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ASSIGNMENT
| Drive | Winter 2014 |
| Program | MBADS/ MBAFLEX/ MBAHCSN3/ MBA – SEM 4
PGDBMN/ PGDENMN/ PGDFMN/ PGDHRMN/ PGDHSMN/ PGDIB/ PGDISMN/ PGDMMN/ PGDOMN/ PGDPMN/ PGDROMN/ PGDSCMN/ PGDTQMN – SEM 2 |
| Subject code & name | MB0052 – Strategic Management and Business Policy |
| Book ID | B1699 |
| Credit and Max. Marks | 4 credits; 60 marks |
1(a) Define “Strategic Management” and “Strategic Planning”.
Answer: Business (or Strategic) management is the art, science, and craft of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its long-term objectives. It is the process of specifying the organization’s mission, vision and objectives, developing policies and plans, often in terms of projects and programs, which are designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the policies and plans, projects and programs. Strategic management seeks to coordinate and integrate the activities of the various functional areas of a business in order to achieve long-term organizational objectives. A balanced scorecard is often used to evaluate the overall performance of the business and its progress towards objectives.
(b) Discuss the benefits of Strategic Management.
Answer: There are many benefits of strategic management and they include identification, prioritization, and exploration of opportunities. For instance, newer products, newer markets, and newer forays into business lines are only possible if firms indulge in strategic planning. Next, strategic management allows firms to take an objective view of the activities being done by it and do a cost benefit analysis as to whether the firm is profitable.
- Discuss the difference between defensive strategies and pre-emptive strategies. Give examples to support your answer.
Answer: Defensive strategies are only used by market leaders in strategic management. If your small-business has reached a market-leading position, you may need to use such strategies. The goal of these strategies is to hold onto your position as the market leader, fighting off competitors who try to take away your market share. Because firms tend to target market leaders, this will not be an easy task, but fortunately you have multiple strategies to choose from.
Defensive strategies are broadly classified as follows:
- Position Defence: This strategy involves
(b) Differentiate between surgical and non-surgical turnaround. Give examples.
Answer: The surgical method, more commonly practiced in the West, involves sweeping changes like firing of staff, managers, wholesale reshuffling of portfolios, closing down operations, etc. Some call it bloodbath or bloodshed. Non-surgical turnaround adopts the opposite approach, that is, peaceful means—revamping or recovery through meetings, discussions, persuasions, consensus, etc.
The operations in surgical turnaround are like this: the first step is to replace the chief executive of the ailing company by a new ‘iron’ chief. The new chief promptly gets into action; he asserts his authority. He issues pre-emptory orders, centralizes functions and spears some convenient scapegoats. Then he goes about firing employees en masse and auctioning/selling whole plants and divisions ‘until the fat is satisfactorily cut to the bone’. The bloodbath over, the product mix is revamped, obsolete machinery is replaced, marketing is strengthened, controls are toughened, accountability
(b) Expansion through Diversification
Answer: Diversification is the name given to the growth strategy where a business markets new products in new markets.
Diversification is a much used and much talked about set of strategies. It involves a substantial change in the business definition – singly or jointly- in terms of customer groups or alternative technologies of one or more of a firm’s businesses. . There are two categories
- Discuss the competitive strategy in:
Answer: Generic competitive strategies enable a firm to outperform competitors in the industry. These strategies include overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. A firm following the cost leadership strategy needs to achieve the lowest cost of production per unit level in the industry. On the other hand, differentiation strategies are aimed at maintaining the exclusivity of the product so that the perceived difference in the product serves as a competitive advantage to the firm. Using focus strategies, the firm tries to capture a particular buyer group, segment of
(a) Emerging industry
Answer: Emerging industries are created by technological innovations, shifts in relative cost relationships, or the emergence of new consumer needs. Given the high level of uncertainty and risk and the lack of clarity in the rules of competition, formulating
(b) Declining industry
Answer: Declining industries are characterized by a sustained, absolute decline in unit sales over a long period. These declines
6“Benchmarking is the process by which companies look at the ‘best’ in the industry and try to imitate their styles and processes”
Evaluate the rationale for benchmarking exercises and discuss the features and types of benchmarking. Please ensure to include an example to support your answer.
Answer: Whether it’s for internal comparisons, or for measuring the effectiveness of your company against close competitors, benchmarking is a vital continuous improvement tool. And although it’s safe to say that the average executive understands the benefits of benchmarking performance, that doesn’t necessarily mean his or her company has ever participated in such an initiative.
Benchmarking is the process of measuring products, services, and processes against those of organizations known to be leaders in one or more aspects of their operations. Benchmarking provides necessary insights to help you understand how your organization compares with similar organizations, even if they are in a different business or have a different group of customers.
Additionally, benchmarking can help you identify areas, systems, or processes for improvements—either incremental (continuous) improvements or dramatic (business process reengineering) improvements.
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