Strategy Practice Flashcards
Who are the strategists in a firm?
- CEO
- Top Management Team
- Non-Executive Directors
What are the 3 tasks of the strategists?
- Information and analysis
- Managers of the strategy process
- Special projects
What 4 roles do Middle Managers have in relation to the management of strategy?
- Information Source: from knowledge and experience
- ‘Sense-making’ of strategy: translating strategy into a message that is relevant to the business units
- Reinterpretation and adjustment of strategic responses as events unfold
- Champions of ideas that can be the foundation of new strategies
What are the 4 roles of strategic consultants?
- Analysing, prioritising, and generating profits
- Transferring knowledge
- Promoting strategic decisions
- Implementing strategic change
Who to include in strategy making:
If we have a high Discontinuity and high Urgency, who do we include?
(e.g. of question?)
Narrow Participation
(Project teams or taskforces)
E.g. Acquisition threat or opportunity?
Who to include in strategy making:
If we have a high Discontinuity and low Urgency, who do we include?
(e.g. of question?)
Broad participation
(Strategy workshops)
E.g. How should we grow?
Who to include in strategy making:
If we have a low Discontinuity and low Urgency, who do we include?
(e.g. of question?)
Open participation
(Ongoing strategic conversation)
E.g. Who are our key competitors?
Who to include in strategy making:
If we have a low Discontinuity and high Urgency, who do we include?
(e.g. of question?)
Limited Participation
(Meetings, project teams)
E.g. How to respond to competitor move
What 4 purposes does analysis have?
- Procrastination (delaying a decision)
- Symbolic (rationalising a decision)
- Buy-in (gaining support for a decision)
- Political (to advance a particular issue)
What are the 5 common biases identified in making decisions, and who identified them?
Kahneman:
- Confirmation bias: seeking data that confirms a decision that has already been made.
- Anchoring bias: being tied to one piece of information that may no longer be relevant.
- Saliency bias: a particularly analogy becomes unduly influential (e.g. the ‘halo’ effect)
- Affect bias: becoming too attached to a particular option (the ‘champion’s bias’)
- Risk bias: over-optimism reducing real risk
What are the requirements for strategy projects? (4)
- A clear brief or mandate
- Top management commitment
- Milestones and reviews
- Appropriate resources
Define a Business Case and list the 5 things it should do
A Business Case provides the data and argument in support of a particular strategy proposal (e.g. investment in new equipment)
- Focus on strategic needs
- Be supported with key data
- Provide a clear rationale
- Demonstrate solutions and actions
- Provide clear progress measures
Define a Strategic Plan and the 6 elements to a strategic plan
A strategic plan provides the data and argument in support of a strategy for the whole organisation
- Mission, goals and objectives statement
- Environmental analysis
- Capability analysis
- Proposed strategy
- Resources required
- Key changes in structure/systems/culture
