- SAT
- GRE
- GMAT
- Word Lists
- MAT
- Essays
- Topics
- Login
- Join
Submitted By ceebella
Words: 1054
Pages: 5
Open Document
Definition and History
Strategy could be defined as a science using data and reasoning, an art using vision and ideas or a humanity, using history. Four generic approaches to strategy would be considered in this essay. These are: the classical approach, the evolutionary approach, the processual approach and the systemic approach.
The word strategy is derived from the ancient Athenian word strategos meaning ‘a general’ which comes from roots meaning ‘army’ and ‘lead’. Hoskin (1990) finds that many of the earliest managerial systemisers of American business shared military origins, in particular, training at the officer cadet school West Point in the early nineteenth century. In contemporary strategy analysis, there is still an influence of military imagery.
Mintzberg’s 5Ps
Henry Mintzberg (1987) came up with 5 Ps for strategy which are: plan, ploy, pattern, position and perspective.
Strategy as a plan is a conscious set of actions, a guideline to deal with a situation. This implies that strategies are made in advance of the actions to which they apply and they are made consciously and purposefully.
Strategy can be a ploy too as a plan: an intended ‘manoeuvre’ to outwit opponents. Ploys are tactics and work together with plans.
Strategy as a pattern is a stream of behaviours. It is consistency in behaviour, whether or not intended. Patterns are realised strategies unlike plans which are intended strategies.
Strategy as position is a means of locating an organisation in an ‘environment’. A position can be preselected or aspired to through a plan (ploy) or can be reached through a pattern of behaviour. Achieving a desirable strategic position can avoid competition.
Strategy as perspective looks inward as opposed to strategy as position which is external. It is to the organisation what personality is to an individual. It suggests that strategy is a concept, a vision or mission which must be shared by all members of the organisation.
Competing Approaches
The Classical Approach to Strategy
For Classicists, profitability is the supreme goal for business and rational planning, the means to achieve it. The beginning of a coherent discipline emerged in the 1960s, with the writings of business historian Alfred DuPont Chandler (1962), theorist Igor Ansoff (1965) and businessman Alfred Sloan (1963). These three men established the key features of the Classical approach: the attachment to rational analysis, the separation of conception from execution, and the commitment to profit maximisation. Chandler (1962) believes strategy to be: the emphasis on the long run, the explicit and deliberate conception of goals and the logical cascading of actions and resources from original objectives. The military metaphor reinforces typical features of Classical approaches to strategy. Classicists believe in the superiority of top-down, planned and rational approach to strategy. The ideal of rational economic man projects strategy as the product of a single entrepreneurial individual, acting with perfect rationality to maximise ‘his’ economic advantage. The classical approach to strategy places great confidence in the readiness and capacity of managers to adopt profit-maximising strategies through long term planning.
Evolutionary Perspectives on Strategy
The Evolutionary theorists are less confident about management’s ability to plan and act rationally. They expect markets to secure profit maximisation. They believe in the natural selection process and argue that irrespective of whatever methods managers adopt, only the best performers will survive. Markets, not managers, choose the prevailing strategies within a particular environment.
Gause (1934) says: coexistence is impossible if organisms make their living in an identical way. This theory can be applied to businesses. The market ensures that everybody has access to Michael Porter’s (1985) writings on competitive advantage,
Related Documents: What Is Strategy Essay
Chapter 1 – What Is Strategy and why is it important?AFI FrameworkAnalyzingFormulatingOr ImplementingIdentify key resources and learn to deploy them, hold them, or shift them a little. – StrategyStrategy is the quest to gain and sustain competitive advantage over rivals. It’s about being different from your rivals, creating values while containing cost, deciding what to do and what not to do, set of activities to stake out a unique position and it requires long term commitments…
Words 660 - Pages 3
What is Strategy? In summary, Porter state that a company implements operational effectiveness when it performs similar activities better than its competitors do, achieving this way, a competitive advantage and a level of differentiation. Porter emphasizes the importance of reaching Operational Effectiveness, and explains how a company needs to be efficient when producing and delivering its product or service. However, like Porter explains, being efficient doesn’t mean being effective. A company…
Words 577 - Pages 3
marketing and production services strategies support its competitive strategy effectively based on the services that they have decided to focus on. They have decided to use fresh ingredients when preparing their pizza. They have a Quality control store which prepares the dough that is used for the pizzas and is shipped to the different locations. This is done in order to keep the quality up and to ensure that all stores have consistency. Focus differentiation strategies is to use the fresh products when…
Words 205 - Pages 1
The sole objective of establishing Whole Foods as a brand name is to increase its market share. Whole Foods competitors, such as Kroger Co. have increased their annual sales by more than 10% in recent years. This is reducing the market share that Whole Foods currently had and at one time was the envy of the natural and organic foods industry. As a result in order to increase their market share big grocery chains are pressured to decrease their prices of their products and they are also launching…
Words 498 - Pages 2
range of market sector posed major difficult for Birds Eye’s marketing strategy and the allocation of its advertising budget.In the face of rising competition posed by the likes of King Harry Foods in 1970, White House Foods Ltd, and Fife Growers Ltd in 1971, and Wold Growers Ltd in 1974, Birds Eye maintained its advertising budget during the mid-1970s while cutting prices on some major-selling products. Birds Eye's vertical strategy started to separate when industry improvement enabled aggressive markets…
Words 294 - Pages 2
Class: Instructor: Learning Journal Part 2 I would like to reflect my experience on the topic, “Process of enhancing your relationship strategy” as discussed in the chapter 3 of textbook. After that I am going to discuss, “Communication style” in chapter 4th. In chapter 5th I am discussing topic, “Ethical decisions influence relationships in selling”. I am going to relate my experience from Pizza hut with these topics, when I used to work…
Words 703 - Pages 3
Introduction12.Background13.Marketing Strategy13.1.Core Marketing Strategy23.1.1.Segmentation23.1.2.Targeting23.1.3.Positioning33.1.4.Branding33.2.Marketing mix53.2.1.Product53.2.2.Price63.2.3.Place63.2.4.Promotion64.Conclusions and Recommendations85.References91. IntroductionThe presented report evaluates current marketing strategy of Smart Automobile with respect to its segmentation, positioning, targeting, branding strategy and the effectiveness and synergy…
Words 2435 - Pages 10
say what your strategy is?by David Collis and M. Rukstad (2008)PrefaceJust about every one of Edward Jones’ employees could express the company’s succinct strategy statement: Jones aims to “Grow to 17,000 financial advisers by 2012 [from about 10,000 today] by offering trusted and convenient face-to-face financial advice to conservative individual investors who delegate their financial decisions, through a national network of one-financial-adviser offices”. ABC aims to do what by when…
Words 542 - Pages 3
multinational pharmaceutical company, recently diversified by buying Alcon, in a £24.8bn deal. Alcon is a producer of eye care products such as contact lenses. Google has diversified by investing £124m in a wind power business. To what extent is diversification the best strategy to achieve profitable growth? Justify your answer with reference to Novartis, Google and/ or other organisations that you know. (40 marks)Diversification - Practice under which a firm enters an industry or market different…
Words 1211 - Pages 5
presentation, contents, conclusion) b) Why is it important you to consider your audience when preparing this presentation?c) What type of presentation strategy will you use to deliver this presentation? Give two reasons to support your chosen methodd) What type of presentation aids will you use to deliver this presentation? Give two reasons to support your chosen method. e) What are the responsibilities of management and audience in delivering this presentation?f) List two techniques you may use…
Words 388 - Pages 2
