Crafting and Executing Startegy (Chapter 1)

Winston Churchill once stated “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results”. The current business environment is rapidly evolving due to the pressures of changing technology as well as the increasing demands firms are under to expand regionally and globally. Successful organizations in this often chaotic and changing environment must continually scan their internal and external conditions in order to respond proactively to market conditions and new trends. Firm leadership needs to not only have a vision for the organization’s future but also the ability to critically analyze the internal processes and structure of the firm in comparison to the outcomes or results of the firm’s current orientation. Strategy and vision are meaningless if the way they are being executed does not provide the organization a sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore it is critical that firm leadership examine how their organization is implementing their strategy to determine its effectiveness and results.

Once a company’s strategy has been elaborated on, it is necessary to analyze it and to choose the strategy that suits best for the company’s intention. First of all, it is decisive to indicate the business’ competitive advantage in order to understand in which way the company can compete within its competitive set. Additionally, decisions concerning the corporate-level strategy such as the company’s profile, products,

Strategy is a set of complicated tactics formulated by the executives of a company directed towards the achievement of company’s goal (Salmela, 2002). It is about all the path ways that a company would follow to reach its ultimate goal. It is a company’s strategy which helps to identify what it does better than the other companies in the industries, which may be different from what it does best. For successful strategy formulation and implementation, a company should know the needs of customers and should have knowledge of its competitors. Through a good strategy a company would identify that opportunity which makes it different from the others (Thompson, 2005).

Strategy formulation has been acknowledged as one of the most crucial factors of ensuring the long-term growth of the business. However, the manner in which strategy is formulated, and most importantly, the nature of the strategy chosen for the company determines its future position in the marketplace (Grant, 2005).

What separates a powerful strategy from an ordinary or weak one is management’s ability to forge a series of moves, both in the marketplace and internally, that makes the company distinctive, tilts the playing field in the company’s favor by giving buyers reason to prefer its products or services, and produces a sustainable competitive advantage over rivals.

There are three critical ingredients are important to a successful strategy. First of all, the conditions have to be including in the strategy in the competitive environment. Explicitly, the strategy need to get benefits from exiting or projected advantages and reduce the influences of main threats. Secondly, the strategy has to consider about the realistic situations of the business’s resources. In order words, the strategy have to considered about the existing external opportunities, and the benefits from the result from the firm’s main resources in order to chase the market opportunities. Finally, the strategy should be suspiciously achieved.

“Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitor’s” (Porter 1980:47). A successful business plan requires first and foremost the formation of an appropriate strategy. Through the implementation of a suitable strategy, the company is able to obtain its own industry niche and gain an understanding of its customers (Porter 1985). Whichever strategy is adopted it must be adequately integrated within the firms goals and missions to achieve a competitive advantage (Parker and Helms 1992).

Nowadays “strategy” has become one of the most commonly heard words in the business environment. This shows a need to be explicit about exactly what is meant by the word strategy. According to a definition provided by A.Chandler strategy is “ the determination of the basic long-term goals of the enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action, and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out goals” (Chandler 1962). Over the previous decades, a couple of new ideas regarding business strategy have evolved mainly “due to the increasingly urgent need for responsiveness to market changes” (Wall 1997). However the dynamic nature of the market is also the main limitation for strategy as it condemns it from being considered “a settled product” (Freedman 2013) but rather “a general policy that needs constant revision for dealing with changing circumstances” (Neumann and Morgestern, 1944).

Strategies in any business are instrumental in the proper growth and expansion of a company. A strategy is a set of analytic techniques for understanding and influencing the firm 's position in the marketplace (Raimundo, 2001). Moreover, the business strategy enables a company to match its internal capabilities and its external environment. Also, the plan assists the company to realize its objectives and mission set at its inception or along the course of its operation in a particular period. The business-level strategy involves organizational decisions on how to compete for customers in the market and industry. It includes choices about the service mix, products, new technologies, facility locations and the like.

There are different definitions of strategy. However, for the purpose of this research, we must select a definition. According to Tony Proctor (2000), a strategy is a plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies, decisions, and sequences of action into cohesive whole. It can be ¬applied at all levels in an organization and pertain to any of the functional areas of management. Thus there may be production, financial, marketing, personnel and corporate strategies, just to name a few. In marketing, there may be pricing, product, promotion, distribution, marketing research, sales, advertising, merchandising, and etc. strategies. Strategy is concerned with effectiveness rather than efficiency and is the process

Strategy is needed in company policy to enable innovation, above average returns, to develop core-competencies and to guide management and staff on an effective plan to proceed. Mike Porter proposes that A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that is can persevere. It must deliver greater value to customers or create comparable value at a lower cost, or do both. (Mike Porter, https://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Q8SKiG6bqpkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA10&dq=need+for+strategy&ots=4EySdrNZjw&sig=dIHSPYGcmR8AZhAQxa_Oc4XtPds#v=onepage&q=need%20for%20strategy&f=false)

According to McKiernan, 1997; Mintzberg et al., 1998a, Stonehouse et al., 2004 strategy is, above all, the "ways to help a Company seeking their goals". Kaplan and Norton

Why every company needs a sound strategy to compete successfully, manages the conduct of its business, and strengthens its prospect for long-term success? A company’s Strategy consists of the competitive moves and business approaches that managers are employing to compete successfully, improve performance, and grow the business.

The information technology has brought significant changes to business companies in recent years. Teece (2011) states that this new business environment has also enhanced the demand to determine not only how to tackle clients needs more rapidly, but also how to pursue value form offering fresh goods and service. Thus the booming development of business and strategy becomes increasingly multifarious and influential. A business strategy tangibly is a documentation obviously illustrating the goals and decisions of a business will operate strictly . Johnson and Scholes (2012) define that, strategy was the scope and goal of an institution over the sustainable term. Hence this long-term strategy is able to arrive potential benefits for the institution though its structure of useful resources within a challenging environment, in order to satisfy the requires of markets , with fulfilling customer/stakeholder anticipations.A optimal business introduces the logic and brings out data and orther indication confirming how a business firm innovates and transmits value to customers.

Strategic management patterns of every organization may differ from what is obtainable in another; while there may be areas of similarity, certain aspects are uniquely structured out to suit the operation of the organization in question. The ability of an organization to compete successfully depends on how unique its strategy is. Strategic competitiveness is achieved when a firm successfully formulates and implements a value-creating strategy. When a