Business Strategy Flashcards
What is strategy?
The direction and scope of an whole organisation over the long term
What is a strategic business unit?
A section within a larger business responsible for planning, developing, producing and marketing
What is corporate strategy?
Strategies determine for the business as a whole at the high level
What are business strategies?
Strategies for the SBU’s and individual markets
What are the functional strategies?
Strategies for the main functions within the SBU
What are the four stages of strategic planning?
Analysis, choice, implementation, review and control
What is the rational approach?
It comprises internal and external analysis
What is a resource based approach? What is the risk?
Inside out - focuses on developing the internal things
Might fail in the long term to react to what is going on around it
What is a positioning based approach?
What is the risk?
Focuses on the external environment and then adapts to meet them - and outside in approach
Customers needs constantly change so you have to constantly struggle to keep up
What are emergent strategies?
Strategies which EMERGE over time in response to the environment. There is a lot of trial and error with this as the end goal is not clear, hence you must assess them often.
What is external analysis?
Looking at factors outside the business which present both opportunities or threats.
What is the task environment?
This relates to factors of particular relevance to the business e.g competitors, customers and suppliers
What is the general environment?
Considers all outside influences that the business operates in.
What is the difference between static and dynamic environments?
Static environments are slow to change and simple. Dynamic environments are dangerous and difficult and change often
What is pestel?
The outside political, econ, social, tech, ecological and legal factors to consider that influence a business
What are the five forces?
New entrants, bargaining power (of suppliers or customers, substitutes, the intensity of competition
What are the four types of competitor?
Brand, industry, generic and form
What are the four types of reaction?
Laid back, tiger, selective and stochastic (hard to predict)
What is internal analysis?
Looking at factors inside the business - the strengths and weaknesses
What does a resource audit look at?
Men, machines, money, material, markets, make up, management, methods, MIS (thinking of new ideas). these are known as the 9 m’s, where gaps are exposed it is often the case that they must be filled
What is the value chain analysis?
It measures the sequence of business activities which add value to products or services - so the cost of the activity is weighed against the sales revenue
What are primary activities in the value chain?
They are activities that create value and are directly concerned with the product or service
What are support activities in the value chain?
They are activities that enable the primary activities to take place with maximum efficiency
What is the product lifecycle?
It applies the life cycle theory to products and services
Decelopment - lots of money in
Introduction - low revenue and high marketing costs
Growth - start to benefit from econ of scale
Maturity - you reach critical mass
Decline - you end up with extra and have to take measures to shift it - run it’s course
