MCR008 – Corporate Strategy
Student Learning Notes
Topic 1: Introduction to Strategy: Concepts and Perspectives
(Chapter 1 – Strategy: Concepts and Perspectives)
1. Can an organisation survive without strategy and why?
Strategic management is the ongoing process of considering operations and the environment,
testing the available strategic options, planning for the implementation and management of the
strategies produced to reach a final, as well as intermediate, goal(s). Strategic management is
concerned with survival and competition for the organisation. History shows that when an
organisation harnesses its innovative products in an original manner, it creates an unpredictable
and difficult-to-imitate advantage. Setting up an innovative organisation and directing it to achieve
a competitive advantage is, in itself, a challenging task.
A strategy is the plans and actions a company selects to achieve its strategic goals. Irrespective of
an organisation’s size, research has determined that long-term survival of all types of
organisations without strategic planning is unlikely. This includes government departments and
NGOs (non-government organisations). Some organisations do survive and even prosper in the
short term without a formal strategy, however, by employing quite clever people who are
individually aware of the organisation’s environments and constraints and are able to make
appropriate decisions and coordinate with other decision makers, without the framework of a
strategy or set of clearly developed organisational goals. This applies particularly to organisations
which include a number of highly educated professionals (although some might argue the
contrary). These people effectively develop strategy on a case-by-case basis, which is equivalent to
the emergent approach to strategy development.
Survival requires a strategy which includes:
 a focus on competition for customers and resources
 effective and efficient operations that enable an organisation to build sufficient reserves for
development and survival during difficult periods
 an ability to deal with change as a learning organisation and so improve its responses to the
pressures for change as it learns how best to deal with them and so be more innovative when
making changes
 a focus on retaining a competitive advantage
 sufficient time is allowed for deciding on and implementing changes in order to gain a return
from them.
It is therefore difficult for an organisation to survive without strategy.
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2. What are the main characteristics of the four strategy formulation processes?
The main characteristics of the four strategy formulation processes are: classical, evolutionary,
processual, and systemic formulation.
Classical formulation is when the ends/outcomes are achieved using rational planning to maximise
profit. The classical approach uses profits as the principal objective in a rational and calculating
manner. This approach possesses strong linkage with military history where strategy is driven by a
single decision maker with a single objective. Financial goals are often the principal driver of this
strategy formulation process.
Evolutionary formulation focuses more on the environment rather than internal planning in the
decision-making process. In order to survive, organisations need to adapt to environmental
pressures. This certainly becomes a useful reality check when making strategic decisions.
Processual formulation reflects the realities of organisational life, which are influenced by politics,
divergent interests of various stakeholders and organisational culture. This approach focuses on
incremental strategy formulation and implementation. It often involves a compromise and is in
line with human behaviour, i.e., settle for the best alternative based on the constraints and
limitations.
Systemic approach reflects the internal and external context for the strategy formulation and
implementation. It considers the behaviour of people, organisational culture, resources,
institutional context, and is also influenced by the social interests and economic systems in which
the organisations operate.
3. What are the principal reasons for strategic management and thinking?
Researchers such as Mintzberg believe that strategy is a planning process aimed at identifying:
 where the organisation has come from
 where it wishes to be
 what is required to get it there.
Strategic thinking is required as organisations need to understand the environmental conditions
for the formulation and implementation of a strategy in developing an organisation that will be
competitive in such conditions. One of the major reasons for considering organisational strategy is
when the organisation is facing a crisis or major change, such as the acquisition of business units
or a change in CEOs. The current intensified attention to strategic planning practices (and
corporate governance) could be attributed to:
 the mounting pressures on all organisations from globalisation (rising numbers of competitors
with greater and greater levels of resources)
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 increased regulatory authorities’ scrutiny of the business control activities of boards that have
resulted from spectacular governance failures in recent years.
Political and institutional relationships are another reason for the need for strategic approaches in
other areas such as religion, regional political behaviours (such as trade controls) and the
industrial revolution.
Globalisation, reductions in the cost of transportation and information access, have also created
an opportunity for strategic management to have a significant impact on organisational
performance.
4. What are the mechanisms by which sustainability can be incorporated into strategic
management?
The mechanisms by which sustainability can be incorporated into strategic management involve
identifying sources of competitive advantage that arise from organisational processes and
organisational sets of assets. The complexity of internal processes and multiple assets make them
difficult to imitate. Organisational processes depend on internal relationships and these are often
developed over time. The relationships between specific processes, assets and competitive
advantage are often difficult to identify and therefore, hard to imitate. Organisations that are able
to incorporate such sustainability in their formulation of strategy will be able to create core
competencies for a competitive advantage.
Organisations could incorporate sustainability into strategic management in a number of steps.
Firstly, by scanning the external environment, using for examples the PESTEL analysis, five forces
analysis and scenario planning. Secondly, by scanning their internal environment to identify core
competencies and deficiencies. By scanning the internal environment, organisations are able to
identify the availability of resources and competencies using the theories of the resource-based
view and knowledge-based view, and also reflecting on the suitability of structures and cultures of
the organisation for the implementation of strategy. Thirdly, by setting strategic objectives that
reflect the needs of the key stakeholders, the organisation’s purpose, corporate social
responsibility (CSR), the industry conditions and any improvements senior management wish to
achieve. These objectives can be used to justify or reject the various number of strategy designs.
Fourthly, by determining the interplay between internal and external forces and develop action
plan meeting these strategic objectives. Finally, by implementing, monitoring and measuring the
end outcomes to provide sustainability in strategic management.
5. Define competitive advantage and core competency.
A competitive advantage is a characteristic of the organisation’s product, services, behaviour, or
opportunity that an organisation possesses which can enable it to win business from competitors.
A competitive advantage is therefore any source or difference that distinguishes an organisation
from its competitors.
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The core competencies of the organisation are the resources or strengths that create the
organisation’s competitive advantage. Core competencies are at the heart of the organisation.
These could also refer to activities in which an organisation performs better than its competitors
for its competitiveness and profitability. Core competencies are often complex, path dependent,
casually ambiguous and difficult to imitate. They warrant and should receive much of the strategic
development focus of the organisation. Strengths and activities that are not core competencies do
not lead to a competitive advantage and do not warrant this level of attention from the strategic
perspective.
6. How do strategic concepts apply to not-for-profit organisations and non-government
organisations?
The pressures on organisations to be more careful with their strategic planning appears to now
apply to all organisations—even NGOs. For example, charities are now experiencing increasing
pressures from globalisation. Consider the charitable organisation Oxfam which was, until a few
years ago, a local community charity based near Oxford University in the UK. It is now a global
charity organisation competing for donations, volunteer resources and recognition with other local
charity organisations, in other countries, as well as global charity organisations, such as World
Vision.
The reason for this is that all organisations compete for two things:
 the attention and participation of customers/stakeholders/patients
 the resources they require to provide a service.
Customers are often flooded by various organisations’ offerings and therefore, there is always
competition in any organisation’s environment. If the organisation loses the battle for
customers/stakeholders and resources, then it loses the opportunity to provide value/make a
profit no matter how noble its objectives.
7. Identify the different levels at which strategy can be created in an organisation.
The levels of strategy are corporate-leve, business-level and functional-level strategy. Corporate,
business and functional level strategies can be found in all organisations, although the difference
is particularly evident for larger organisations.
Corporate-level strategy reflects the broad purpose of the organisation. This level of strategy
defines the scope of the organisation’s activities, the types of businesses it has, and the
geographical scope of its operations.
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Business-level strategy (business-unit strategy) refers to how the organisation will compete within
a particular market. Organisations adopting the business-level strategy will come up with actioins
to create a competitive advantage over their competitors in a chosen market or industry.
Functional-level strategy is concerned with how the organisation supports its business-level
strategies by allocating resources, structuring the organisations and managing control to create
specific competitive advantages.
In a well coordinated organisation, each level of strategy is derived from the level above, is
focused on the particular issues pertaining to that section of the organisation and is more specific
in detail.
In addition to the levels of strategy, the position the organisation wishes to occupy can fit into
several generic categories. These can include:
 being an industry leader (IBM held this position for many years)
 occupying a niche (such as a specialty retail shop)
 being the best value provider of goods and services
 servicing geographically poorly supported regions (such as developing countries), or
 holding and promoting impeccable ethical standards (such as the Body Shop).
8. Does there always need to be a formally expressed strategy? Why?
Frequently small businesses and businesses with owner managers do not formally express their
strategy, instead holding it as tacit understandings and mental plans. Studies have shown that this
approach for expressing a strategy does not have a negative impact upon company performance.
Larger organisations, however, will usually find that their strategy needs to be formerly expressed
because of their larger numbers of stakeholders and the greater complexity of the organisation
which requires input from a larger proportion of the organisation, as well as the attentions of the
board. So, when the tacit understandings can be held by the chief decision maker, formerly
expressed strategies may not be required, although the strategies themselves are just as
important.
9. How can the strategy formulation process involve more of the organisation?
Modern strategy formulation recognises the importance of the input of all levels of the
organisation and key stakeholders (even including customers and suppliers in some cases). Whilst
the board must ultimately take responsibility for the strategy, its expression and implementation,
input into design and important factors such as objectives and associated timeframes can come
from all parts of the organisation. Communication and opportunities to provide input into the
strategy formulation process (using processes such as company workshops) are important, as well
as sharing an understanding of the key objectives of the organisation with its staff.
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Strategy formulation also involves identifying the external environment, including the general
environment of political, economic, demographic, social, technological and legal environments, as
well as the industry environment in which the organisation is operating in.
10. Does anyone outside an organisation really care about its strategies? Explain.
Stakeholders such as institutional and private investors will have considerable interest in an
organisation’s strategies. Communities that are dependent on the organisation (if it is a major
employer for example) will also have considerable interest in the directions of the organisation
and whether it is likely to develop, shrink or change. If the organisation is a public sector
organisation, and then the constituency that it is responsible for will also have particular interest
in the objectives and how the organisation plans to achieve them. Strategies that are poorly
expressed, not well aligned with the external environment, do not take into account key needs of
stakeholders or are not focused on developing the organisation effectively will not be of interest
to stakeholders. Components of strategies, such as mission statements can be very effective in
attracting the attention and interest of these stakeholders if they are well constructed and equally
effective in diverting their attention away from the organisation’s strategies if they are generic and
are interesting.
11. Are various levels of strategy created separately or are they normally the result of an
integrated process? Explain your reasoning.
The various levels of strategy are normally the result of an integrated process. As earlier
mentioned, strategy formulation requires an analysis of the environment using PESTEL analysis,
five forces analysis and scenario planning. Strategy formulation also requires an analysis of the
organisation in terms of the resources it has for competition, the corre competencies of the
organisation, the suitability of the structure and the match of the organisation’s culture with its
competencies and the external environment. Only when an organisation considers the external
environment and its internal analysis can strategy be developed strategically for competitive
advantage.
After scanning the external environment and the internal characteristics, the organisation is able
to set objectives, craft its strategies, implement the necessary change, measure its performance
and finally, make adjustment if this is required.
12. Can an organisation be successful by only responding to the external environment? Why?
External environment scanning alone is not sufficient to guarantee an organisation success. An
organisational succss is dependent on its effectiveness and efficiency to manage the external and
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internal environments. The external environment is usually beyond the control of the
organisation; an organisation needs to recognise such external environment in order to identify
opportunities and formulate strategies to counteract on the threats presented by the external
environment.
The internal environment is significant for the organisation as it is something that is controllable
by the organisation. The internal analysis provides information about the skills, resources and
activities to create a successful interface between the organisation and its markets to achieve a
more holistic coverage. Doing this will enable the organisation to fully understand its strength and
weaknesses, and also identify various opportunities and threats.