Implementing strategy

Question 1

what do businesses need to consider to determine its strengths and weaknesses?

Answer 1

Internal factors such as skills and motivation of staff, quality of the products and the businesses financial situation

Question 2

what do businesses need to consider to determine its opportunities and threats?

Answer 2

External factors such as competition, market conditions and legal restrictions

Question 3

what is a contingency plan?

Answer 3

outlines what to do if something unexpected happens

Question 4

why can mangers not plan for every unexpected event?

Answer 4

there are too many and it is expensive, instead managers decide how likely a particular adverse event is too happen and how badly it would damage the business

Question 5

why is strategic planning helpful?

Answer 5

Gives the business clear direction so everyone works toward the same goal
-makes managers think about the strengths and weaknesses of the business and its external opportunities and threats. may identify new opportunities

Question 6

what are the disadvantages of strategic planning?

Answer 6

• can restrict the businesses flexibility. employees might feel that they need to follow the plan even though there is a better way of doing things
• Strategic planning is usually more useful in stable markets rather than innovative markets where change is regular

Question 7

what are the three factors that a business needs to get right in order to effectively implement strategy ?

Answer 7

Leadership, communication and organisational structure

Question 8

what should a manager do to implement strategy effectively?

Answer 8

• Set clear and inspiring visions that come from the top and sets an example
• motivate everyone to engage with the process
• Authoritarian leadership may be better in times of change

Question 9

what is gonna be a better leadership style when trying to implement change ?

Answer 9

democratic or paternalistic

Question 10

why would an authoritarian leadership not be good in trying to implement new strategy?

Answer 10

may make employees more fearful of change and thus try and resist it

Question 11

what is wrong with laissez-faire leadership in trying to implement change

Answer 11

the employees will not have confidence that the change will work out well so they will not be supportive

Question 12

what is vital for good implementation of change?

Answer 12

good communication- think K+S, leads to rumours

Question 13

how is a functional structure organised?

Answer 13

by department eg. HR, Operations and finance

Question 14

what is the advantage and disadvantage of a functional structure?

Answer 14

advan=each function can work in its own area of expertise

Disadvan= each department may develop its own culture and focus on its own priorities

Question 15

how is a product based structure organised

Answer 15

by product eg . each product a business sells has its own director, marketing and finance team

Question 16

how are regional structures organised?

Answer 16

geographical location eg branches grouped into regional divisions

Question 17

how can a regional structure be combined with B+G’s international strategy?

Answer 17

a high pressure for local responsiveness will mean that the business may want to decentralise into a regional structure

Question 18

how is a matrix structure organised?

Answer 18

organise staff by two different criteria eg project and function

Question 19

what some of the difficulties that a company needs to overcome to ensure the success of its strategy

Answer 19

• Lack of resources eg money
• Miscommunication
• accurate forecasting
• changing the structure eg delayering

Question 20

what is a planned strategy?

Answer 20

a strategy that has been planned out before action is taken to implement it

Question 21

what are the disadvantages to a planned strategy?

Answer 21

• could be too detailed and theoretical and wont work in practice
• the strategy can become too rigid which stops people becoming creative or innovating
• difficult to implement a planned strategy into changing environment

Question 22

what is an emergent strategy?

Answer 22

develops over time as a businesses actions lead to pattern of behaviour. usually adapted from a planned strategy

Question 23

what is the advantages of an emergent strat?

Answer 23

• stay relevant because they can adapt to the changing environment
• relies more on the decisions of the junior and middle managers which will have more up to date information about the business and its environment

Question 24

what is strategic drift?

Answer 24

when strategy becomes less and less suited to the businesses environment, therefore when a business doesn’t adapt to keep up with changes in the external environment

Question 25

how may a business try and prevent strategic drift from happening?

Answer 25

making small changes to deal with it in the short term but may have to implement a big change every so often

Question 26

why should strategies be constantly checked and reviewed?

Answer 26

to make sure the business is sticking to its timescale and budget if strategic drift is spotted it should be acted upon

Question 27

how can a business use market analysis to monitor how the strategy is going

Answer 27

- use both primary and secondary market research to check how the strategy is proceeding - they audit sales growth

Question 28

what is a example of a management information system

Answer 28

enterprise resource planning- collects and processes routine data to give a picture of the current state of the business