6. Strategy Process Flashcards
Who is responsible for strategic planning?
Senior managers and the board
Who is responsible for operational planning?
Middle managers
What is the focus of operational planning?
Operational dun
What is the focus of strategic planning?
Tactical
What is the scope of operational planning?
Routine activity at departmental level
What is the scope of strategic planning?
Significant, large scale actions at organisational level
What is the purpose of operational planning?
Achieve stated purpose of organisation
Sustain routine operations
What is the purpose of strategic planning?
To gain and maintain advantage over rivals
Growth
Improvement
What is the timescale of operational planning?
Typically one to three years
What is the timescale of strategic planning?
Typically three to five years
How is operational planning generally monitored?
KPIs on a monthly basis
How is strategic planning generally monitored?
Through a balanced scorecard quarterly
What is operational planning informed by?
Strategic objectives
Day to day requirements
What is strategic planning informed by?
Vision and mission statements
Strategic objectives
What is the nature of the content of operational planning?
Systematic
Detailed
Routine
What is the nature of the content of strategic planning?
Complex
Uncertain
Requiring organisational change
Typically, the strategy is determined by the most — managers in the organisation.
Senior
In the private sector, list eight competitive strategies
Cost efficiencies
Pricing strategies
Aggressive marketing
Product innovation
After-sales service
Diversification
Mergers
Takeovers
What three competitive strategies were identified by Porter?
Cost leadership
Differentiation
Focus
Not for profit strategies focus principally on — — —
Value for money
An advantage of strategic planning is that is reduces —
Uncertainty
An advantage of strategic planning is that it allows for better — of risks and increased ability to control them
Identification
An advantage of strategic planning is that it creates greater organisational — in operational activity
Coherence
An advantage of strategic planning is that is provides a better — on mission and vision
Focus
An advantage of strategic planning is that it creates the possibility of m—, m— and c—
Management
Monitoring
Control
— — are forms of agreements between organisations through which common goals are pursued by concerted efforts
Strategic alliances
Strategic alliances occur in several forms including (4)
Joint ventures
Virtual organisations
Corporate venturing
Value-managed relationships
Re: strategic alliances, it is important for an organisation to define its own — very clearly
Objectives
A very important control I strategic alliances is to ensure there is — — specifying the responsibilities and rights of all parties
Clear agreement
— — — should be used to monitor the performance of parties in a strategic alliance
Key performance indicators
List five advantages of strategic planning
Reduction of uncertainty
Better and earlier identification and control of risks
Greater organisational coherence in operational activity
Better focus on mission and vision
Possibility of performance management, monitoring and control
List five essential steps in a ‘strategic alliance process’
Set alliance strategy Select partner Structure alliance Manage alliance Re-evaluate alliance
Setting the alliance strategy: this should be founded on the overall — —
Business strategy
Selecting a partner: — used should be part of alliance strategy
Criteria
Structuring the alliance: agree all the — and — terms and mechanisms for governance
Legal
Financial
Managing the alliance: follow a detailed — —
Implementation plan
Re-evaluating the alliance: should be a — —
Continuous process
A value for money strategy is a combination of maximising the — of services while using limited resources efficiently
Quality
A value for money strategy is a combination of maximising quality of services while using limited resources as — as possible
Efficiently
— — means there is a growing gap between what an organisation does and its intended purpose
Strategic drift
To help avoid strategic drift, an organisation can use — measures
Performance
— — can help avoid strategic drift through providing assurance on processes and resources adopted to undertake the strategy process
Internal audit
— — are different perspective on what the strategy is
Strategy lenses
List the three strategy lenses
As design
As experience
As ideas
What are the eight key steps in a strategy process?
Define organisation’s purpose
Analyse prevailing conditions
Develop strategic objectives
Assess risks to objectives
Operationalise strategic objectives into planned activity
Implement operational plans
Monitor performance
Review and adjust
When defining the purpose of the organisation, mission and vision statements should be c—, i—, easy to c—, easy to r—
Clear
Intelligible
Communicate
Remember
In the strategy process, analysing prevailing conditions would involve what six things?
Audit of resources and competencies
Analysis of products and services
Analysis of performance
Analysis of value chain
Analysis of economic value added
Assessment of external environment
An organisation’s c— c— are what give it competitive advantage over its closest rivals
Core competencies
What four headings are used in SWOT analysis?
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
In SWOT analysis, opportunities are sometimes referred to as ‘strategic —’
Gaps
In value chain analysis, — — are those that relate directly to the transformation process
Primary activities
In value chain analysis, — — include human resources, finance, purchasing, etc
Support activities
Value chain analysis helps identify each activity that — — to the end product or service
Adds value
Value chain analysis helps separate out — and — drivers
Cost and value
In value chain analysis, — — are those factors that help to minimise cost
Cost drivers
In value chain analysis, — — are those factors that add features to the product valued by the consumers
Value drivers
The Boston Matrix is used to analyse existing products and sales under what four headings?
Cash cows
Dogs
Rising stars
Problem children
In the Boston Matrix, — — are products that are tried, tested and successful
Cash cows
In Boston Matrix analysis, — may once have been successful, but are not now generating significant interest
Dogs
In Boston Matrix analysis, — — are successful and have a great potential for growth
Rising stars
In Boston Matrix analysis, — — have been showing disappointing performance but should be doing much better
Problem children
What are the four typical strategies of the Boston Matrix?
Build market share
Maintain market share
Harvest rewards
Divest
On what two dimensions does the McKinsey/General Electric matrix focus?
Competitive strength
Market attractiveness
