Description

Strategic Management

Strategic Management aim  is to strengthen the strategic thinking capability of the candidate in formulating and implementing a corporate strategy that can help organisations build a sustainable competitive advantage.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

A candidate who passes this paper should be able to:

• Analyse an organization’s environment and formulate an actionable business strategy that is grounded in theory and practice from multiple business disciplines
• Demonstrate an ability for critical and strategic thinking
• Develop and implement a realistic strategic plan
• Understand the   strategic    decisions   that   organisations   make    in   strategic management
• Effectively react to and incorporate emerging issues in strategic

CONTENT

1. Overview of Strategic Management
   • Concept of strategy
   • Purpose of strategy
   • Characteristics of strategy
   • Advantages and disadvantages of strategic planning
   • Strategy approaches
   • Strategic versus tactical decisions
   • Patterns of strategy development

2      History of the Organisation and Culture

• History of the Organisation
  • Importance of history
  • Path dependency
  • History as a resource
  • Historical analysis
  • Mission: stated and perceived
• Organisational culture
  • Influence of culture on strategy
  • Undertaking cultural analysis
  • Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory

3      Strategy Levels and Intent

• Corporate strategy
• Business strategy
• Operational strategy
• Functional strategy
• Vision statement
• Mission statement
• Strategic objectives
• Statement of corporate values

4      Strategic Management Process

• Steps in the strategic management process
• Strategic management in different contexts
• Uncertainty and strategic drift
• Limitations of strategic management

5      Strategic Analysis: The External Environment

• Policy and administrative framework
• Political environment
• Economic environment
• Sociocultural environment
• Technological environment
• Ecological environment
• Legal environment
• Key drivers for change
• Industry and sector analysis
• Tools for external analysis
• Competitor Analysis

6      Strategic Analysis: The Internal Environment

• Distinctive resources and capabilities as a basis of competitive advantage
• VRIO- value of resources and capabilities, rarity, inimitability, organisational support
• Organisational knowledge as a basis of competitive advantage
• Diagnosing resources and capabilities
• The value chain and value system
• Activity systems
• Benchmarking
• Strengths and Weaknesses
• The Balanced Scorecard and Strategy map
• Critical success factor analysis
• Scenario planning
• Gap Analysis
• SWOT and the business model

• Key features of corporate culture
• Health cultures that aid strategy execution
• Unhealthy cultures that impede strategy execution
• Influence of culture on strategy
• Undertaking cultural analysis

7      Business Strategy and Models

• Generic competitive strategies

• Cost leadership strategy
• Differentiation strategy
• Focus strategy
• Hybrid strategy
• The Strategy Clock
  • Interactive strategies
• Interactive price and quality strategies
• Cooperative strategy
• Game theory
  • Business models
• Value creation. configuration and capture
• Business model patterns

8   Corporate Strategy and Diversification

• Strategy directors
• Diversification and performance
• Vertical integration
• Value creation and corporate parent
• Portfolio matrices

• The BCG (growth/share) matrix
• The directional policy (GE- McKinsey) matrix
• PIMS (Profit Impact on Marketing Strategy
• Parenting matrix
• The Scenario/vision – building approach

9   International Strategy

• Internationalisation drivers
• International business environment and challenges
• Geographical sources of advantage
• Locational advantage: Porter’s Diamond
• The international value system
• International strategies
• Market selection and strategy
• Internationalisation and performance

10   Strategy Development Processes

• Strategic thinking

• The paradox of logic and creativity
• The art and science of strategic thinking
• The “Deep Dive” analogy: acumen, allocation of resources and action
  • Strategy formation
• Deliberate strategy developers
• Emergent strategy developers
• Logical incrementalism
• Strategy as an outcome of political processes
  • Implications for managing strategy development
• Strategy development in different contexts
• Managing deliberate and emergent strategies

11   Matching Organisational Structure to Strategy

• Value chain activities to be performed internally
• Value chain activities to be outsourced
• Aligning structure with strategy
• Organisational structure

• Simple structure
• Functional structure
• Divisional structure
• Matrix structure
• Multinational structures
• Project-based structures
• Strategy and structure fit
  • Delegation of authority
  • Systems
• Planning system
• Performance targeting systems
  • Configurations and adaptability
• The McKinsey 7-Ss
• Agility and resilience
  • Collaboration with external parties and strategic allies (network structure)

12   Leadership and Strategic Change

• Strategic Leadership vision and change
• Theories of leadership and change
• Types of strategic change
• Levers for strategic change
• Methods of introducing strategic change
• Strategic leadership roles and effectiveness
• Strategic change: revolution versus evolution
• Diagnosing the change context
• Managing major changes
• Problems of formal change programmes
• Managing corporate politics
• Managing complexity
• Leadership in practice

13   The Practice of Strategy

• The strategists

• Top managers and directors
• Strategic planners
• Middle managers
• Strategy consultants
  • Strategising
• Strategy analysis
• Strategy issue-selling
• Strategic decision making
• Communicating the strategy
  • Strategy methodologies
• Strategy workshops
• Strategy projects
• Hypothesis testing
• Business cases and strategic plans
  • Strategy Implementation
• Relationship between strategy formulation and implementation
• Plans Programs and budgets
• Steps for effective strategy implementation
• Resource allocation
• Strategic Control

• Evaluation and control in strategic management
• The strategic control process
• Monitoring evaluation and reporting
• Measuring corporate performance
• Strategic information systems
• Strategic surveillance
• Guidelines for proper control
• Balance Scorecard as a tool for control
• Sustaining organisational effectiveness

15   Contemporary issues and Case Studies in Strategic Management