Chapter 1: What is strategy?
Strategic Management: an integrative management field that combines
analysis, formulation, and implementation in the quest for competitive
advantage.
Strategy: the set of goal-directed actions a firm takes to gain and sustain
superior performance relative to competitors
Stakeholder Strategy: an integrative approach to managing a diverse set of
stakeholders effectively in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage
Stakeholder Impact
Analysis: provides a
decision tool with
which strategic
leaders can recognise,
prioritise and address
the needs of different
stakeholders (5 step-
process and focuses
on power, legitimacy,
and urgency)
Corporate Social
Responsibility: framework
to recognize and address
expectations that society
has of a business
(Philanthropic: voluntarily
giving back to society)
AFI Strategy Framework:
Analysis:
Strategic leadership & the strategy process: What roles do strategic
leaders play? How do they shape vision, mission and values? How does
strategy come about? What process for creating strategy should strategic
leaders put in place?
External analysis: What effects do forces in the external environment
have on the firm’s potential to gain/sustain competitive advantage?
Internal analysis: What effects do internal resources, capabilities and
core competencies have on the firm’s potential to gain/sustain C.A.?
, Competitive advantage, Firm performance & Business models: How
does the firm make money? How can we measure C.A.?
Formulation:
Business strategy: How should a firm compete: cost leadership,
differentiation, value innovation?
Corporate strategy: Where should a firm compete: industry, markets,
and geography?
Global strategy: How and where should a firm compete: local, regional,
national, international?
Implementation:
Organisational design: How should the firm organise to turn the
formulated strategy into action?
Corporate Government and Business Ethics: What type of corporate
government is most effective? How does the firm anchor strategic
decisions in business ethics?
Chapter 2: Strategic Leadership – Managing the Strategy Process
Strategic Leadership: executives’ use of power and influence to direct the
activities of others when pursuing an organisation’s goal
Upper-Echelons Theory: a conceptual framework that views organisational
outcomes as reflections of the values of the members of the top management
, Vision: what an organisation ultimately wants to accomplish; captures the
company’s aspiration (what it wants to be)
Mission: description of what an organisation actually does, the products and
services it plans to provide, and the markets in which it will compete (how it
will accomplish its vision)
Top-Down Strategic Planning: a rational, data-driven strategy process through
which top management attempts to program future success
Scenario Planning: strategy planning activity in which top management
envisions different what-if scenarios to anticipate plausible futures in order to
derive strategic responses
Strategy as
Planned
Emergence: (see
graph on the right)
Dominant Strategic
Plan: the strategic
option that top
managers decide
most closely
matches the current
reality and which is
then executed
Serendipity: describes random events, pleasant surprises, and accidental
happenstances that can have a profound impact on a firm’s strategic initiatives
Planned Emergence: strategy process in which organisational structure and
system allow bottom-up strategic initiatives to emerge and be evaluated and
coordinated by top management
Theory of Bounded Rationality: satisfice rather than optimise due to
limitations in rationality and time available
Cognitive Bias: obstacles in thinking that lead to systematic errors in our
decision making and interfere with our rational thinking
Escalating Commitment: an individual or group faces increasingly negative
feedback regarding the likely outcome from a decision, but continues to invest
resources and time in that decision, often exceeding their earlier commitments
Strategic Management: an integrative management field that combines
analysis, formulation, and implementation in the quest for competitive
advantage.
Strategy: the set of goal-directed actions a firm takes to gain and sustain
superior performance relative to competitors
Stakeholder Strategy: an integrative approach to managing a diverse set of
stakeholders effectively in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage
Stakeholder Impact
Analysis: provides a
decision tool with
which strategic
leaders can recognise,
prioritise and address
the needs of different
stakeholders (5 step-
process and focuses
on power, legitimacy,
and urgency)
Corporate Social
Responsibility: framework
to recognize and address
expectations that society
has of a business
(Philanthropic: voluntarily
giving back to society)
AFI Strategy Framework:
Analysis:
Strategic leadership & the strategy process: What roles do strategic
leaders play? How do they shape vision, mission and values? How does
strategy come about? What process for creating strategy should strategic
leaders put in place?
External analysis: What effects do forces in the external environment
have on the firm’s potential to gain/sustain competitive advantage?
Internal analysis: What effects do internal resources, capabilities and
core competencies have on the firm’s potential to gain/sustain C.A.?
, Competitive advantage, Firm performance & Business models: How
does the firm make money? How can we measure C.A.?
Formulation:
Business strategy: How should a firm compete: cost leadership,
differentiation, value innovation?
Corporate strategy: Where should a firm compete: industry, markets,
and geography?
Global strategy: How and where should a firm compete: local, regional,
national, international?
Implementation:
Organisational design: How should the firm organise to turn the
formulated strategy into action?
Corporate Government and Business Ethics: What type of corporate
government is most effective? How does the firm anchor strategic
decisions in business ethics?
Chapter 2: Strategic Leadership – Managing the Strategy Process
Strategic Leadership: executives’ use of power and influence to direct the
activities of others when pursuing an organisation’s goal
Upper-Echelons Theory: a conceptual framework that views organisational
outcomes as reflections of the values of the members of the top management
, Vision: what an organisation ultimately wants to accomplish; captures the
company’s aspiration (what it wants to be)
Mission: description of what an organisation actually does, the products and
services it plans to provide, and the markets in which it will compete (how it
will accomplish its vision)
Top-Down Strategic Planning: a rational, data-driven strategy process through
which top management attempts to program future success
Scenario Planning: strategy planning activity in which top management
envisions different what-if scenarios to anticipate plausible futures in order to
derive strategic responses
Strategy as
Planned
Emergence: (see
graph on the right)
Dominant Strategic
Plan: the strategic
option that top
managers decide
most closely
matches the current
reality and which is
then executed
Serendipity: describes random events, pleasant surprises, and accidental
happenstances that can have a profound impact on a firm’s strategic initiatives
Planned Emergence: strategy process in which organisational structure and
system allow bottom-up strategic initiatives to emerge and be evaluated and
coordinated by top management
Theory of Bounded Rationality: satisfice rather than optimise due to
limitations in rationality and time available
Cognitive Bias: obstacles in thinking that lead to systematic errors in our
decision making and interfere with our rational thinking
Escalating Commitment: an individual or group faces increasingly negative
feedback regarding the likely outcome from a decision, but continues to invest
resources and time in that decision, often exceeding their earlier commitments
