Strategy Analysis : Strategy 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.

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

Before we can talk about the Strategy Hudson Bay uses we must first answer the the question of what a Corporate and Business Strategy is and how The Bay inaugurates this into their company;

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).

According to Meyer, (2010), strategy is the action that company can take to achieve its desired goals. When it comes to a company, thinking can be said to be either long-term or short-term. When translated into action, it is what is called operations or projects. However there are differences between operations and

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

This strategy-as-practice making puts a big emphasis on the practice of strategizing and the practices used to justify and legitimize the future state and also the actions they take to achieve this end. This type of strategy backs the idea the IT only matters when it is incorporated into local practices. This IS strategy looks for the potential value IT has and then reconfigures the actual role of IT within the organizations and once this is done then value of IT is recognized clearly.

Strategy literature offers many techniques and models suited for systematic strategic analysis. The SWOT analysis, the PESTEL analysis, the Five Forces analysis framework are the prime examples of techniques that can be adopted for strategic analysis. This assignment will use PESTEL and Five forces model to analysis the environment of CRH plc.

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

Organizations successful at strategy implementation effectively manage six key supporting factors :     1.  Action Planning

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”.

Strategy implementation is not a task just for a few managers. In fact, it is for the whole organizational team, right from the management team to the front line employee. The key to successful implementation is to communicate the case for organizational change clearly and persuasively to all employees that they become committed and motivated to perform.