Inside Dyson

Thompson, J., and Martin, F. Strategic Management: Awareness and Change, 6th Edition Chapter 1 Strategy Explained Strategies are means to ends. All organizations, large and small, profit-seeking and not-for-profit, private and public sector, have a purpose, which may or may not be articulated in the form of a mission and/or vision statement. Strategies relate to the pursuit of this purpose. Strategies must be created and implemented, and it is these issues which are addressed by our study of strategic management. This opening chapter begins by outlining how successful organizations manage their strategies, and what they achieve, before exploring the meaning of strategy in greater detail. It then continues with an explanation of the strategic management process in the context of the framework upon which this book is structured before explaining the different ways in which strategies are created. It then describes how the subject of strategic management has developed in the last 30 years, before concluding with a brief consideration of the similarities and differences in strategic management in various types of organization. Chapter 2 – Strategic Thinking, Environmental Analysis, Synergy and Strategic Positioning Good ideas for the future can either start inside the organization or be obtained from external contacts, and the ability to synthesize and exploit the information that is available to develop new products, new services and new strategic positions is a reflection of the organization’s strategic thinking capabilities. Think about how the idea for PartyGaming (Case 2.1) might have come about. At one level, matching, exploiting and changing the linkages between resource competency and environmental opportunity is an expression of organizational competitiveness, and the presence (or absence) of competitive advantage. It was shown earlier (Chapter 1) how it is essential for organizations to seek competitive advantage for every product, service and business in