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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 4 hours
    Level: Advanced

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • In this session we take a closer look at what is meant by strategy. The classical approach to strategic management treats strategic planning and control as purely the province of senior managers. More...
 

1 What do we mean by strategy?

  • Activity 1 Resource
  • Take a couple of minutes to think about what you understand by the word ‘strategy’.
  • 1.1 Organisational purposes Resource
  • The starting point for any strategy is the purposes of an organisation. Being clear about organisational purposes is not a trivial exercise. The very phrase ‘organisational purposes’ is potentially misleading,...
  • 1.2 Stakeholders Resource
  • The balanced scorecard framework (Kaplan and Norton, 1998) is one approach to taking account of stakeholder interests. It is based on the principle that organisations need to serve the interests of multiple...
 

2 Market-based approach to strategy

  • The ‘near environment’ Resource
  • All organisations operate in a near or micro-environment, with which they frequently interact. These organisations will include customers, suppliers and competitors. Examples of the impact of the near...
  • 2.1 Porter's five forces framework Resource
  • Much strategy (particularly in the private sector) is concerned with establishing and maintaining competitive advantage. One of the tools available to assist managers in analysing the near environment...
  • 2.2 Applying the five forces model Resource
  • A five forces analysis allows an organisation to consider the relative attractiveness of different industry sectors when making strategic choices about exiting or entering particular sectors and markets....
  • 2.3 Strategy as fit between organisation and environment Resource
  • The market perspective on strategy suggests that a major focus of strategic decision-making is how best to ensure an effective fit between an organisation and its environment. However, that fit is not...
 

3 Resource-based approach to strategy

 

4 Strategy as rational planning

  • 4.1 Emergent strategy Resource
  • In many organisations, strategic choices are made through a strategic planning process. A typical strategic planning process that draws on both markets and resource-based perspectives is sketched out in...
 

5 Summary

  • 5 Summary Resource
  • Our first learning outcome for this session was that you should be able to explain the difference between a ‘markets approach’ and a ‘resource-based approach’ to strategy, and how they complement each...
 

References and Acknowledgements

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