Core Activity A - Develop business strategy Flashcards
What is the definition of strategy?
‘Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within challenging environments, to meet the needs of markets and fulfil stakeholder expectations’.
What are Druckers 5 fundamental questions ?
What is our mission?
Who is our customer?
What does our customer value?
What results do we seek?
What is our plan?
What does a vision statement answer?
Where do we want to be ?
Designed to inspire
What question does a mission statement answer?
What do we do? What’s our purpose?
For larger and more complex organisations, what levels should a strategy be broken down into?
Corporate - (The group)
Business - (Product / service level)
Functional - (Opperational)
Corporate level - sets strategic intent (Growth, stability, recovery) corporate lifecycle?
Business level - must align with corporate strategy but segmented to different markets and customer types
Functional level - operational strategy driven by implementation of business strategy. Determines how the business should operate ie value chain etc.
It should be inclusive and contain bottom up and top down flows
What are the types of corporate level strategy?
Growth - Organic / M&A
Stability - Mature/ consolidated
Recovery/ Retrenchment - restructuring
What might a growth strategy across the organisation departments look like?
Corporate growth strategy
Business level growth
Departmental level strategy
Finance - raising funds
Sales and marketing - building campaign
Integration of IT systems etc etc
HR - recruitment strategy
What’s the preferred model for overall company strategy ?
Strategic control
Autonomy overseen by centre to steer them back on track where required
(Berkshire)
A strategic plan can be accomplished by answering what following questions?
Where are we right now? Strategic analysis of ecosystem
Where would we like to go? Define objectives
How do we get there ? The Strategic plan
What steps are involved as part of the strategic management process?
Vision, mission & objectives (SMART)
- Analysis (environmental SWOT internal) ie corporate appraisal
- Formulation (option generation, Evaluation and choice)
- lmplementation of strategy (balanced score card) CSF & KPI’s
- Review and control
What are the common stages of strategic management?
Sense of direction and purpose
Strategic goals and plans
Implementing plans
Monitoring and evaluating
Describe the elements of the Boston consulting group Matrix (BCG Matrix)
STAR
QUESTION MARK
CASH COW
DOG
What is a corporate appraisal ?
SWOT analysis for the group
Environmental / external
Internal
Is there a gap? Can we close the gap?
The strategic evaluation should ….
Build on strengths
Address weaknesses
Grasp opportunities
Avoid or minimise threats
What are the four main elements of the strategic formulation process?
Analysis - SWOT
Formulation - Evaluate options
Implementation
Review and control
Describe alternative approaches to formal corporate strategy?
Incrementalism - small changes in the right direction
Emergent approach - tried and tested as you go along allowing the strategy to evolve or emerge. Constantly evolving
Freewheeling opportunism - no real plan but can adapt quickly to opportunities
What are the 2 complimentary approaches to strategic development?
Inside out view - internal capabilities and competencies
Drive change, development and innovations (9ms)
Outside in view - create customer value and a seamless experience
Market orientated approach using customer demand and preferences
SWOT analysis useful to consider both
What’s the key difference between ‘vision’ and
‘mision’
Time frame
How might objectives be set once the mission and visions ?
Financial
Grow market share
Customer
NPS
CSAT
CES
Operational
Efficiency gains
People
Retention rates
360 degree staff appraisals twice a year
How could PESTEL help to analyse a company ?
Link change drivers to key risk factors
Generate ideas for how to strategically position the company
How might the analyse part of the strategy process look?
SWOT analysis as the base
SW - Internal / corporate lifecycle analysis
OT - external using PESTAL / industry lifecycle
What’s the formula for churn rate ? Ie customer turnover rate
% of customers that left = Number of customers that left / total number of customers
Describe the customer value management cycle?
- Manage customer segmentation
- Measure customer margins
- Measure customer lifetime value
- Measure customer impact
- Manage customer profitability
How can the BCG matrix be used as a visual tool to determine portfolio weightings?
Circles implemented based on sales for product
or weighing of portfolio for company
What’s the customer lifetime value (CLV) formula ?
CLV = (Profit x retention rate x discount rate) cont’d for each time period
What are the components of the customer portfolio management matrix ?
Demanders
Champions
Losers
Acquaintances
What’s the formula for relative market share? (BCG)
% = 100 x product or brands market share / nearest competitors market share
What is the formula for market growth rate? (BCG)
Growth rate = Total sales current year / total sales previous year
What are key useful terms in lifecycle costing?
Cradle to grave
Cradle to cradle
Cradle to factory
Cradle to user
Describe the competencies in internal capability analysis ?
Core / distinctive - create competitive advantage
Threshold - minimum requirements and don’t create competitive advantage
What is a CSF?
A Critical success factor is an element of organisational activity which is central to its future success. CSFs may change over time, and may include items such as product quality, employee attitudes, manufacturing flexibility and brand awareness.
What are the 9 M’s in a resource audit ?
Make up - structure & culture
Management
Management information
Manpower
Markets
Materials
Methods
Money
Machinery
What key things should be identified during value chain analysis ?
Cost Drivers
Value Drivers
What steps could be used in value chain analysis ?
- Identify sets of value activities
- Asses activity costs internally
- Asses the importance of activities
- Identify where and how cost can be reduced
What style of value chain analysis would be better suited for a service company?
value shop model
Describe the 5 steps of the value shop model ?
Finding the problem
Problem solving
Choice of solution
Solution implementation
Control and feedback
Whats the main theory behind porters value chain / value system?
- Finding new or better ways to perform activities
- Combining activities in new or better ways
- Managing linkages in ones own value chain
- Managing linkages externally in the value system
What are the six main areas of strategic decision making set out by Johnson, Scholes and Whittington ?
- Long term direction
- Scope of activities
- Determining competitive advantage
- Adapting to changes in the environment
- Exploiting unique resources or competences
- Stakeholder values or expectations
Describe the combination of capability ?
Competence
Capacity
Culture (doing it in the right way)
Descrive asnoffs growth matrix ?
Product development
Market development
Market penetration
Diversification
Describe visionary thinking?
Backwards from perfect (working backwards to achieve milestones & goals)
How can a company avoid fade ?
Incorporate second curve thinking
What’s better than if ain’t broke model ?
Don’t wait until it’s broken … moving on from success is much harder than moving on from failure
Eg Klopp etc
How might a growth strategy develop?
SWOT & GAP analysis - use ansoff matrix to close gap.
What should senior management beware of ?
- Relying on experience thats out of date?
- Selective perception and Information use
- unchallenged assumptions and acceptance of the status quo
- Strategic herding (flavour of the month)
- Attachments and emotional ties