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Cartes-fiches
Describe the 4 steps of strategy-formulation!
- strategic analysis: what is the current and future position of the organization when no major actions are undertaken?
- strategy-formulation: where does the organization want to be?
- strategic implementation: how can the organization get to where it wants to be?
- strategic control: how will the organization know when it has arrived?
Methods of strategy-formulation
Name and explain the three methods of strategy-formulation!
- present-future-analysis of external and internal conditions (strategic analysis)
- determining strategic thrust (identification, analysis, evaluation and determination of new businesses)
- strategy-formulation via portfolio-technique (strategies on the concrete product-market-level)
What is strategic analysis?
- purpose: evaluation of the present and future situation of the organization
- requirements: three activities
- assessing the mission of the organization
- internal environmental analysis
- external environmental analysis
How can you assess the mission of a firm?
- reflection of a firm's fundamental reasons for existence
- every mission statement should describe three primary aspects of the organization:
- its primary products and services
- its primary target markets
- its overall strategy for ensuring long-term success
How can you assess the mission of a firm?
- reflection of a firm's fundamental reasons for existence
- every mission statement should describe three primary aspects of the organization:
- its primary products and services
- its primary target markets
- its overall strategy for ensuring long-term success
What are methods of strategic analysis?
- conducting an internal analysis: to identify assets, resources, skills and processes that represent either strengths or weaknesses for the organization (present-future)
- evaluating the external environment: to identify those aspects of the environment that represent either an opportunity or a threat for the org. (present-future)
Analysis of external and internal conditions
What is identified by internal analysis?
- strengths: aspects of the organization's operations that represent potential competitive advantages or distinctive competencies
- weaknesses: areas that are in need of improvement
What is identified by external analysis?
- Opportunities: those environmental trends on which the org. can capitalize and improve its competitive advantage
- threats: conditions that jeopardize the org. ability to prosper in the long term
Name 4 selected methods of analysis of internal and external conditions!
- Traditional approaches via checklists
- company-situation-analysis (value chain)
- WOTS-UP analysis
- industry and competitive analysis
What are the 6 areas of internal analysis?
- management capabilities
- information technology
- finance
- human resources
- research and development
- marketing
Areas of external analysis: General and task environment (2)
What is the general environment?
- includes environmental forces that are beyond the influence of the organization and over which it has no (or little) control
- economic factors
- technological factors
- socio-cultural and demographic factors
- political-legal factors
Areas of external analysis: General and task environment (2/2)
What is the task environment?
- includes environmental forces that are within the organization's operating environment and may be influenced to some degree
- technology
- customers
- competition
- resource availability
What are the industry effects on strategy selection?
- market size
- ease of entry and exit
- whether there are economies of scale in production
- driving forces of change
- nature of competition in industry
Describe company-situation analysis (value chain)
- Porter uses the term value chain to represent all the activities a firm uses ... to design, produce, market, deliver. and support its product.
- instead of an isolated focus on internal processes, the value-chain-method analyzes the firm in its competitiveness, i.e. in an industry-oriented way
- 6 basic assumptions
What are the 6 basic assumptions of company-situation-analysis?
- the value of a product or service is defined by the customer's questions "is it worth"? (net product orientation, target costing)
- concentration on every net production activity because each of them can gain profits
- organizational transparency through differentiation into special activities and concentration on interdependencies between those activities
- starting point is the firm in its industry, not the firm per se
- comparison between own value chain and the value chain of competitors and, when necessary, re-definition of own activities
- documentation not only of activity structures but also of the way how the activities are fulfilled
What are the components of the value chain: company-situation-analysis?
- primary activities
- support activities
- upstream and downstream
Describe the value chain!
4.2 - Folien 20-21
Critique of value chain!
- systematic method
- sophisticated instrument of identifying of interdependencies and joint resources
- integrated view on firm and its industry
- statements lack empirical foundation
What are the characteristics of the WOTS-UP analysis?
- systematic analysis an comparison of weaknesses, opportunities, threats and strengths
- linking of internal and external factors
- critique:
- workable tool
- implicit suggestions to rely on already existing strengths
- favoring a hostile climate for innovations
- pure descriptive approach
WOTS continued...
4.2 - Folien 24-25
Industry and competitive analysis
- steps of the analysis
- analysis of the industry as a whole
- differentiation within the industry into strategic groups
- competition and profits within the industry are determined by five driving forces
- major driving force of the industry is rivalry amongst "existing firms"
- effectiveness of a strategic option is determined by industry structure and by the strategy of competitors
- necessity to analyze strategic groups
- a strategic group is a group of firms within the industry that run a similar or the same strategy
- identification of strategic groups requires definition of criteria, e.g. degree of specialization, product quality, degree of vertical integration
Critique of industry and competitive analysis
- effective contribution to methods of integrated ex- and internal analysis
- useful statements to relationship between industry structure and competitive situation
- plausibility-founded statements instead of nomological statements
- based on ceteris-paribus thinking that does not meet the real world
- no assistance on how to access external and internal conditions
- concentration on strategic groups might lead to a static approach (negligence of customers' changing needs and preferences)
Describe Porter's five forces!
- industry competitors , rivalry among firms
- suppliers, bargaining power
- buyers, bargaining power
- threat of potential new entrants
- threat of substitute products or services
What is strategy formulation (narrow sense)?
- once the strategy analysis is completed and the current position of the organization has been assessed, corparate and business strategy can be formulated
- steps in strategy-formulation:
- casting the vision for the organization
- setting strategic goals
- identifying strategic alternatives
- evaluating and choosing strategy
Analytical tools of determining strategic thrust
selected analytical tools of strategic thrust:
- space-analysis
- product-market-mix
- TOWS-analysis
--> definition of real action plans
What are the characteristics of SPACE-analysis?
- SPACE: Strategic Position and Action Evaluation
- objective: determination of a firm's basic strategic option which itself should fit with the external and internal conditions
- internal factors: competitive advantages and financial strength
- external factors: environmental stability and industry strength
What are the internal factors of SPACE-analysis?
- competitive advantages: higher profit margin, no need for innovative actions
- strategy: defender or analyzer
- financial strength: ability to survive crises by means of diversification or product innovations
- strategy: prospector or analyzer
What are the external factors of SPACE-analysis?
- environmental stability: closely related to financial strength; no need for financial strength in a situation of high environmental stability
- strategy: defender or (reactor)
- industry strength: closely related to competitive advantages; in strong industries even small and weak firms manage it to find niches
- strategy: prospector or (reactor)
- 4.2 - Folien 36-37
Critique: product-market-mix
- simple method of high plausability
- implicit recommendation to rely on successful strategies of the present situation
- no assistance for defining concrete strategies
Describe TOWS-analysis!
- developed WOTS-UP-analysis
- combination of strength-weaknesses-/opportunities-threats-anaylsis and definition of strategic actions
- higher degree of complexity of TOWS-analysis for MNC
- each country provides its own operationg environment
- a country-by-country TOWS is probably most prudent
- 4.2 - Folie 41
Critique: TOWS-analysis
- checklist-structure results in "completeness" (all relevant factors will be viewed)
- method too simple, not suitable to meet the complexity of real strategy problems
- no information about the strength of influence caused by the different dimensions
- no assistance on how to bridge the gap between contex description and definition of strategic thrust
Strategy-formulation via portfolio-technique
general method: portfolio-technique
- originally a technique of financial management to reduce the risk of investments
- based on external and internal factors which are inluencing the performance of products (better: strategic business unit)
oldest type: BCG matrix
- market growth (external)
- relative market share (internal)
- based on Product Life Cycle Model and Experience Curve Effect
What are the characteristics of BCG matrix?
Boston Consulting Group matrix
- industry growth (external): dimnsion based on Product Life Cycle Model
- relative market share (internal): dimension based on Experience Curve Effects
- Postioning of SBU leads directly to norm (standard) strategies: invest/disinvest
What are the 4 quadrants of BCG matrix?
four quadrants:
- stars
- dogs
- cash cows
- problem children (question marks)
Critique: BCG matrix
market share oriented critique:
- Experience Curve Effects are not deterministic
- no clear and proofed relations between the main variables
- hypotheses are implicitly constructed for fast growing markets
- necessity to gain high market share which results in higher risk
- new techniques lead to increase of profits also in the case of small number of production
industry growth oriented critique:
- Product Life Cycle concept itself is weak (differentiation into stages, no general validity)
- difficult postioning of a product in terms of its life cycle stages
general:
- high practical acceptance and high success rate
What are the characteristics of BCG matrix for International Management?
- portfolio assessment becomes more complex
- portfolio analysis must be conducted for each busines in each country or region of operation
- 4.2 - Folie 49
What is a Country Portfolio?
- based on the BCG matrix
- basic tool for MNCs
- positioning of the country-related situation of the firm, not of single strategic business units
- a comparison with competitors is preferable to increase the information degree of the method
- 4.2 - Folie 51
What are the key points for International Management regarding strategy-formulation via portfolio-technique?
- firms should use a country-by-country or region-by-region competitive analysis depending on the situation they are in (basic strategic options)
- firms should plan distinct competitive strategies by competitors and countries or regions (even by the world)
Strategy, structure and coordination of international business (3)
Strategy, structure and coordination of international business (3)
Coordination as natural reaction of division of labor
Why is there a need for coordination?
- to realize the overall task of the firm in an efficient and effective way, the division of labor is favorable
- decentralization favors differences in goal interpretation and task realization; the realization of the basic overall task might be endangered
- coordination is necessary to harmonize the departments and subsidiaries of a MNC which itself is a prerequisite of success