in the external environment of the company.

According to Santos (1990), times are uncertain for business around the world. If strategic thinking has been important, several factors are those that make it imperative for any business. The increase in customer demand and its lack of loyalty as well as the economic slowdown is just a few examples. Therefore, it is essential to play close attention to the analysis of the company in its surroundings.

This analysis consists of analyzing the external environment of the company (competitors, social, technological, regulations, etc.). The purpose is to identify the key opportunities and threats in the environment.