Learning Objectives:
Understand the role of business strategies in moving a company in the intended direction, growing its business, and improving its financial and market performance
Develop an awareness of the four most reliable strategic approaches for setting a company apart from rivals and winning a sustainable competitive advantage
Learn that business strategies evolve over time because of changing circumstances and ongoing management efforts to improve the company’s strategy
Understand why a company’s strategy must be underpinned by a business model that produces revenues sufficient to cover costs and earn a profit
Gain awareness of the three tests that distinguish a winning strategy from a so-so or flowed strategy
Learn why good strategy making and good strategy execution are the most trustworthy signs of good management
Managers face 3 central questions in evaluating their company’s business prospects:
What ‘s the company’s present situation?
Prompts managers to evaluate industry conditions and competitive pressures, the company’s current performance and market standing, its resource strengths and capabilities, and its competitive weaknesses
Where does the company need to go from here?
Prompts managers to make choices about the direction in which the company is headed – What new or different customer groups and customer needs it should endeavor to satisfy and how it should change its business makeup
How should it get there?
Challenges managers to craft and execute a strategy – a full-blown action plan – capable of moving the company in the intended direction, growing its business, strengthening its ability to compete, and improving its financial performance
[What do we mean by strategy?]
Core Concept:
A company’s strategy consists of the competitive moves and business approaches that managers are employing to grow the business, attract and please customers, compete