Ch1 - Mastering Strategy (Art & Science)

Question 1

Learning Objectives

Answer 1

1. What is the difference between strategic management and strategy?
2. Why does strategic management matter?
3. What are the intended, emergent, and realized strategies?
4. What is the basic strategic management process?

Question 2

What is strategic management?

Answer 2

Strategic management examines how actions and events involving top executives, firms, and industries influence a firm’s success or failure

Question 3

Strategy

Answer 3

Strategy involves different processes and activities within an organization to successfully achieve goals and objectives in competitive marketplace

For purposes of this class, it’s viewed as more broad/long-term/bigger picture whereas strategic management process is more specific

Question 4

Resources

Answer 4

Resources: Assets, capabilities, processes, employee time, information, and knowledge used by an organization to • improve effectiveness and efficiency • create and sustain competitive advantage

Question 5

How can organizations achieve a competitive advantage?

Answer 5

by using their resources to provide greater value for customers than competitors can

Question 6

Sustainable advantage

Answer 6

Value provided by a firm that cannot be duplicated by the competitors

Question 7

What are the 4 qualities that resources must have in order for a company to achieve a sustainable advantage (4)?

Answer 7

1. Valuable - allow companies to improve efficiency & effectiveness
2. Rare - resources not controlled or possessed by many competitors.
3. Imperfectly imitable - impossible or extremely costly to imitate
4. Nonsubstitutable - no other resources can replace and produce a similar competitive advantage

Question 8

What are the 3 types of strategies conceptualized in the book?

Answer 8

1. Intended Strategy
2. Emergent Strategy
3. Realized Strategy

Question 9

Intended strategy

Answer 9

the strategy that an organization hopes to execute

Question 10

emergent strategy

Answer 10

an unplanned strategy that arises in response to unexpected opportunities and/or challenges

Question 11

realized strategy

Answer 11

the strategy that an organization actually follows

Question 12

2 levels of critique of strategic management

Answer 12

1. Practitioner perspective

• question the cost/benefit
• ability of SM to achieve its goal
• limiting a firm’s ability to react to emerging situations

2. Scholar perspective

• survivorship bias - looking at those that survive, but rarely at those that don’t
• not attuned to real-time, practical business needs

Question 13

Strategic management process

Definition

Answer 13

process of understanding how the world is changing, and how those changes might affect your firm:

Question 14

What are the 4 steps of the strategic management process?

Answer 14

1. an understanding of current strategy and performance
2. environmental scanning (externally and internally)
3. strategy formulation
4. strategy implementation

Question 15

unrealized strategy

Answer 15

An unrealized strategy refers to the abandoned parts of the intended strategy

Question 16

competitive inertia

Answer 16

reluctance to change strategies or competitive practices that have been successful in the past

Question 17

strategic dissonance

Answer 17

discrepancy b/w a company’s intended strategy and strategic actions managers take when implementing said strategy

Question 18

effectiveness

Answer 18

degree to which something is is successful in achieving the desired result

Question 19

Efficiency

Answer 19

Efficiency is defined as the ability to accomplish something with the least amount of wasted time, money, and effort or competency in performance