Strategy Review, Evaluation, and Control

Hunger, J. D., & Wheelen, T. L. (2011). Essentials of strategic management (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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.

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

* Action: take the necessary action to improvement where performance standards have not been achieved and make adjustments for the next planning round.

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In this process, the activities performed are evaluated to determine if the corporation’s goals are being achieved by the strategies that are chosen. If the results are not satisfactory compared to pre-defined standards, management must take correctives actions to adjust the issues. This strategy stimulates the ongoing process of improving performances within the corporation. Since the environment is constantly changing, it is

However, change can be a risky process that can have negative, instead of positive, consequences for the company’s future. In fact, it has been estimated that only about half of the large scale interventions succeed. With the above in mind Bruch, Gerber and Maier (2005) aimed at identifying the characteristics of a successful strategic change program by using the case of German aviation Group Deutsche Lufthansa. Lufthansa succeeded several times in successfully implementing change, as a response to the turbulent aviation market conditions between 1991 and 2004. Lufthansa’s last, and most successful, strategic change program was the D-Check. Part of what made D-Check so successful was the fact that Lufthansa’s management made a distinction between leading decisions and managing decisions. Leading decision deals with conceiving a clear goal – in other words, what would be right. Managing decision deals with finding the way to achieve the goal – in other words, how do we do it right. Therefore, before implementing change a company should clearly and conclusively resolve the issue of what change would be right and how can be done right. Key questions are the following:

We have identified three ongoing processes- analyses, decisions, and actions- that are central to strategic management. In practice, these three processes – often referred to as strategy analysis, strategy formulation, and strategy implementation – are highly interdependent and do not take place one after the other in a sequential fashion in most companies.

Lastly, the implementation of the recommendations outlined in “Strategy as Revolution” would benefit companies in additional ways apart from having effective corporate strategy. Specifically, including employees from lower ranks in the processes of strategy formulation would increase the level of their motivation and this will positively contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives

Moreover, the best way to successfully implement change management is carried out in a few simple steps. Appointing a team to organize the change management process; this team may consist of employees, as well as outside consultants with the familiarity of change management strategies. Next, the plan to go from the current to the planned organizational structure should be analyzed and decide what steps will be necessary to complete the process. A communication plan should be created that is comprehensive; determine how to notify all company employees of the upcoming changes to ensure the transition will go smoothly. The next step will have the key changes that will take place during this process by creating a timeline, which should include small as well as large details. The change process should list concerns or problems that may arise; this would include employee dissatisfaction, confusion as well as an everyday work stoppage, and finally, these potential setbacks should have a contingency plan created. The final steps include the compilation of a change report for senior management as well as a discussion with management teams of the upcoming changes to be implemented (Michaels,

Firstly, change can cause employees to panic. It is natural for employees not to want change or find it is a way out of the organization. This is why when a change is in forced, a strategy needs to be in place. Much like having goals and back up goals. A business needs strategies and backup strategies in order to succeed in the transformation in which the organization is planning on taking. Strategies are also need when dealing with competitors. As the article explained, "Competition is nothing more than a group of people in another company who believe that they can offer something to customers that is superior to what you presently offer." This said, having a strategies in which allows you to give your customers what they want can be a great benefit. The article goes on to list many different types of strategies that can be put into place to help a business succeed and compete against their competitors. To help ensure a organization is approaching the changes correctly the article gives us five questions to ask:

There are numerous opinions and methods available that detail how change should be implemented. Once commonly found method was written by a teacher at Harvard Business School John Kotter. He presents an eight-stage change transform process surrounding the most common errors that companies make. In order for a model for change to be successful, it should have a clear vision and communicate the process and objective clearly. Kotter (2007) defined his process as follows:

Carttar, P., 2014. Strategic Planning and Evaluation: Tools for Realizing Results. [Online] Available at: http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/strategic_planning_and_evaluation_tools_for_realizing_results [Accessed 14 November 2014].

‘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

Changing circumstances and ongoing management efforts to improve the strategy cause a company 's strategy to evolve over time—a condition that makes the task of crafting a strategy a work in progress,