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Sony Ericsson's Business Strategy

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Business Strategy

Task 1: The role that objectives play in the process of strategic planning

Strategic planning is the process of developing and maintaining a strategic fit between the organisation’s objectives and resources and the changing market opportunities. This is generally regarded as corporate planning because it deals with the whole organisation. The strategic planning should base upon clear objectives in order to define the direction of all other plans. In definition, “objectives are the specific outcomes that an organisation wishes to achieve by carrying out its activities.” Objectives are the expected outcome of programmes of activity, and therefore they play a central role in planning. The importance of …show more content…

After that, the organisation should generate a set of alternative strategic options to satisfy objectives and then make a choice of preferred option based on rational and objective criteria of evaluation. The rational approach offers many advantages to the organisation when it intends to fill the planning gap: (1) identifies risks; (2) forces managers to think; (3) clarifies objectives; (4) allocates responsibility and so on. However, in some aspects, it is pointed out that the rational model might fail due to the dynamic changes in the environment. It tends to be too rigid and restricts innovation. Moreover, it is hard more or less to predict long term developments in some industries, especially fashion areas. The rational model therefore is likely to work well in stable environments. After Sony and Ericsson had merged their handset operations in 2001, they decided to establish the subsidiary in China after a clear analysis of Chinese market and a deep consideration. The objectives of the long term development aimed to make GSM handsets for the market and set up a platform to introduce 3G handsets when the technology is introduced to China.
(b) Incremental
The incremental model involves small scale extensions of past practices. It is helpful to avoid major errors since all the possible options may not be evaluated by the managers in reality. The managers will regard this as a more acceptable strategy because consultation, compromise and accommodation are built into

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