Strategic Business Analysis Paper : Mara 466

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

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).

Chapter 6 – Strategy Formulation: Situation Analysis and Business StrategyChapter 7 – Strategy Formulation: Corporate StrategyChapter 8 – Strategy Formulation: Functional strategy and Strategic Choice

Pearce, J. A. II, & Robinson, R. B. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control (11th ed.). [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved August 20, 2011, fr

The purpose of the paper is to research and understand how the changes of globalization and technology have impacted the Airline industry. This paper will also apply the industrial organization model and the resource-based model to determine how the Airline industry earn above-average returns. This paper will explain how the Airline industry’s success is through its mission and vision statements with Southwest Airlines as an example. Finally, this paper will evaluate how the importance each category of the stakeholder impacts are to the overall success of the Airline industry.

Execution of a strategy allows an organization to identify a strategic manager or management team who will be responsible for five key components: people, resources, structure, systems and culture. The role of the strategic manager or management team is to implement and monitor performance and report to company stakeholders on the status. Because strategy drives an organization’s success, the team should select managers who can aggressively drive the objectives to achieve desired results through three actions:

You can have a brilliant business strategy. But the value of even the most brilliant strategy is a function of the effectiveness and efficiency of its execution.

The literature research reviewed in this paper attempts to address the topic of strategy implementation. The paper tries to establish an academic case for previously researched material on this subject by reflecting on the diverse views published in the literature. The different views expressed combine to formulate research to establish relevance as well as importance in this step of the Strategic Management Process. In order to identify and discuss existing data and developments in strategy implementation, over twelve articles in scholarly academic journals containing “strategy implementation” or “strategy execution” as the key words were

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

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.

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’.

Strategy can be defined as being different from one’s competitors, finding the race to operate and accomplished it. According to Michael Porter (1996), while becoming better at what you do is desirable, it will not benefit you in the long run because it is something other competitors can also do. Strategies for organizations are originally developed by Michael E. Porter in 1979 by introducing the five forces model. A company can identify the industry profitability and attractiveness by analyzing the five forces of Porter (Johnson et al., 2008). And then a reasonable strategy can be set up in line with the strengths and the weakness of an organization is able to create a plan for a stronger position for the organization within its

‘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

4. This section includes a number of subsections related to defining strategy (e.g., the type of business to operate, how to structure and finance the company, how to convert competences into competitive advantage, etc.); the formulation and implementation of strategy (intended strategy versus realized strategy); alternative research paradigms (i.e., strategy as an outcome of rational choice, as a craft, or as a ritual); how to operationalize strategy (textual description, partial measurement, multidimensional measurement, and typologies); strategic variables (organizational types - defenders, prospectors, and analyzers); Porter's generic strategies (i.e., cost leadership, differentiation, and focus); conservative (reluctant innovators) versus entrepreneurial firms (aggressive innovators); and strategic missions (i.e., build, harvest, hold, and divest). This rather confusing assortment of terms is made more comprehensible in the graphic below where the various combinations of the dimensions of strategy are indicated as a matrix of choices.