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In-Class Case Discussion #3Inner-city Grocery case (Pearson Casebook)Your previous exposure to the concepts and experience in evaluating case scenarios should have prepared you to effectively conduct an extensive case analysis and prepare for an insightful in-class case discussion.This casebook is comprised of four cases and one article. In your first reading of the cases/articles, you may not readily recognize the connection among them. Part of your assignment is to determine how they relate to each other. When reading the casebook, make sure to take a number of notes. Re-read and re-read, if necessary. Crunch numbers and draw diagrams and charts, if need to. In addition to your notes, you are expected to DEVELOP A STRATEGIC PLAN, and outline what you need to do in order to write the plan.Assess the current situation and environment. Who is involved? What is happening? You should be able to fully discern and determine the issues related to the cases. Remember that some issues may be obvious and many will not be obvious. Also remember that the purpose of case analysis is to think ahead and foresee what may happen in the future.Develop and consider a list of possible alternatives that may address the issues. Are there priorities you must set? Can some alternatives be performed simultaneously? How will you balance the needs of all your stakeholders? What decision(s) will you ultimately make? What will it take for successful implementation? How will you evaluate whether or not your decision was a good one?The bulk of your preparation for the in-class discussion should focus on the strategic plan and its components.Your notes and analysis, preferably, should be typed or, at a minimum, printed/written legibly.。
战略管理(英文版)Strategic Management: An OverviewIntroductionIn today's fast-paced and highly competitive business environment, companies must adopt effective strategies to ensure their long-term success and sustainable growth. Strategic management plays a crucial role in helping organizations align their resources, capabilities, and objectives to achieve their strategic goals. This article provides an overview of strategic management, its key components, and the benefits it offers in an increasingly dynamic and complex marketplace.1. Definition of Strategic ManagementStrategic management is the process of formulating and implementing strategies that enable organizations to fulfill their missions and achieve their objectives. It involves analyzing the external environment, identifying internal strengths and weaknesses, setting objectives, formulating strategies, implementing plans, and monitoring progress to ensure strategic goals are met.2. Key Components of Strategic Management2.1 Environmental AnalysisEnvironmental analysis involves assessing the external factors that influence an organization's performance and success. This includes macro-environmental factors such as political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) factors, as well as industry-specificfactors. Understanding the external environment helps organizations identify opportunities and threats and make informed strategic decisions.2.2 Internal AnalysisInternal analysis focuses on assessing an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses. This includes evaluating its resources, capabilities, and core competencies. By understanding its internal strengths, an organization can leverage them to gain a competitive advantage. Similarly, identifying weaknesses helps organizations address potential areas of improvement and overcome challenges.2.3 Strategy FormulationStrategy formulation involves developing a comprehensive plan to achieve an organization's objectives and competitive advantage. This includes defining the mission and vision, setting strategic objectives, and selecting appropriate strategies. Strategies can be categorized into corporate, business, and functional levels, depending on the scope and focus of the organization's activities.2.4 Strategy ImplementationStrategy implementation is the process of translating strategic plans into actions and ensuring their effective execution. It involves allocating resources, coordinating activities, and monitoring progress. Effective implementation requires strong leadership, effective communication, and a supportive organizational culture.2.5 Evaluation and ControlEvaluation and control involve monitoring and reviewing the progress of strategic initiatives and making necessary adjustments. This includes establishing key performance indicators, conducting regular performance assessments, and taking corrective actions to ensure strategic goals are being achieved. Evaluation and control help organizations stay on track and make informed decisions throughout the strategic management process.3. Benefits of Strategic ManagementStrategic management offers several benefits to organizations:3.1 Clear DirectionBy formulating a clear strategy, organizations establish a sense of direction and purpose. This enables employees to align their efforts and work towards common goals, enhancing overall organizational performance.3.2 Competitive AdvantageStrategic management helps organizations identify unique value propositions and differentiate themselves from competitors. By leveraging their strengths and focusing on key opportunities, organizations can gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.3.3 Adaptability to ChangeIn today's rapidly evolving business landscape, agility and adaptability are essential for success. Strategic management enables organizations to anticipate and respond to changes in the external environment, ensuring their long-term viability in a dynamic marketplace.3.4 Resource AllocationStrategic management facilitates effective resource allocation by aligning financial, human, and technological resources with strategic objectives. This ensures optimal utilization of resources and maximizes the organization's ability to achieve its goals.3.5 Performance MeasurementBy implementing strategic objectives and monitoring progress, organizations can measure their performance and identify areas for improvement. This allows for continuous learning and ongoing improvement, enhancing overall organizational effectiveness.ConclusionStrategic management is a fundamental process that enables organizations to navigate the complexities of the modern business landscape. By analyzing the external environment, assessing internal capabilities, formulating effective strategies, implementing plans, and evaluating performance, organizations can achieve their objectives and thrive in a highly competitive marketplace. Embracing strategic management is essential for long-term success and sustainability.。
strategicStrategic Management: The Key to Business SuccessIntroductionIn today's highly competitive business world, strategic management has become an essential component for any organization striving for success and sustainability. It involves setting goals, formulating strategies, and making decisions that give a company a competitive edge over others. This document aims to explore the concept of strategic management, its importance, and how it can be effectively implemented by organizations.Understanding Strategic ManagementStrategic management is the process of analyzing an organization's internal and external environment, formulating strategies, implementing them, and evaluating their effectiveness. It provides a framework for long-term planning and helps organizations in achieving their objectives.Importance of Strategic Management1. Direction and Focus: Strategic management provides organizations with a clear sense of direction by defining their mission, vision, and goals. It helps them align their activities and resources towards the achievement of these objectives.2. Competitive Advantage: By analyzing the competitive landscape and identifying opportunities and threats, strategic management enables organizations to develop unique strategies that differentiate them from their competitors.3. Effective Resource Allocation: Strategic management helps in rationalizing resource allocation by identifying areas that require investment and those that can be divested. It ensures that resources are utilized optimally, resulting in increased efficiency and profitability.4. Risk Management: Strategic management allows organizations to anticipate potential risks and develop contingency plans to mitigate them. It provides a systematic approach to managing uncertainties in the business environment.Process of Strategic Management1. Environmental Analysis: This involves scanning the external environment for opportunities and threats and analyzing the internal environment for strengths and weaknesses. Tools like PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis, and Porter's Five Forces can be used for this purpose.2. Strategy Formulation: Based on the findings of the environmental analysis, organizations develop strategies to achieve their objectives. These strategies can be related to areas such as product development, market penetration, diversification, or cost leadership.3. Strategy Implementation: This involves putting the formulated strategies into action. It includes allocating resources, defining roles and responsibilities, and developing an action plan. Effective communication and coordination are crucial during this stage.4. Strategy Evaluation: Organizations need to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to assess the progress towards goals. This stage helps in identifying any deviations from the plan and taking corrective actions if required.Implementing Strategic ManagementFor successful implementation of strategic management, organizations need to consider the following:1. Leadership Commitment: Top management should be committed to strategic management and lead by example. They should actively participate in the strategic management process and communicate its importance throughout the organization.2. Employee Involvement: Employees at all levels should be involved in the strategic management process. Their insights and feedback can provide valuable input for strategy formulation and implementation.3. Flexibility and Adaptability: Strategic management is an ongoing process that requires flexibility and adaptability in response to changing market dynamics. Organizations should be open to revising their strategies if required.4. Performance Measurement: Establishing a performance measurement system is crucial to track the progress ofimplemented strategies. Regular monitoring and evaluation will help in identifying areas of improvement and making necessary adjustments.ConclusionStrategic management plays a vital role in the success and growth of organizations. It provides a framework for effective decision-making, resource allocation, and risk management. By aligning organizational activities with long-term goals, strategic management helps in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Although implementing strategic management requires commitment and effort, the benefits it offers far outweigh the challenges. Organizations that embrace strategic management as a core function are better equipped to navigate the dynamic business environment and achieve long-term success.。
Strategic ManagementCase Study: APPLEDiscussion Questions:1. What are key forces in the general and industry environments that affect Apple’schoice of strategy?2. What internal resources and assets does Apple have that may give it acompetitive advantage?3. What are Apple’s core competencies? How should Apple compete?4. What is Steve Jobs’ role in Apple’s strategic management1. General and Industry EnvironmentsPick up from the case only specific examples to include under general environment and Porter Five ForcesRegarding the general external environment, Apple must consider the political/legal, economic and global, sociocultural and demographic, and technological forces that might affect the ability of the firm to get its product to market and sustain sales.Demographic: Certainly the demographics had changed. Baby-boomers were getting older, while the youngest generation was much more “wired”.Sociocultural: Customers were growing increasingly sophisticated. They knew what they wanted and didn’t want to pay a lot for it, but could be seduced by a “sexy” design. Increasing globalization meant borders didn’t matter so much any more – American products did not have any particular edge. As long as products were high performance and high service, the customer didn’t know or care where they came from. Technological: Technology, especially the growth of the Internet, had created new opportunities for delivery of content and for promotion. Companies like Intel and Samsung were making many advances in memory and display technology. The pace and direction of change required considerable monitoring and possibly risk-taking. Political-Legal: Political-legal issues, especially the issues around copyrights, monitoring of content distribution (digital rights management), environmental waste, and the possibility of global trade monopolies. U.S. regulators from Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission continued scrutiny of trade and stockholder issues.General Observation:Based on the external environmental factor analysis, the consumer electronics business has many competitors trying to carve out a piece of the “profit” pie. However, Apple is the only one with a well-diversified product line - able to compete in many product categoriesUse the Value Chain Model to illustrate your answer:A sample value chain analysis is below:Value chain activity How does Apple create value for the customer?What challenges does Apple have in its valuechain?Primary:Inbound logistics (distributionfacilities, material controlsystems, warehouse layouts)Hard to access. Information not readily available.Operations (efficient work flow design, quality control systems) No evidence that this has ever been a weakness. Taken for granted, even assumed to be a strength.Outbound logistics (consolidation of goods, efficient scheduling, finished goods processing) Distribution efficiency hard to assess, but appears effective, except for certain product availability.Marketing and Sales (motivated sales people, innovative advertising & promotion, effective pricing, proper ID of customer segments & distribution channels) Multichannel distribution through Apple retail, third-party resellers, Internet, direct mail, word-of-mouth. Sales supported through creative advertising. Attention to design elements means it’s easy to recognize an Apple product. This is a major strength.Service (ability to solicit customer feedback & respond) Consistent quality guaranteed by long-time relationship with Mac users. Many blogs and Apple-related websites provide lots of commentary and feedback. Retail “experts” – Genius Bar – provide custom support.Secondary (or support):Procurement (win-win relationships with suppliers, reduced dependence on single supplier) Relying on multiple international partners for sourcing of some components allows for hedging against potential shortages. Negotiation and partnership with others such as Samsung creates barrier for competitors.Technology development (stateof the art hardware & software,innovative culture & qualifiedpersonnel)Absolutely one of Apple’s great strengths.Human resource management (effective recruitment, incentive & retention mechanisms) After major shake-ups in the 1990’s, and Jobs’ recent illness, current employees and management appear focused and effective.General Administration (effective planning systems to establish goals & strategies, access to capital, effective top management communication, relationships with diverse stakeholders) Jobs, and especially COO Tim Cook, seem to excel at this. Witness September 2008, in the midst of economic crisis, Apple had record year-end profits, $25 billion of cash, zero debt; and then over $10 billion quarterly revenue in January 2009.Also assess the resources based on VRIN framework (see below)Also use the Resource Based View approach?Explain the three key types of resources: tangible resources, intangible resources, and organizational capabilities.Also, determine whether the internal resources are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, or difficult to substitute (VRIN) can help a firm sustain a competitive advantage.Tangible Resources:Financial: Financially sound. Possibility of cash reserves to fund more R&D. Physical: Hard to assess, but certainly historically adequate.Technological: Biggest asset here is Apple’s human resource – capable, motivated and highly technologically creative employees insure Apple will keep up with technology innovation.Organizational: Jobs strategy of focusing on the digital “lifestyle” opens up what may have been functional “silos” in other companies.Intangible Resources:Human: Job’s focus on innovation appears to continually revitalize the workforce.Innovation and creativity: One of Apple’s major strengths.Reputation: This is one of Apple’s most significant strengths. The Apple brand is known world-wide.An important issue to focus on here is the importance of intangible resources like innovation and reputation. Especially in mature brands, sustaining reputation is essential. Look at resources that are controlled by Apple that might enable it to develop and implement value-creating strategies.Organizational CapabilitiesSpecific Competencies or Skills: Jobs’ initial focus on the design professional, and education consumer seems to have gotten Apple its loyal customer base. Apple’s additional skills include speed to market, brilliant design, creative marketing, and the ability to watch margins. This last highlights the importance of good operational skills, evident in COO Tim Cook.Capacity to combine resources: How to combine the above competencies to continue to revitalize and grow the brand depends on Apple’s ability to focus on performance and innovation, and leverage its intangible assets3. How should Apple compete? What are its core competencies?Core Competencies:Core competencies reflect the collective learning in organizations—how to coordinate diverse production skills, integrate multiple streams of technologies, and market diverse products and services to create value. Core competencies must create superior customer value; the different businesses must all have similar elements in the value chain that require similar skills; and these activities or skills must be difficult for competitors to imitate.Apple diversified through creating horizontal relationships in related businesses: all business units – computers, music, communication - related to Jobs’ vision of a digital lifestyle, one facilitated via integrated software and peripherals. See Spotlight 6.2 in Chapter 6 that highlights Apple’s core competency in software development. As Jobs said: “we could write all these different kinds ofsoftware and tweed it all together and make it work seamlessly. And you ask yourself: What other companies can do that? It’s a pretty short list.”Sharing activities means that value chain elements are shared across business units, so that two or more activities are done by one of the businesses. This allows for cost savings, but businesses need to make sure to keep control over quality and customer perception. Apple’s major sharing activity was its marketing and sales, which, as already discussed, was one of its strengths.The Apple case is a good example of vertical integration, and the role of entrepreneurship in maintaining the pace of innovation in the face of a volatile product life cycle industry. Apple’s strategy included significant focus on internal development (see R&D expenditures), but alsowell-planned strategic alliances (with Hynix, Intel, Micron Technology, Samsung, Toshiba) to acquire key components.4. What is Steve Jobs’ role in Apple’s strategic managementRefer to Chapter 11: Strategic Leadership: Excellence, Ethics & ChangeSee the concept of leadership, the process of transforming organizations from what they are to what the leader would have them become. This involves:•Setting a direction•Designing the organization•Nurturing a culture dedicated to excellence and ethical behaviorThrough Steve Jobs’ vision and the example he set for his firm, it seems likely he was able to nurture this culture. Witness the ten-year longevity of Apple’s executive team.He also went further to create a learning organization, one able to continue his ideas and ideals by encouraging all employees to use their intelligence and apply their imagination. See Exhibit 11.5. Jobs said: “we hire people who want to make the best things in the world.” Cook said Apple had “35,000 employees, all of whom are wicked smart.” Giving credit to the people who do the work is the mark of executives who encourage employees to use that intelligence in support of the firm’s goals.Refer to Chapter 12: Managing Innovation & Fostering Corporate Entrepreneurship –See the concept of innovation, the ability to use new knowledge to transform organizational processes or create commercially viable products and services using the latest technology, experimentation, creative insights, and information from competitors.For instance: There are “five disciplines” for creating what customers want:•Identify important customer needs•Create solutions that fill those needs•Build innovation teams•Empower "innovation champions" who keep the effort on track•Align the entire enterprise around creating value for customersApple appeared to be able to do all of the above, especially the last one.Referring back to Steve Jobs’ statement about innovation, one of the most important things he wanted Apple to do was to be “always thinking about new markets”, but with a discipline that made sure Apple didn’t “get on the wrong track or try to do too much.” Jobs was very clear about the need for discipline, and continuous learning. It’s likely that these questions were uppermost in his mind, especially about what might be learned it something didn’t work. The new move to create a tablet device (see the Case Updates) is rumored to be a result of Jobs’ memory of the Newton tablet, which didn’t work out in 1998, but what could be learned from that failure?The challenges of innovation involve:•Choosing when and how to continue to innovate•The pace of future innovation•Whether or not to collaborate with innovation partners•Requires resources such as financial, human and social capital•Requires the leadership team to have adequate vision, dedication and driveSteve Jobs seemed to have been an innovator all his life. As the firm continues to grow, he, or his designates, need to make sure the above issues are considered before committing the organization’s resources.。
