exploring strategy.ppt

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Johnson, Whittington, Scholes, Angwin and Regnér, Exploring Strategy Powerpoints on the Web, 10th edition ©Pearson Education Limited 2014
1: Introducing Strategy

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Learning outcomes
• Summarise the strategy of an organisation in a ‘strategy
statement’.
• Distinguish between corporate, business and
operational strategies.
• Identify key issues for an organisation’s strategy
according to the Exploring Strategy model.
• Understand different people’s roles in strategy work.
• Appreciate the importance of different organisational
contexts, academic disciplines and theoretical lenses
to practical strategy analysis.

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Definitions of strategy (1)
• ‘..the determination of the long-run goals and objectives
of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action
and the allocation of resource necessary for carrying out
these goals’
Alfred D. Chandler
• ‘Competitive strategy is about being different. It means
deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver
a unique mix of value’
Michael Porter
Sources: A.D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American Enterprise, MIT Press, 1963, p. 13 M.E. Porter, What is strategy?, Harvard Business Review,
1996, November–December, p. 60

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Definitions of strategy (2)
• ‘..a pattern in a stream of decisions’
Henry Mintzberg
• ‘..the long-term direction of an organisation’
Exploring Strategy
Sources: H. Mintzberg, Tracking Strategy: Towards a General Theory, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 3

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Strategic decisions
Source: From G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R. Whittington. Exploring Corporate Strategy, 8th edn, Pearson Education 2008.

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Three horizons for strategy (1)
• Horizon 1:
Extend and defend core business
• Horizon 2:
Build emerging businesses
• Horizon 3:
Create viable options

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Three horizons for strategy (2)
Source: M. Baghai, S. Coley and D. White, The Alchemy of Growth, Texere Publishers, 2000. Figure 1.1, p. 5

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Stakeholders
Stakeholders are those individuals or
groups that depend on an organisation to
fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn,
the organisation depends.

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Levels of strategy (1)
Operational strategy
Business-level
strategy
Corporate-
level
strategy
Vice Media diversifying
from the original magazine
into other activities
including retail, publishing
and video
Marketing and content
improvements in the Vice
magazine to attract more
readers
Vice’s operational
strategies are geared to
meeting its investment
needs and raising
finance

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Levels of strategy (2)
• Corporate-level strategy is concerned with
the overall scope of an organisation and how
value is added to the constituent business
units.
• Business-level strategy is concerned with
the way a business seeks to compete
successfully in its particular market.
• Operational strategy is concerned with how
different parts of the organisation deliver the
strategy in terms of managing resources,
processes and people.

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Strategy statements
Strategy statements should have three
main themes:
• the fundamental goals that the organisation
seeks, which reflect the stated mission, vision
and objectives;
• the scope or domain of the organisation’s
activities;
• and the particular advantages or capabilities
it has to deliver all of these.

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The Exploring Strategy model

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Strategic position (1)
The strategic position is concerned with the
impact on strategy of the external
environment, the organisation’s strategic
capability (resources and competences), the
organisation’s goals and the organisation’s
culture.

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Fundamental questions for Strategic position
• What are the environmental opportunities and
threats?
• What are the organisation’s strengths and
weaknesses?
• What is the basic purpose of the organisation?
• How does culture fit with the strategy?

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Strategic choices (1)
Strategic choices involve the options for
strategy in terms of both the directions in
which strategy might move and the methods
by which strategy might be pursued.

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Fundamental questions for Strategic choice
• How should individual business units compete?
• Which businesses to include in the portfolio?
• Where should the organisation compete
internationally?
• Is the organisation innovating appropriately?
• Should the organisation buy other companies,
form alliances or go it alone?

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Strategy in action (1)
Strategy in action is about how strategies
are formed and how they are implemented.
The emphasis is on the practicalities of
managing.

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Fundamental questions for Strategy in action
• Which strategies are suitable, acceptable and
feasible?
• What kind of strategy-making processes are
needed?
• What are the required organisation structures and
systems?
• How should the organisation manage the change
needed?
• Who should do what in the strategy process? Which
people and what activities.

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The strategy checklist
Strategic position Strategic choices Strategy in action
• What are the
environmental
opportunities and threats?
• What are the
organisation’s strengths
and weaknesses?
• What is the basic purpose
of the organisation?
• How does culture fit the
strategy?
• How should business units
compete?
• Which businesses to
include in a portfolio?
• Where should the
organisation compete
internationally?
• Is the organisation
innovating appropriately?
• Should the organisation
buy other companies, ally
or go it alone?
• Are strategies suitable,
acceptable and feasible?
• What kind of strategy-
making process is
needed?
• What are the required
organisation structures
and systems?
• How should the
organisation manage
necessary changes?
• Who should do what in the
strategy process?

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Working with strategy (1)
All managers are concerned with strategy:
• Top managers frequently formulate and control
strategy but may also involve others in the
process.
• Middle and lower level managers have to meet
strategic objectives and deal with constraints.
• All managers have to communicate strategy to
their teams.
• All managers can contribute to the formation of
strategy through ideas and feedback.

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Working with strategy (2)
Organisations may also use strategy
specialists:
• Many large organisations have in-house
strategic planning or analyst roles.
• Strategy consultants can be engaged from
management consulting firms (e.g. Accenture,
IBM Consulting, PwC).
• There are a growing number of specialist
strategy consulting firms (e.g. McKinsey &
Co, The Boston Consulting Group).

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Strategy’s three branches (1)
• CONTEXT – internal and external
• CONTENT – strategic options
• PROCESS – formation and implementation

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Strategy’s three branches (2)

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Exploring strategy in different contexts
The Exploring Strategy Model can be applied in
many contexts.
In each context the balance of strategic issues differs:
• Small businesses (e.g. strategic purpose, growth
issues and retaining independence)
• Multinational corporations (e.g. geographical
scope; cultural issues and structure/control issues)
• Public sector organisations (e.g. service/quality
and managing change issues)
• Not for profit organisations (e.g. purpose and
funding issues)

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The strategy lenses (1)
The strategy lenses are ways of looking at
strategy issues differently in order to generate
additional insights.
Looking at problems in different ways will
raise new issues and new solutions.

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Strategy can be seen as:
• Design
• Experience
• Variety
• Discourse

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Strategy as design
• Strategy can be designed in advance and
a detailed plan conceived by strategists.
• This approach is rational and objective.
• Little attention is paid to cultural, political or
unpredictable aspects of strategy.
• The design lens is systematic, analytical
and logical.

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Strategy as experience
• Strategy is influenced by the experience of
managers.
• The organisation’s culture and the taken-
for-granted assumptions and ways of doing
things are key drivers of strategy.
• Strategy is likely to build on and continue
what has gone before.

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Strategy as variety
• Strategy ‘emerges’ from an uncertain and
changing environment.
• Strategy comes from a variety of initiatives.
• New ideas ‘bubble up’ from unpredictable
sources and not just the top.
• Organisations need to encourage diversity
and look for initiatives at the bottom or the
periphery of the organisation.

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Strategy as discourse
• Attention is focused on the way managers
use language to frame strategic problems,
make strategy proposals, debate issues and
communicate strategic decisions.
• The way managers ‘talk’ about strategy
matters – it influences decisions.
• The discourse lens helps to uncover the
personal interests and ‘politicking’ of
managers.

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Chapter summary (1)
• Strategy is the long-term direction of an organisation. A
strategy statement should cover the goals of an
organisation, the scope of the organisation’s activities and
the advantages or capabilities the organisation brings to
these goals and activities.
• Corporate-level strategy is concerned with an
organisation’s overall scope; business-level strategy is
concerned with how to compete; and operational strategy
is concerned with how corporate- and business-level
strategies are actually delivered.
• The Exploring Strategy Model has three major elements:
understanding the strategic position, making strategic
choices for the future and managing strategy in action.

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Chapter summary (2)
• Strategy work is done by managers throughout an
organisation, as well as specialist strategic planners
and strategy consultants.
• Research on strategy context, content and process
shows how the analytical perspectives of economics,
sociology and psychology can all provide practical
insights for approaching strategy issues.
• Although the fundamentals of strategy may be similar,
strategy varies by organisational context, for example
small business, multinational or public sector.
• Strategic issues are best seen from a variety of
perspectives, as exemplified by the four strategy lenses
of design, experience, variety and discourse.

exploring strategy.ppt

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