Unit 7 Aspect of Business Strategy Assignment

Unit 7 Aspect of Business Strategy Assignment

Introduction

This unit 7 aspect of business strategy assignment is to assist in building an individual’s existing knowledge of basic tools of business analysis as well as assessing their capability for strategic thinking. There is a need for demonstrating their familiarity with strategic planning through a stakeholder analysis in respect of a particular organisation. There will also be the implementation as well as controlling of a strategic plan.

Task 1 - Personal Portfolio

Topics discussed in class

Week 1 -  here was the introduction for the concept of strategy in the first week. Strategy can be explained as the action plan that was pre-determined for attaining a specific vision or goals associated with the organisation. Direction as well as purpose is provided by strategy for the actualization of organisational goals. Strategy assists not just towards the enjoyment of competitive advantage over the competitors but also refers to the changing aspects that concerns the environment related with business. There is the existence of both short term as well as long term strategic aspects. Various strategic levels take into consideration the ‘Business Level’, ‘Functional Level’ and ‘Corporate Level’.

Week 2 - There was the introduction of the aspect related with Corporate Strategy Model in Week 2. Porter had introduced two processes for the development of a strategic management plan viz. Porter’s Five Forces as well as PESTEL Analysis.  PESTLE Analysis  is addressing the external issues related with a business where each letter of term ‘PESTEL’ denotes a particular issue influencing the business which are political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. Porter’s Five Forces theory is providing five assessment criteria which are competitive rivalry related with business, supplier’s bargaining power, customer’s bargaining power, threats related with new entrants and threats from substitutes. (Bhandari, 2016)

Week 3 - An insight is provided on the aspects related with competitive advantage in the third week. Competitive advantage is referring to the discrete beneficial aspect that a specific business or organisation is enjoying over its competitors pertinent to that specific industry. It is also does the introduction of the concept associated with Strategic Capability. The segregation can occurs in three segments which are human, physical as well as financial.

Week 4 - The different issues affecting the strategic organisational purposes are introduced in the fourth week. Importance is laid on the ownership concept. There is the discussion on the basic of corporate governance. In the present scenario, the role of Corporate Social Responsibility aka CSR as well as the importance that the shareholders are having in an organisation or business are evaluated in short.

Week 5

BCG Matrix

• Boston Consulting Group, USA developed this business model which constitutes of a ‘2x2 Matrix’.
• A two dimensional evaluation for the effective management of Strategic Business Units.
• Market share (relative) is denoted by the horizontal axis as well as growth rate of the market is denoted by the vertical axis.
• Allocation of resources to the business units are related with their position as well as situation on the grid. ‘Stars’, ‘Cash cows’, ‘question marks’ as well as ‘dogs’ constitute of the four cells.
• Stars’, ‘Cash cows’, ‘question marks’ as well as ‘dogs’ are also considered as the four segments. (Bradley, 2016)

Ansoff Matrix

• Market Penetration – A firm aims toward actualising growth with available products having a complete goal of increasing the share of the market.
• Market Development – There is the aim of the firm towards development by targeting available products towards new segments of the market.
• Product Development – Aimed towards the segments of the market that are existing, the firm tries developing new products.
• Diversification – There is diversification of new businesses by focusing on the development of new products for the new markets.  

McKinsey Matrix

• Industry attractiveness is depicted by the vertical axis of the matrix.
• Its determination takes place with the help of issues such as rate of market growth, variability of demand and many more.
• Strength of the business unit is depicted by the horizontal axis.
• Share of the market, market share growth, brand equity and many more are the factors that are included.

Week 6

1. International Strategy – It refers to the plans that guide the transactions amongst the business entities in various countries.
2. Global Strategy – In terms of business, a  global business  strategy can be explained as an organisation’s strategic guide towards globalisation.

Porter’s Diamond

• Factor’s Conditions – A nation focuses towards the creation of its personal issues like having skilled resources
• Conditions for demand – When the foreign demand of a product is less than the local demand, more attention is devoted to them by the local firms in comparison to the foreign firms, as a result attaining competitive advantage at the time of exporting.
• Related as well as assisting industries – Firms are enjoying inputs that are more cost effective as well as innovative when local supporting industries are competitive.
• Strategy of the firm – Strategy of the firm is affected by the local conditions.

Cage Distance Framework

• Cultural, geographic, administrative as well as economic differences are identified between the countries.
• For understanding the different trade patterns, information on capital and many more, it might get used.

Product/Process Innovation

• Product innovation is introducing a product or service that is new or considerably developed in relation to its attributes or proposed uses. These take into consideration important developments associated with technical specifications, elements as well as materials, software that are incorporated, user friendliness or other operational traits. Product innovation takes into consideration both the new products as well as new uses in respect of products that are available.
• Process innovation is related with the application of a new or significantly developed method of production or delivery that includes major changes in methods, equipment as well as software.

Week 7

Strategy Methods

Organic Development

• It is considered as the business expansion method by increasing the output, expanding the customer base, or developing new product.
• It usually does the exclusion of the influence of foreign exchange. “Core growth” is used for referring towards development that takes into consideration foreign exchange.
• It is the development coming from an organisation’s businesses that exists, in contrast to the development that comes from the purchase of new businesses.

Mergers & Acquisitions

• The Board of Directors in respect of two organisations support the combination as well as seek the consent of the shareholders in respect of a merger. Post the merger, the acquired organisation becomes non-existent and becomes a part of the acquiring organisation.
• The acquiring organisation does the attainment of most of the stake related with the acquired companies in respect of an acquisition that does not change its name or legal structure.

Strategic Alliance - It is considered as an agreement between two or more parties for pursuing a set of goals that are agreed upon, required while staying as organisations that are independent. This type of cooperation occurs within mergers and acquisitions as well as organic development. There is the formation of the equity alliances when one organisation attains another organisation’s equity stake and vice versa. An organisation’s acquired share is considered as a negligible equity share, such that the power of making decisions is remaining with the respective organisations. Strategic alliances related with non-equity will be covering an extensive field of probable cooperation amongst organisations. This will be ranging from close association within customers as well as suppliers, for the outsourcing of certain corporate tasks or licensing, for extended networks in respect of research and development. (Bain, 2015)

Diversification - This is considered as a corporate strategy for entering into a new market or industry which the business is not presently associated with, and simultaneously creating a new product in respect of the new market.

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Week 8

Top down Planning

• The approach associated with top-down to explain project tasks takes into consideration beginning with the goal related with the project or final deliverable, and breaking it down into smaller portions for planning.
• There is better functioning of the top-down approach when there exists clarity of   insight into the project details.
• The beneficial aspects of a top-down are that there is quick identification of the main tasks, and the project team does the refining of the details later.
• The disadvantage is that there might occur the missing of the details without a detailed reassessment by the project team. (Bain, 2015)

Bottom up Planning

• The project gets deeper concentration since there is the involvement of a greater number of staffs.
• Members of the team are working collectively and provide input during each level of the method.
• There is development of the plans at the lowest levels and are then shifted towards the next higher stage.
• The staffs at the lower stages are more inclined towards taking individual stock in a plan that they are having an involvement in planning. (Kumar, 2016)

Types of Resources

• Human Resources – These are considered as the individuals who comprises of the organizational workforce, business sector, or economy. There is sometimes the use of ‘human capital’ as a synonym to ‘human resources’.
• Financial Resources – The availability of money for a business to spend in the form of cash, liquid securities as well as credit lines.
• Physical Resources – These are the resources that can be felt, moved or smelled. These are generally man made resources that assists in doing regular activities quickly as well as easily.
• Technological Resources – These are considered as the systems as well as tools needed for effective production or creation of a product or service that takes into consideration energy, knowledge, tools, people, machines, capital as well as time. Technological resources provide support for the methods of production as well as delivery of services in companies as well as organizations. (Bradley, 2016)

Strategic Management Model - The different elements indicated by different strategic management take into consideration,

• Performance towards environmental analysis
• Establishment of the direction of the organisation
• Formulation of strategy for the organisation
• Implementation of strategy for the organization
• Evaluation as well as control of strategy.

Conflict Management

• Expecting the inevitability of conflict
• Trying as well as staying calm
• Maintaining morale within
• Partnering or forming an alliance with the HR
• Primarily striving for actualization of organisational goals and not individual objectives.

Week 9

Significance of Feedback

Feedback is considered as one of the most significant scenarios related to the method of effective communication. Feedback makes sure that the total process of communication cannot get completed without feedback since the method will be uncertain. Considering the managerial aspects, different examples of feedback can be considered. Reporting of the subordinates to their  developing manager  as well as managers to their seniors and so on regarding daily activities as well as functional modes is an example for feedback. Attainment of information out of systems related with assessment and measurement, feedbacks from customers, information from peers as well as colleagues and so on are all examples of different aspects of feedbacks that are prevailing within the management of a company. In this regard, there will be the consideration of the following factors which are mentioned as under,

• Specificity - There occurs the most viability of feedback when it is associated with a particular objective. Information should get specifically pointed out with the help of feedback. For instance, when an individual is being selected for salary hike, the feedback in this respect will be indicating the reason for having a hike and post consideration of the kind of levels as well as work quality that is being considered by the management in respect of the appraisal, every matter will get communicated in a clear manner. (BBC, 2016)
• Timeliness – Feedback should be conforming to a specific time. Timely feedbacks make sure that efficient measures can be taken for the maximisation of productivity as well as functional efficiency.

Choosing an interesting and relevant article every week based on the topic discussed and creating a commentary for each article

Article for Week 1 -  Week 1 is discussing about the strategic concepts as well as its business implementation. The article that is being considered for justifying the discussion in class is the strategic aspect that Microsoft is implementing for pulling out from the ‘feature phone business’.

Article for Week 2 - Week 2 is discussing about Porter’s concept related with PESTEL analysis as well as Five Forces. The discussed article is the one featured in BBC where explanation is provided by Porter as to why and where the Five Forces are generated from.

Article for Week 3 - Week 3 is discussing as well as analyzing the aspect of competitive advantage. The article that is being considered here is the one featured in BBC where an efficient summary is provided on the ways by which businesses are trying to enjoy competitive advantage over its competitors by tapping interested customers on social media. (BBC, 2014)

Article for Week 4 - Week 4 is introducing the aspect related with Corporate Social Responsibility aka CSR and in what ways it influences the business as well as the process associated with strategic management. The article that is considered here is taken from BBC in which the CSR value is measured efficiently as well as evaluated.

Article for Week 5

Article – Product Differentiation

A product portfolio is considered as the various items that a business is selling. Its analysis can occur with the help of Boston Matrix. In a rapidly growing market, star products are having high market share. In a slow growing market, cash cows are having an increased market share. In rapidly growing markets, question marks or problem children products are having a low market share. In slow growing markets, dogs are considered as products with a low market share.

Article for Week 6

Article – Global Sourcing: Another skill for critical purchasing

Various organizations face maturing domestic markets while observing an evidently limitless potential for development in markets that are emerging. Better communications technologies are driving them as well as advance that are altering the economics related with transportation and scale of manufacturing. In addition, shifting of public policy as well as regulatory attitudes creates more open markets all through the world. (Amadeo, 2016). The outcome – There is spreading of globalization from one industry to another.

Article for Week 7

Article – Gambling Industry betting on mergers and acquisitions

In 2015, a raft of big deals included the £2.3 billion tie-up amongst Gala Coral and Ladbrokes in July, a £6 billion merger between Paddy Power and Betfair in August, as well as £1.1 billion acquisition of GVC of Bwin party in September. Analysts state that ‘mergers and acquisition frenzy’ is sweeping the UK. As a matter of fact, towards August, there were more mergers and takeovers in UK’s gambling sector in comparison to any other country.

Article for Week 8

Article – Sparking innovation from the bottom up

It is dealing with the fascinating idea of Robert Henriquez. It is bringing out the significant aspects of bottom up approach. It is discussing about the importance of actualizing staff involvement.

Article for Week 9

In this respect, Feedback is considered as the best gift that the employees can receive from their senior leaders. The following aspects are depicted by this article which are,

1. Managers should be available for providing feedbacks that are considered honest that are directly proportional to the percentage associated with the staff involvement inside the company.
2. A survey that was conducted on approx. 23,000 leaders depicted that leaders who feature in the bottom 10% of offering feedback will be receiving an average staff involvement score of 25%.
3. Leaders that feature in the top 10% are receiving a score of 77% in staff involvement.
4. Feedbacks that are genuine does the reduction of the tendency related with ‘feedback phobia’ within the staffs. (Alsop, 2013)
5. Feedback is similar to GPS, in which it is providing a direction as well as guidance as to where it is needed to go considering the present location or position of the person.

Creating a self-reflection diary where he/she will reflect on what and how he/she has learnt, what challenges the student faced when researching for or creating the portfolio.

The units that were discussed in the class were a lot self-descriptive and there was very less complexity faced for preparing the portfolio. On the other hand, there was no mentioning of the range that strategic implementation in Week 1 is covering and as a result, it was a little tricky for understanding the opportunity related with the first module. It was also a little implausible to find a specific article for justifying the second module that consisted of PESTEL analysis as well as Porter’s Five Forces Theory since it is a technical topic and adequate relevance cannot be found in respect of articles. The third module preferably, could have been a little bit vaster in respect of material since various matters are discussed about in this week. Very few problems were encountered in the final module from week 4 and as a result, getting an article having the relevance was also not a problem since one of the concepts that were being discussed about was Corporate Social Responsibility aka CSR and it is a common as well as well-known phenomenon in respect of companies as well as  business environment  throughout the world. A lot of information was accumulated in knowing how the BCG, Ansoff as well as McKinsey Matrix are providing assistance in the way of management. It was, on the other hand, a little bit challenging in finding a pertinent article based on this matter. To find articles in respect of mergers and acquisitions was considerable easy since there exists various examples to relate with as well as in the process getting to understand the driving issues that urges an organisation for acquiring or merging with another.

Conclusion

This assessment delves with the aspect of business strategy where a personal portfolio has been created. In this regard various topics have been discussed. After that, an interesting as well as relevant article is being chosen every week depending on the discussed topic. Along with that, a self-reflection is created that reflects on what has been learnt as well as the various challenges that were faced when researching for or creating the portfolio.

Reference

Alsop, R (2013), Sparking innovation from the bottom up, [Online], Available at: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131125-sparking-innovation-from-bottom, Accessed on: 22^nd July, 2016.
Amadeo, K (2016), What is Competitive Advantage? [Online], Available at: http://useconomy.about.com/od/glossary/g/Competitive-Advantage.htm, Accessed on: 22^nd July, 2016
Bain, (2015), Core Competencies, [Online], Available at: http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/management-tools-core-competencies.aspx, Accessed on: 22^nd July, 2016.
BBC (2016). The Handy Guide to Gurus of Management. [Online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/work/handy/porter.shtml, Accessed on: 22^nd July, 2016
BBC, (2014),  Product Differentiation, [Online], Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/marketing/brandingandpackagingrev3.shtml, Accessed on: 22^nd July, 2016
Bhandari, (2016), Strategic management: A Conceptual Framework,Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Bradley, J (2016),  Types of Corporate Level Strategy, [Online], Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/types-corporate-level-strategy-60147.html, Accessed on: 22^nd July, 2016.

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