Summary Chapter 1 Johnson, Whittington & Scholes

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

Strategy consists of a consideration of the company objectives, constraints and future plans, the goals to be achieved are the central objective. Business wise it also has to have a business advantage in some form or another namely a competitive advantage. So the important functional areas are: the

Analyze the external and internal environment for opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.

Strategic planning is designed to leverage the strengths of a firm while minimizing the effects of its weaknesses.  It is difficult to know the potential advantage a firm may have unless external analysis is done well.  For example, a company may have a talented marketing department or an efficient production system.  However, the organization cannot determine whether these internal characteristics are sources of competitive advantage until it knows something about how well the competitors stack up in these areas.

Strategy refers to the plan or action taken to achieve organizational goals. When Ellen took over Tufts-NEMC, the hospital was struggling with payroll and scale. Ellen had to focus on meeting payroll, a short-term strategy, and could not focus entirely on the longer term. She took some immediate measures to help cut cost

According to Slack et al. The corporate strategy or business strategy is the guide lines for the whole corporation’s businesses in relation to its markets, customers, and the competitors (2007). In the same context, the same authors discussed the link between the corporate strategy and

reviewed. This is analysed by putting the article in to a wider debate about strategy, then

Strategy formulation has been acknowledged as one of the most crucial factors of ensuring the long-term growth of the business. However, the manner in which strategy is formulated, and most importantly, the nature of the strategy chosen for the company determines its future position in the marketplace (Grant, 2005).

I think it is important to assess the environment opportunities associating them to the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation resources.

A firms external environment is divided into two composites: the general environment and the industry environment. Fahey (1999) states that the general environment encompasses the broader society that influences an industry and the firms within it. The industry environment is the set of factors that directly influences a firm and its competitive actions and responses (Chen et al. 2010). Identifying opportunities and threats is an important objective of studying the general environment. Opportunities help companies achieve strategic competitiveness whilst threats may hinder a company's efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness (Gilad 2011). A firm will scan, monitor, forecast and assess the seven segments of the general environment to determine their effects on the firm. Firms identify early signals, detect meaning,develop projections, and determine the timing and importance of environmental changes and trends for firms' strategies and their management.

Corporate Strategy has been defined by numerous authors. Grant (1995) claims corporate strategy deals with the way a corporation manages a number of different businesses. Lynch, R, in both his third and fourth edition books on corporate strategy refers to Penrose (1959) definition of corporate strategy as “the pattern of major objectives, purposes or goals and essential polices or plans for achieving those goals, stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in or to be in and the kind of company it is or to be”

The Mission, Vision and Values of a company play a Fundamental role in Strategy Formulation and Strategic planning. We will discuss throughout this assignment, how developing effective mission, vision and values can help shape, develop and guide a firms Strategic choices. They reflect the firm's fundamental core ideology. At the most basic level a mission statement can describe the firms overall purpose for being. It provides an inside to the present business scope and purpose of the firm that is "who we are, what we do, and why we are here". It explains the firm's very reason for existing. It will

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’.

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

This analysis consists of analyzing the external environment of the company (competitors, social, technological, regulations, etc.). The purpose is to identify the key opportunities and threats in the environment.