The Impact of Strategic Management Decisions – Wilkinson (Case Study)

During these times of change business may have to change its orgainsation, operation and its nature to deal with the challenges of each stage in the business life cycle. For business to be successful they must constantly develop and change strategies to deal with the growth of the business or the life of the business may be cut short.

Today’s consumer has multiple options to fill their shopping needs. They have the option to shop at online retailers, big box and mass merchant stores, department stores, smaller chain stores, individual kiosk, and other local or international convenient stores to fill their shopping needs. Regardless of the retailer that a consumer chooses, all retailers aim to satisfy their shoppers’ needs and strive to be the best in the business. In order to adequately and successfully do this, retailers must develop a firm mission, vision, and have core values for how they will operate as a retailer to meet the frequently changing demands of its consumer base.

face some hard times. On the other hand it also shows that companies that are not successfully

“If you do not know where you are going, you will likely end up somewhere else” – Yogi Berra. Every organization, no matter what industry that they are in encounters an environment that is rapidly changing and evolving. Organizations must deal with and address rapidly changing technological capabilities, competition from rivals, and the changing tastes and needs of consumers. In order to effectively respond and adapt to the competitive business environment organizations need to have a clearly defined understanding of where the firm currently is as well as an understanding of where they want to be in the future. An organization’s business strategy provides the backdrop and context for the decisions an organization makes in response to the challenges and opportunities encountered within the business environment. Without a defined strategy an organization is forced to make decisions blindly and will most likely end up in a position where it is very difficult for them to continue to maintain their competitive advantage. Therefore, successful organizations must dedicate the time and resources needed to develop, define and clearly communicate their strategy throughout the organization.

In order to profitably satisfy customer needs, an organisation must understand its external and internal situation including the customer, the market and its own capabilities. Furthermore, it needs to understand and adapt to the dynamic and uncontrollable factors of the environment in which it operates.

The more prospective the competitive advantage the more it becomes hard for it's advantage to be neutralized .

“Changes in behaviour, technology, demographics, natural resources, and other areas force businesses to continually look ahead and adapt.

In business world, the type and the level of competition have become very complicated and been changing rapidly. In this competition, environment, survival of the firms/organizations turns out to be dependent on their ability to follow/adapt these ever changing updates and behaviours with regards to their requirements.

o May hamper employees drive to innovate and be creative if implementation is not done correctly.

The competitive environment : competition from the industry can impact a company’s strategy and operation. For example if a competitor release a new or similar product that threaten to steal market share, an organization must be ready to change in order to retain its

Improving competitiveness Expanding into new geographic markets Responding to changing market conditions Responding to evolving customer preferences

“Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitor’s” (Porter 1980:47). A successful business plan requires first and foremost the formation of an appropriate strategy. Through the implementation of a suitable strategy, the company is able to obtain its own industry niche and gain an understanding of its customers (Porter 1985). Whichever strategy is adopted it must be adequately integrated within the firms goals and missions to achieve a competitive advantage (Parker and Helms 1992).

It is speculated that managers perceive the loss of market share, eroding profits and new competition as a result of inefficiencies within the company and management rather than correctly seeing the changing landscape as the problem. As a result managers have been attempting to correct a new problem with old solutions with inefficient

It is important to understand both strategic thinking and strategic planning in drawing conclusions of the contributions of strategic thinking on organisational performance; this is due to the similarities between the two. They must not be mistaken for one another and the results of one should not be contributed to the results of the other.

Consumer behaviour is complex and a company has to fit their product more closely and satisfy their customer needs more fully than the