Richard Whittington's Theory And Complications Of Strategic Management

There are a gazillion companies out there, but some stand out. Whether it is because of their popularity, affiliations, history, profile or service, one factor simply makes or breaks a company; it’s strategy management process.

All the strategies are not compatible for all the organizations, every strategy suits for a specific kind of organization. The most obvious example is IKEA which uses a cost advantage strategy and won’t be able to use in the meantime the differentiation strategy. We also can say that strategic management is essential to the survival of a company because it allows it to have some competitive advantage, more or less important according to the strategy the company used. According to an article extracted of the Strategic Management Journal (Richard A. Bettis, Alfonso Gambardella, Constance Helfat and Will Mitchell – October 2014), “Many of the theories that have been used and developed in strategic management research, as in other established disciplines, implicitly or explicitly, reflect understandings of business activity and other social behavior that has taken place in traditional developed market”. This quote reflects perfectly what strategic management

After nearly 40 years, the theory of business strategy is well developed and widely disseminated. Pioneering work by academics such as Michael E. Porter and Henry Mintzberg has established a rich literature on good strategy. Most senior executives have been trained in its principles, and large corporations have their own skilled strategy departments.

According to Mantere (2013) organizational strategy exhibits a division of linguistic labour, where responsibility for key concepts is assigned to particular individuals or organizational functions. Such linguistic experts oversee the proper use and maintenance of strategy language. The language-based view helps to understand linkages between institutional, network, organizational, and micro level views on strategy. It also problematizes widely held intuitions regarding the relationship between strategy and organizational outcomes. When both of them are executed well an organization will achieve best possible outcome. In business, the Structure follows strategy, which means that a corporate structure is created in order to implement a given corporate strategy. For example in the middle of operational and choice making levels numerous layers makes it difficult to see the week signs identifying with business sector opportunities and dangers which brings about wrong

Chandler (1977) believes strategy is about using the necessary recourses so the organizations are able to carry out their long-term goals and aims. Which relates to Johnson (1987, pp. 4-5) who states, “Strategic decisions occur at many levels of managerial activity and will be concerned with the long-term direction”.

It is a matter with investment and money so, it is pivotal to setup well established strategy to a particular management. If that strategy is not effective or cannot able to encourage productivity then it is waste of time and money. Top level managers must analyse the workplace environment and attitude of workers before organise a course of strategies. Strategies should be able to strengthen the relationships, mutual trust, interpersonal communication and dedication between

In today’s world the business environment is rapidly changing so the strategy formulation and implementing it should me the vital key role in any organization. Hence Strategy management is defined as the process of making strategies and implementing strategies to meet the long term goal and sustain in the competitive world (Schermerhorn, 2012).It involves the environmental factors (both internal and external), strategy formulation and implementation, analysis and control.

Strategy is not only a tool for outfoxes the competition but also an incredible means for creating and shaping a company

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

In everything that we do, we have used some kind of strategy (plan). From driving to the store, which street to take to get there the fastest, to selecting that perfect item at the high tech store, the newest digital gadget. It is in our nature to formulate this kind of behavior when we are given a choice. In an organization it is much harder to accomplish that same behavior because there is more than one individual in the process, but still possible to do. Strategy is a guide by which an organization moves from a current state of affairs to a future desired state. In this paper I will explain the strategy implementation concept of the basic model of strategic management that we can use to make this happen. Strategy implementation is the process

“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)

Henry Mintzberg has defined the definition of strategies in academic ways and in practice in 1988. After examing the strategic process, he found that it was more unpredictable than early thoughts. Thus, it couldn’t refer to one process that be called strategic planning. Instead of that, he concludes the following five types :(1)Strategy as plan – a directed course of action to achieve an intended set of goals; similar to the strategic planning concept;(2)Strategy as pattern – a consistent pattern of past behavior, with a strategy realized over time rather than planned or intended. Where the realized pattern was different from the intent, he referred to the strategy

According to Hrebiniak (2006), formulating a consistent strategy is a difficult task however implementing it is even more difficult. Noble, (1999b) suggested that strategy implementation is often seen as a craft, rather than a science.

Talking about corporate strategy lead us to talk first about the strategy. Strategy defined as "the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal" (Merriam-Webster online, 2007). It is a plan of actions to achieve long-term goals. At any organization, there are three main levels of strategy; Corporate Strategy, Business Strategy and Functional Strategy as in figure1. Figure2 shows an example of my organization with three strategies levels.

‘Strategic Management’ is a very complex term as many eminent researchers and scholars have had different views and conclusions on strategy. According to White (2004), “Strategic Management involves both systematically developing an idea together with its implications and testing the empirical validity & usefulness of that idea against the real world.” Thus strategy is not only about planning for future but also about confirming the validity of the hypothesis considered and implementing it successfully. Strategy formation may take various forms such as implicit, explicit or emergent. Implicit strategy is a strategy formed by intuitions of an individual. As per implicit strategists, strategic management is about reading the environment