Lecture 1

Question 1

What is Strategy NOT?

Answer 1

1. About following fashion, jumping on the bandwagon

2. About doing things better

Question 2

What IS Strategy?

Answer 2

being sustainably different and gaining a competitive advantage.

Question 3

What is a definition of Strategy?

Answer 3

Corporate strategy is about the overall scope of the organization and how value is added to the constituent businesses of the organization as a whole.

Question 4

What is the Mission of a Corporate and what is the purpose of it?

Answer 4

1) The mission is to get people to want to buy the their product instead of the others.
2) It’s about why the Corporate exists and why people want to work for that company.

Question 5

What are the challenges that come with Mission Drift and why could this be a problem?

Answer 5

Mission drift is that the company could both have social and commercial logic behind their decision. However, these two may contradict each other and cause problems.

Question 6

What is Strategic Drift?

Answer 6

1) the tendency for business strategies to develop incrementally on the basis of a historical competitive advantage
2) and failing to keep pace with a changing competitive environment.

Question 7

What are the four phases of Strategic Drift and what do they mean?

Answer 7

Phase 1: Incremental change - The small alterations that have lead to where the firm is today.

Phase 2: Strategic drift - End up here if we don’t fix something that is broken.

Phase 3: Flux - Here a lagged performance effect in which the output of being on a Strategic drift starts to envelop and the consequences start to show.

Phase 4: Transformational change or Die - Either you adapt the firm to the environment or you run out of business.

Question 8

What is a Happy Accident?

Answer 8

an unforeseen event that accelerates the renewal of competitive advantage

Question 9

What are the three Strategy Horizons and what do they mean?

Answer 9

Horizon 1: Defend and Extend the Core Business

Horizon 2: Anticipate New Trends

Horizon 3: Experiment with Projects or People

Question 10

Explain the case of Madonna

Answer 10

When assessing her, in the scope of the three horizons she:
Horizon 1: Controversial Music and Freedom of Speech
Horizon 2: Movie appearances supporting minority groups and against war.
Horizon 3: Outspoken about misogyny & engage in political debates.