Introduction to Business Policy

Policy – the deliberate course of action chosen by an individual or group in order to deal with a specific problem or issue.

Policies are documents within the work place put together, influenced by law, by the manager. The policy will be designed around an area of practice that needs to be evidenced as being in line with law. The document gives a list of procedures for carrying out the task required,

“A policy is a statement of guidelines or rules on a given topic. A procedure describes the steps used to perform a given task or project.” (1) Tennessee

Describe strategic planning techniques used to formulate alternative strategies designed to achieve stated business goals.

Each organization has or should have a distinct business strategy to ensure they reach their desired goals and objectives. Uniquely, the business strategy, or competitive strategy, should include their target consumers, the product or service desired by their consumers, and their roadmap to remain competitive in the market (Parnell, 2014). However, strategies may be difficult to determine when the organization is engrossed in one industry, but decides to dip their toe in another industry (Bethel, 2016).

Hentry Mintzberg and James A Waters give various types of strategies to improve business and business organizations. Their strategies can be summaries into eight. They are planned strategy, Entrepreneurial strategy, Ideological Strategy, Umbrella strategy, Process Strategy, Unconnected Strategy, Consensus Strategy and Imposed Strategy. The strategies can be briefly explained below.

Describe strategic planning techniques used to formulate alternative strategies designed to achieve stated business goals.
Create a plan to implement a firm’s strategy and manage the change from current operations. Analyze strategies for exerting the internal leadership needed to drive the implementation of strategic initiatives and improve operating excellence.

1. Strategies: A business strategy is the means by which it sets out to achieve

According to Slack et al. The corporate strategy or business strategy is the guide lines for the whole corporation’s businesses in relation to its markets, customers, and the competitors (2007). In the same context, the same authors discussed the link between the corporate strategy and

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).

As such, it is possible that numerous conflicting principles may exist in the one scenario. Dworkin even goes further by introducing the concept of policy defining a policy as ‘that kind of standard that sets out a goal to be reached, generally an improvement in some economic, political, or social feature of the community’.

Simply defining policy is a plan of action, is a little too simplistic, the idea of policy must be explored at a greater depth if policy analysis is to have any real impact. Stephen Bell, (1993) states that policy exists in a number of formats. This first being “policy as text”, policies are the result of a great deal of debate and compromises that

These strategies are of significant value to how the organization looks at the long term operation of the company. These strategies are: 1. Where to put your financial and people resources, 2. Structure and processes that can deliver the strategies; 3. Metric and rewards to support strategy, structure, and process; 4. Values and behaviors required to achieve goals; ( www.managementparadise.com/forums/foundation-human)

“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).

A strategy is said to be a plan that is made for the long term success of a product or brand. It is extremely important to have a strategy in order to figure out a direction towards which any company is able to focus all its resources efficiently and achieve desired outcomes. Formulating effective strategies is a considerably long process in itself that combines analysing several factors, situations and issues that are already present in a company and looking to improve on them alongside trying to implement various innovations and ideas to collectively create a direction towards which they can move and direct the resources available to them.