B820 is organised around the "strategy process"

Today I have been...

Reading the tail-end of unit 1 (p34 on, s4.2)

Why?

Required reading

So What?

The remainder of B820 is organised around the strategy process. So, Units 2,3 and 4 focus on the Analysing stage. Unit 5 focuses on the Choose stage. Unit 6 focuses on implementing, and Units 7 and 8 focus on Context, Content and Process (bringing it all together).

Interconnectedness is important. The diagram on p34 (4.3) shows interconnected circles and arrows to reinforce.

Thinking back to the classical/planning approaches as mentioned in the Intro to the reader, diagrams are usually linear. B820 emphatically rejects any implication of linearity (beginning-middle-end). Strategy is continuous and iterative, it is not fire and forget.

The only usual specific "starting point" is that of an external environmental analysis (STEEP) followed by an internal analysis of resources/capabilities.


How will I use it?

Thinking again about the learning outcomes for unit 1.

• Identify the role strategy can play in the performance of your organisation.

Strategy is key. As Porter pointed out, it is not enough to be operationally effective. Operational effectiveness just means doing what you do, better. Strategic effectiveness means building on your strengths, knowing what to do, what not do do and what to do differently, to gain competitive advantage and make it hard for your competitors to imitate you.

• Describe the origins and developments of strategic thinking

It started out as "business policy". From there it grew up into "planning" - the classical approach. When the "experience curve" showed up, companies split up into "Strategic Business Units" and the concept of Strategy was born as people realised that the "planning" approach wasn't enough. Things were more complicated than just financial cost & risk. Industrial Organisation economist Michael Porter did hugely influential work in the 1980s. The resource-based view of the firm was popularised in the 1990s, followed by Porter's notion of Competitive Strategy. In 2001, Whittington split strategic management into classical, evolutionary, processual and systemic.

• Distinguish between different approaches to strategy making

These are the deliberate and emergent types of strategy. When realised strategy is the same as indended strategy we have perfectly deliberate strategy. These can be detailed further into Mintzberg's 8 types of strategy - Planned, Entrepreneurial, Ideological, Umbrella, Process, Unconnected, Consensus and Imposed.

• Recognise the different levels at which strategy operates

These levels are Corporate, Business and Functional

• Appreciate the various stages of strategy analysis, choice and implementation

Analysis - Stakeholder expectations, Environmental Analysis, Resources and Strategic Capability
Choice - Identifying options, Evaluating options, Selecting a strategy
Implementation - Culture and managing change, Structure and Management Systems

• Be aware of the philosophy, organisation and content that encompass the scope of this course

Organised around the strategy process
Linearity is rejected in favour of continuous & iterative concept