ASSIGNMENT No 17 SUBJECT Name & Code ASSIGNMENT : A1 How do you differentiate between strategy and strategic management ?

What is your understanding of 'Policy' ? Write down source definitions of strategic management. Strategy is defined as the unified plan designed to achieve goals and objectives. This plan is conducted after understanding the environment and system. Strategy is the process of providing a trick so as to reach the destination with saving in time, cost, resources and energy. Strategy is all about providing a course of action and every strategy is how to beat the competition. Strategy is all about providing a right set of tools and techniques to make sure that the process of success is well defined. Strategy is a tool in every initiative we take up with. It starts with proper understanding o enviornment and creating a strategy requires providing a option for understanding the decision and providing solutions for each of the type. Strategies are done at corporate, business and functional level. The term strategy is derived from Greek word 'Strategos' which means 'Generalship' ie. The science or art if planning and directing large scale military movements and operations. In business parlance strategy may be defined a stream if management decisions that determine the purpose and direction if the enterprise. These management decisions serve as a route may to guide the enterprise towards its desired destination as specified in its mission statement. Example of strategic decisions include :(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) Financing if business Pricing if products to gain competitive advantage in the Diversification, acquisition and divestment. Retrenchment of employees. Recognition if trade unions etc. : Stratigic Management (ADL-17)

market place.

Strategy is the directions and scope of an organization over the long term which achieve advantages for the organization through its configuration if resources within a changing environment, to meet the need of market and to fulfill stake holder expectations. Strategic Management. It is all about creating a mission understanding, the environment analyzing the environment institutionalizing the strategy, controlling and evaluating, whereas institutionalizing means way if doing a practice and uses. Strategic Management Requires a proper way if evaluating and controlling by use of various types if strategies. _______ defined strategic mgt as "a stream of decisions and actions which leads to the development of an effective strategy or strategies to help achieve corporate objectives". It's end result as visualized by _____ is a set of

strategies or strategy for the organization. Policy : The implementation of strategy requires development of functional policies. These provide direction to middle management on how best to make use if the resources allocated. They guide middle managers in devising operational plans and tactics to make the strategy work. Policy is only guide to action. It does not provide prescription on how to handle specific situations like introduction of specific products or dismissal of a particular worker. Policy is the general guideline which help managers to make certain choices. Policies are developed to ensure that strategic decisions are implemented. It channelises organizational efforts. It leads to the achievement if goals, objectives, purpose and mission if the company. Firms environmental factors, internal policies and power play, all affect the policy making process as the policies decided will ultimately influence the distribution if resources. Also internal resistance to change, coalition building and conflicts between units are likely to occur during the development of policies. Specialists in each functional area develop plans and policies. The functional areas have traditionally been classified as production, marketing, finance and personnel. Strategic decision D_______ making is the most important functions if any manager. Strategic decision making is the prominent task of the senior management. In the process of strategic mgt the basic thrust of strategic decision making is to make a choice regarding the courses if action to adopt. Thus, most aspects of strategy _________ rest on strategic decision making. The fundamental strategic decision relates to the choice of a mission. In other words, the answers to questions. "What is our business? What will it he? And what should it be?" the basic concerns in strategic management. Finally, at the level if choosing the strategy, the senior managements chooses from among a number of strategic alternative in order to adopt one specific course if action which would make the company achieve its objective and realize its mission. Senior management has to make important strategic decisions with regard to environmental threat and opportunities, company's strength and weakness, resource allocation etc. Thus, strategic decision making joins the cores of strategic management. The characteristics of strategic decision 1. Strategic decisions are likely to be concerned with the long-term direction if an organization. 2. Strategic decisions are normally about trying to achieve some advantage for the organization over competition. For eg. The merger was expected to give manager advantage in the music industry to the extent that it could transformer the way in which music was sold and distributed and how artists received payments. In other situations advantage may be achieved in different ways and may also mean different things. For eg. In the public sector, strategic advantage can be thought of as providing better value for money services than other providers thus attracting support and funding from the government. Strategic decisions are sometimes conceived of, therefore, as the are

search if effective positioning in relation to competition so as to achieve advantage. 3. Strategic decisions are likely to be concerned with the scope of an organizations activity. The issue if scope of activity is fundamental to strategy because it concerns the way in which those responsible for managing the organization conceive the organizations boundaries. This could include important decisions about product range or geographical coverage. 4. Strategic decisions are likely to affect operational decisions. They are extremely difficult, complicated and, at times intriguing and enigmatic process specially in organization with wide geographic scope such as multinational firms or in firms with wide ranges if products and services. Strategic decisions can involve a high degree if uncertainty. Definitions of strategic management Strategic management includes understanding the strategic position of an organization, strategic choices for the future and tuning strategy into action. ______ defines strategic management as a "stream if decisions and actions which lead to the development of an effective strategy or strategies to help achieve corporate objectives". Hofer and others considered strategic management as the process which deals with fundamental organizational renewal and growth with the development if strategies, structures and systems, necessary to achieve renewal and growth within the organizational system needed to effectively manage the strategic formulation and implementation process." Strategic mgt can also be defied as the formulation and implementation of plans and carrying out if activities related to the matters, which are if vital and continuing importance to the total organization. Q2. What is vision and mission?

Enumerate its elements. Write down your company's vision and mission statements and discuss whether they fits into your definitions. What are goals and objectives? What are the main features of objectives ? State factors affecting objectives. Distinguish between official and operative objectives. Ans. Vision organization. It is desired future state on the aspiration if the

Mission The corporate mission statement describes the firm's basic purpose ie., why it exists, how it sees itself, what it wishes to do, its beliefs and its long term aspirations. The mission statement therefore informs everyone if the corporate vision and purpose, the firm's core values and its role in the society. It should also provide a good statement of the business definition if the firm by specifying the products, functions and markets it expects to serve. A

clear business definition provides a better focus when top management considers various strategic alternatives with respect to products, service or markets. Examples of few mission statements include :1. Tata Information System "To be India's most successful and most respected IT Company'. 2. Ranbaxy "To become $1 billion research based global pharmaceuticals company". Mission can be defined as the overriding purpose in line with the values on expectations of stakeholders. Goals. These are the general statement of ____ in purpose.

Objectives. Objectives are the ends which the organization strives to achieve in order to fulfill its mission. Examples are :1. 2. 3. 4. Increase in the market share. Growth in profits Quality products or services to customers Service to society.

Objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable and time bound. They provide standards against which to measure organizational performance. When expressed in specific terms objectives become goals. Objectives are open ended attributes whereas goals are closed ended attributes. The objectives if a firm are formulated by the top management. The following factors influence the formulation if objectives :1. The forces in the environment which are represented by the firms stockholders . These comprises the owners, shareholders, governments , trade unions, competitors and suppliers. 2. The enterprise's resources. combat forces in the environment. Larger firms have nine resources to

3. The internal power relationship amongst the top mangers. The extent of support management enjoys if others in the organization eg. Employees, stockholders etc will determine the degree if influence. 4. The past objectives of the firm. These are generally taken as reference by top managers to set current objective. The changes to the past objectives may be incremental in nature depending on the competing claims presented by the stake holders. Q3. What are the basic social obligations if a business organization? Do these conflict with profit objective if the business? Ans. Corporate social responsibility demand that firms behave as 'good citizen' while pursuing purely commercial goals. The firm should conduct themselves on the basis of certain fundamental principles. Source of the commonly accepted principles are :1. 2. Concern for the quality of life including life at work. Concern for the physical environment.

3. Fair reward for effort and enterprise. 4. Interest and involvement in activities of the wider community. 5. No mis representation in advertising on fraudulent activities. 6. No unfair discrimination in hiring promotion or dismissal of employee. 7. Compliance with laws and established customs of the community. Many large, profitable firms, however, opt to behave in socially responsible ways as co-operation and support of the community is vital to their long term survival and commercial success. Source of the benefits that accure from such involvement are :1. Projection of a 'green' image which is good for business and leads to higher soles. 2. Sponsorship of charitable and community events attracts valuable publicity. 3. Firms image as a good employer helps to attract and retain high caliber workers. 4. Use of energy conservation and anti pollution environmental methods leads to reduced production Cost and increased corporate efficiency. Q4. What is the concept of environment? Search the library and other sources of information to predict the type of environment managers are likely to face ten years hence. Analyze the environment scanning process in your own organization and evaluate how it will face the environment which is fast developing as per your analysis above? Ans. To a business firm environment means the sum total of conditions, events and influences that surround and affect it. The environment in which a business firm exists may either be internal or external. The internal environment refers to all factors (players) within an organization which could provide strengths or weaknesses of a strategic nature. The players in the internal environment comprises if stakeholders ie. Owners, share holders, competitors etc, and the influences exerted by them. The external environment on the other hand consists of various forces which may either present an opportunity or pose a threat to the firm. Typically these external forces exist in the following sectors :Political Social Demographic Economic Supplier Technology Physical. Characteristics of environment 1. Environment is complex The environment consists of a number of factors, events, conditions and influences accusing from different

sources. 2. Environment is dynamic. The nature. environment is constantly changing in

3. Environment is multifaceted What shape and character the environment assumes depends upon the perception of the observer. Environmental scanning is normally carried out by means of a search of verbal and written information, spying, forcasting, MIS etc. The sources of 1. 2. verbal and written information include:

Mass media such as radio and television. Firm's documents, files, MIS, employees etc.

3 External agencies such as the government, trade associations, marketing intermediaries, customers etc. 4. Formal studies by consultants, educational institution, markets research agencies etc. 5. Spying through services of professionals agencies, one's employees and former employees of competition. 6. Secondary sources of information such newspapers, magazines, trade journal, government publications etc. A wide range of methods and techniques are used in conduct of environmental survey and forecasting in strategic planning. As the main purpose of environmental survey is forecasting the future state of environmental factors, must of the techniques are cased on the statistical methods used in forecasting. Q5 Explain the role of SWOT analysis as the tool of facilitating strategic choice at the business level . How is it similar/dissimilar to the grand strategy matrix and the matrix of grand strategy clusters ? Ans:SWOT is the acronym for ' strengths, weakness. opportunities and threats'. Typically strength and weaknesses exists within the organization whereas opportunities and threats and normally encountered in the external environment. A few examples of areas where opportunities may be present are:1. 2. 3 4. 5. 6. International market. mergers or acquisition of competing fairs. Introduction of new production/ services. Development of new markets on penetration of existing one. Control of distribution network. improvement of relation with suppliers

A few examples of areas where threats may emerge are;_

1.

Competitions. Governments legislations Technical obsolescence. Sudden changes in customer preferences Over- dependence on main suppliers in margin customers. Volatility in on collapse of the stock market.

A few examples of sources of strength and weakness existing within the form jerm are :Customers relations . Production efficiency R &D skills. (eg New product development) Quality control and quality assurance . Distribution network. Advertising and sales promotions. Market researches facilities. Cash flow management. Organization culture. Human resource potential. Corporate image, social responsibility and brand equity. SWOT ANALYSIS :- The two projects ETOP and SAP, can be merged and analyzed to narrow down the strategic alternative to once which feasible. By way of illustration of SWOT profile, of a hypothetical firm the software business is show as:ETPO sector impact Government Finance Market Marketing Supplier RAO Technological Personnel International management ETOP profile of a Hypothetical firm Based in the above information it may be such that the firm has definite strength in the functional areas of corporate capabilities and resources. The environment shown the domestic market to be sluggish. As government policies are favorable and international market shown potential, the firm should intensify marketing efforts to attract orders form abroad. The expansion strategy appears to offer a feasible approach competence and financial and personnel resources. Firm may also consider suitable merger acquisitions, as a part of the expansion strategy, provided substantial synergy benefits are likely to accrue. Any strategy formulated through the SWOT analysis technique will depend on certain other factors as well. A strategy of expansion will only be selected provided to management has an inclination for risk-taking. Prior to making a strategic choice various subjective factors will need to be considered when analysis that emerge from the SWOT analysis. SAP impact factor in

ASSIGNMENT A2

Q1. What is core competence?. Explain with some examples. Can you list your company's core competencies?. What is organizational culture?. Why is it important ? Ans:Core competencies are the basis upon which as organization achieves strategic advantage in terms of activities, skills or know show which distinguish it from competition and provide value to customers or clients. On the basis of its resources and behavior, an organization develops certain strengths and weaknesses which when combined lead to synergistic effects. Such effects manifest themselves in terms of organizational competencies. Competencies are special qualities possessed by an organization that make them without and pressures of competition in the market place. In other words ,the net results of the strategic advantages and disadvantages that exist for and organization determine its ability to compete with its revols. Other terms frequently used as being synonymous to competencies are unique resources, core capabilities, invisible assets embedded knowledge, and so on. To identify a cone competence, Prahalad and Hamel prescribe three tests :1. It should be able to provide potential access to a wide variety of markets 2. It should make a significant contribution to the perceived customers benefits of the era product 3 It should be difficult for the competition to imitate

for example 1 Canon's core competence lies in optics ,imaging and microprocessor controls 2 Sony's in miniaturization 3 Philips in optical media 4 3 m's in stick tape 5 Honda's in engine and power trains etc. these cooperation have enabled them to operate offering different products. In instance, canon even dominate, diverse markets such as copies, cameras and image scanners. Other 6. 7. example of core competencies are :Nandas if Escorts in light engineering, Reliance industries in skillful project management and execution.

The core- competencies of in diverse markets has entered into, and laser printers,

8. S Kumar in textile processing. 9. Kumar Mangalam Birla, of the AV Birla group, sees the group's core competencies in a wide anay of skills related to process industries, project management, operations, raw material sourcing, distribution and logistics, setting up dealer networks commodity branding, and

raising finance at a competitive cost. The idea of core competence is brilliant way to focus upon the latent strength of and organization yet they cannot be taken for granted. Over reliance, on core-competence to the extent of becoming prisoners of one's own excellence my result in strategic- myopia. Core competency save a useful purpose if they are used to develop sustained strategic advantages though building up organizational capability, which is such total of resource and behavior, strength & weakness, synergistic efforts occurring in and the competence of any organization Organizational culture This is a dimension of climate that leaders help to develop. The culture of an organization consists of customary ways of doing things and its members shared perceptions of issues that affect the organization. A firm's culture evolve gradually. It affects :Leadership styles Individual perceptions of colleagues and situations. Assumption about how work should be performed. Attitudes towards what is right or wrong. Organizational culture may be innovative, conservative or a mix to two. It creates norms of behavior, attitude, and perception, myths, feelings etc. To change the existing culture of and organization may require injection of new staff, incentive schemes for acceptance of new working methods , whole hearted management support of new ideas etc. Organizational culture is the set of important assumption often unstated that members of an organization share in common. There are major assumptions in common: beliefs and values. Believes are assumption about reality and are divided and reinforced by experience. Values are assumptions about ideals that are desirable and worth striving for. When beliefs and values are shared in an organization, they create a corporate culture. The manifestation of evident in:corporate culture in as an organization is

Shared things (eg , the way people dress) Shared saying (eg, "lets get down to work") Shared actions (eg, a service oriented approach ) Share feeling (eg, land work is not rewarded him) These shared assumptions can help to decipher the composition of the corporate culture of any organization Culture is an strength that can also be a weakness. As a strength, culture can facilitate communication, decision making and control, and create cooperation and commitment. As a weakness, culture may obstruct the smooth implementation of strategy by creating resistance to change. Politicized organizational environment, promoting bureaucracy in preference to creativity and entrepreneurship and unwillingness to look outside the organization for best practices.

There are three factions that seen to contribute to the building up of a strong culture there are :(a) A founder or an influential leader was established desirable values. (b) A sincere and dedicated commitment to operate the business of the organization according to the business of the organization according to the desirable value. (c) A genuine concern for the well being of the organization's stakeholders. Managerial behavior arising out of corporate culture car either facilitate or obstruct the smooth implementation of strategy. A major role of the leadership within an organization is to create an appropriate strategy culture fit. Q2 Explain the role of three behavioral considerations in strategy examination and chaise. What are the advantages of centralization and decentralization? How does having exceptionally competent people at lower levels in the organization facilitate decentralization? Ans: Glueck has defined Strategic choice as the decision to select from among the alto nature grand strategies considered the strategy which will best meet the enterprise's objective. Strategic choice is an analytical as well as judgmental task. So performer the task the frail relies heavily on its marketing research and marketing information systems. This is so because strategies choice finally boils down to choice of products and markets that the fearing will play in. The selection factions car be classified as objective and subjective factions. The objective factors which are based our analytical technique are also referred to as rational normative is prescript facts. The subjective factors, on the other hand , are qualitative in nature and based on personal judgment. These factions are also referred to as intuitive or descriptor faction. The strategic alternative generated are armload our the basis of the objective and subjective selection faction . 1. Leadership Implementation:-

Leaders are important to an organization as they help it cope with change. They ensure that plans and policies formulated are implemented as planned. The successful implementation of strategy chosen will need to he ensured by selecting the right strategist in the right place at the right tiree. The criteria employed will include such factors as education, abilities, experience, temperament and personality. The farina must ensure the strategy chosen and the CEO. So complete and gow in global market places joins must concentrate on being creative and innovative and to achieve this they will need people centered leaders not the old style authoritative managers. 2 Organisation Development (OD)

OD is an aspect if leadership implementation that involves charge processes. It is defined as a large range effort to improve an organizations problems-soling and renewal processes through a more effective and collaborative management of organization culture. To implement change consultants use a variety of techniques which include

survey feedback, confrontation meetings, team building selections, transactional analysis etc. must sewing has suggested there stages for overcoming resistance to change:Unfreezing:resistance rid of existing practices and ides that stand in the way of change. Awareness of the need and benefits of change can be introduced through the OD techniques. Changing :Teaching employees to think and preformed differently.

RefreezingEstablishing new moors and standard practices. Refreezing involves the consolidation and stabilization of the new change. 3. Corporate Values

Corporate or core value are of paramount importance when building or lasting firm. These are small set of guiding principle not to he comp outlined for financial gain or short their expediency values run deep they are timeless guiding principles that drive the way a their operates. Corporate values are the fundamental beliefs on which the farina is built. They are the essence of a justs identity. They are long lasting and serve as a beacon for firm to chain their business course values and nouns and nouns are truly invisible and often an firm's employees are not very aware of their culture or the role they play in helping to maintain it. However every fern does have its our culture and its own set of values sometimes these are not clear to outsiders in ever to those within value drives business firm must articulate their values clearly so that the stakeholders understand what the organization stands for . Centralisation:The organization is dominated by either a very powerful individual by either a very powerful individual is a dominate small group strategic decisions and many operational Owen are made by the centre and very few are devolved to other managers. Such an organizations ability to respond to environmental change become limited. There is power culture in centralized organization power culture is common in small entrepreneurial organization. DecentralizationThe organization is run by rules and laid down precedence's. These organization resound slowly to change due to slow decision making process. it has role culture which is common in traditional bureau races such as government departments. The task of management in a role culture is to manage procedures. Q3. Explain the relationship between renounce commitment to strategy activation? It is said, "People are not like other resources" take a position and defend it Distinguish between 'power' and 'polities'. Consisting of board of directors the CEO or managing director, and executive committee could decide the requirements and distribute resources accordingly. The top down approach is usually adopted in an

entrepreneurial

mode of strategy implementation. Resources are allocated after a

2. Bottom-Up approachprocess of aggregation from the operating level.

3. Strategic budgetingIt is a mix of the above approaches and involves an iterative from of strategic decision making between different levels of management. Besides the strategic budget, there are several other means of resource allocation such as BCG matrix , PLC and so on. Making a Strategic Budget.

POWER Power is defined as "the ability to influence others" and power within an organization is derived from five types of sources. 1. Reward Power arises from the ability of managers to reward positive outcomes. 2. Concise Power arises from the ability of managers to penalize negative outcomes. 3. Legitimate Power arises from the ability of managers to use position to influence behaviour. 4. Referent Power arises from the ability of the managers to create a liking among subordinates due to charisma or personality. 5. Expert Power arises from the manager's competence, knowledge and expertise that is acknowledged by others. Strategists use one or nine of these power _____ to influence the behaviour of organizational members. POLITICS Politics is concerned with the use of power and relates to managing coalitions, consensus building, and the creation of commitment to organizational purpose and mission. The nature of organization itself creates the conditions for corporate politics to manifest itself. Corporate politics is "the carrying out of activities not prescribed by policies for the purpose of influencing the distribution of advantages within the organization". For everyone manger that considers corporate politics and the use of power as bad, there could be another manager who feels that it is good. So, despite source well-meaning managers shunning it, politics remains a part of the organization. Political considerations and use of power, therefore, are a part of behavioral implementation by

strategists. Politics is related to the use of power but it is not similar to it. Politics and power may be thought of as a means for the achievement of organizational objectives. They affect the way a strategy is formulated and implemented. ASSIGNMENT 2 CASE STUDY WS INDUSTRIES. Ans: Yes, I agree with the view that 'WS industries strategic success has been the synergy it was able to establish with its competencies to supply core-components and its competitive advantage in terms of price?. Since competing for end products like lightening conductors, surge arrestors and capacitors was impossible on the multinational's home territory for WS industries. WS industry adopted the strategy to join the competitors and make them partners instead of competing with them. WS industry identified its core-competency which was their knowledge of the physical and chemical process involved in mass production of electrical insulating porcelain, which was their major strength. Insulators being labour intensive product, WS could often international quality at competitive prices. WS industry decided to supply their core components to the original equipment manufactures and end users. Mr. V Srinivasan, vice Chairman and Managing Director of the company, made personal visits to companies in Europe, where he found that executive were open to the idea of buying insulators from India, as they were faced with rising costs at home and WS represented the opportunity to lower their production costs. This strategy was successful and it was evident from the company's exports turnover. The company repeated the performance in the US market after which the company entered into a collaboration to set up a plant in Canada. ASSIGNMENT A3 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. Yes 5. Yes 6. Yes 7. No 8. Yes 9. No, Skills and abilities reqd will be mental ability, analytical ability. Oral and written communication skills. 10. SBU is strategic Business Unit. 11. Yes 12. Yes 13. No 14. Yes 15. No 16. No 17. Contingency strategy is required as backup in situations where the occurance of an event or its timing can not be predicted. 18. No

19. Yes 20. Functional policies 21. No 22. Yes 23. No 24. Yes, The steps of strategic implementation are as follows. Resource allocation Leadership implementation Structural implementation Functional implementation Behavioral implementation 25. Yes 26. No 27. Yes 28. Yes 29. Yes 30. Strategic control continually monitors strategy in the context of organizational and environmental change and take necessary steps to adjust the strategy to the new requirements. The two techniques used to evaluate strategic control are :(a) (b) Strategic momentum control and Strategic leap control.

31. Operational Control is aimed at allocation and use of firm's various resources. The evaluation techniques for this type of control system are based on internal analysis neither than environmental scanning. These include financial analysis ratio, budgetary control, MBO, network techniques like PERT and CPM etc. 32. Strategic Review and Control 33. Yes 34. Yes 35. Performance gap is the gap between the expected outcomes of continuing with the existing strategy and the desired outcomes which could result in the future if the new strategy were to be implemented. 36. Yes 37. These are basic types of strategic controls. 38. No 39. Yes 40. Yes 41. Yes, Structure of a firm can influence its strategy formulation process. 42. Yes 43. Yes 44. No 45. Yes -Thanks & Regards Sandeep Pathania Wipro BPO Solution Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi 9818701040