Business Strategy

Question 1

Corporate strategy

Answer 1

Is concerned with the overall scope of an organisation and how value is added to the constituent businesses of the whole organisation.

Question 2

Strategy

Answer 2

Direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resource and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder obligations.

Question 3

Business/service strategy

Answer 3

The middle level of organisational strategy is known as business or service strategy which is …about how the individual businesses should compete in their particular markets.

Question 4

Operational strategy

Answer 4

Concerned with how the components of an organisation deliver effectively the corporate and business-level strategies in terms of RESOURCES, PROCESSES and PEOPLE.

Question 5

Stakeholder

Answer 5

Those individuals or groups that depend on an organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends.

Question 6

Sustainability

Answer 6

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Question 7

Mission

Answer 7

Aims to provide employees and stakeholders with clarity about the overriding purpose of the organisation.

Question 8

Vision

Answer 8

Desired future state of the organisation.

Question 9

Core values

Answer 9

Underlying principles that guide an organisation’s strategy.

Question 10

Culture

Answer 10

The basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic taken for granted fashion an organisation’s view of itself and its environment.

Question 11

Regulation

Answer 11

The process of ensuring that standards and legal requirements are met for specific services or public activities, in order to ensure that policies are fulfilled.

Question 12

Corporate social responsibility is the commitment by organisations to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the work force and their families as well as the local community and society at large.

Answer 12

CSR

Question 13

Resource-based view of strategy

Answer 13

Competitive advantage and superior performance of an organisation is explained by the distinctiveness of its capabilities.

Question 14

Strategic capabilities

Answer 14

Capabilities of an organisation that contribute to its competitive advantage over other organisations. Two key components of capabilities are resources and competences.

Question 15

Resources

Answer 15

Basically any asset that an organisation has or can access, such as through partnerships. This can range from buildings to computer systems but also includes human resources such as employees.

Question 16

Competences

Answer 16

How an organisation actually uses their resources.

Question 17

Core competences

Answer 17

The linked set of skills, activities and resources that, together, deliver customer value, differentiate a business from its competitors and, potentially, can be extended and developed.