Mercedes Benz Operation

‘Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through it’

Watkins, M. D. (2007). Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from

There has been a large amount of research into what strategy is, since Michael Porter’s perennial work in the 1980s. Studies done on the execution of strategy have been far less numerous. However, there is one major understanding about the execution of strategy. The execution of strategy is a vital part of success in business. A summary of many myths surrounding various strategic executions will be outlined, along with their subsequent analyses.

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).

Operations management is defined as the design, execution, and control of operations that convert resources into desired goods and services, while implementing an organizations business strategy (Business Dictionary, 2015). Office Depot Inc. is one such organization that truly understands that solid operations is the foundation to the success they have had in recent years. In this paper, I will give the history and background of Office Depot Inc. and explain why they have been able to keep such a competitive advantage in the consumer and small business supply industry. Additionally, I will

Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.

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).

This paper begins with a summary view to develop the concept of strategy and why its implementation is difficult. The following sections then cover the core discussion of this paper to support the aforementioned

An operations strategy is all about harmonising the features of the operations function with the requirements of the market in order to fulfil the needs of the business. A full appreciation of this process requires not merely an understanding of the ideas and methods used to develop an operations strategy but also knowledge of the techniques and principles involved in its implementation or execution thereof. Implementation requires knowledge of operations systems and polices including those that relate to resource planning and activity control, quality, plant management, motivation and organisation of people, performance metrics and continuous improvement.

“Strategy is the integrated set of choices that positions the business in its industry so as to generate superior financial returns over the long run.“ – Professor Jan W. Rivkin (lecture 1)

An organisation’s strategy plays an important role of providing direction of where company wants to be and how best to allocate the company’s resources to meet its objectives. The formulation of business strategies has evolved over the years and has been made more difficult in recent by the uncertain operating environments and global financial crises.

This project is about why it is important to apply the strategic management process to business and at the same time will be discussing the importance of strategy for business. This paper will continue to explain the concept of the strategic management process, and will discuss the importance of having a future oriented plan, the organization’s vision, mission, purpose, philosophy, or goals, and the strategic process as input for future decision making. The information gathered will be provided from the ebook, Strategic Management, 12th Edition, Authors, John A. Pearce, II, Villanova University

Alfred Chandler(1963) defines strategy as ‘ the determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals’. And Michael porter(1996) sees it as ‘Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value’.

Johnson, Wittington, Scholes, Angwin and Regnér (2014, p. 3) defines strategy as ‘the long-term direction of an organisation’.

A strategy, according to Robbins and Barnwell (2002, p. 139) is “the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary to achieve the organisation’s goals”.