In this document, I have made a comprehensive summary of the Strategic Management of Organizations course. Here, I mainly focused on conveying the knowledge clips as clearly as possible (clearer than the slides in the clips.) In addition, I also added the assignments from the theory and case study ...
Strategic Management of Organizations: lectures + assignments
Knowledge clip 1, week 1
Questions for reflection
1. What is strategy?
2. What purposes does strategy serve?
3. What are some benefits of strategic management?
Origins of contemporary business strategy
- Greek word strategos, meaning ‘a general’ which in turn comes from roots meaning
‘stratos: army’ and ‘agein: to lead’
- Many terms we associate today with strategy (objectives, mission, strengths,
weaknesses) were developed by the military
What is strategy?
1. Alfred D. Chandler: The determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an
enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources
necessary for carrying out these goals
2. Peter Drucker: A firm’s theory about how to gain competitive advantages
3. Michael Porter: Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately
choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.
4. Henry Mintzberg: A pattern in a stream of decisions
Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term which achieves
advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources & capabilities within a
changing environment to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.
Strategy as a plan
- Specify future choices
- Made in advance of action
- Calculated towards achieving objectives
- Conscious and purposeful
Strategy is a plan, it offers a path and is intended.
Strategy as a pattern
- Without preconception
- Driven by actions; not design
- Consistency in behavior (whether intended)
Strategy as a position
- A match between organization and context
- A unique place in the environment: a niche
,Strategic Management of Organizations: lectures + assignments
- Beat competition or avoid direct competition
Strategy as a perspective
- Collective concept
- A world view
- Intensely shared
- The character of an organization
They look into the ‘head’ of an organization
Knowledge clip 2, week 1
Dimensions of strategy
Strategy at different levels
1. Network strategy – collaborate, seeking partners
2. Corporate strategy – one corporation that has different divisions, organization can be
grouped into divisions, business units
3. Business strategy – numerous of business areas for example health, they offer
specific services, products and there are customers with different needs
4. Functional strategy – focuses on one department for example marketing, how do you
get the best result
Strategy process
,Strategic Management of Organizations: lectures + assignments
Strategy formation = strategy follows in a linear progression through distinct stages of first
analyzing the external environment and identifying the opportunities and threats then
routing internally into the organization and identifying these opportunities and threats.
a. Strategy formulation = determine different options and evaluate and then
select the best option
b. Implementation = select the best option and put it into practice and carry out
the plan
Strategic change = very radical change, changing the whole organization at once but this is
unrealistic because not all parts will change simultaneously. There are other factors that are
important such as economic and political reasons.
Strategic innovation = improving the efficiency of existing products, businesses models to
the renewal of these products. So, they adapt better to the future.
Strategy context
The limits of strategy
- Complexity
(Wicked problems) Characteristics of wicked problems
1. Interconnectedness = strong connections link each problem to other problems.
2. Complicatedness = wicked problems have numerous elements with relationships
among them, including feedback loops
3. Uncertainty = wicked problems exist in a dynamic environment
4. Ambiguity = wicked problems can be seen in different ways and there is no single
‘correct view’
5. Conflict = there is often a need to trade-off ‘good’ against ‘bad’
6. Social constraints = social, organizational, and political constraints
, Strategic Management of Organizations: lectures + assignments
- Contradictory interests
- Surprises
Global financial crisis is a major example of strategy gone wrong; strategy did not predict
this. And strategy did contribute to produce it. These strategies came from business elites
and tom management teams trained in the most elite business schools.
Capturing serendipity rather than letting it pass unnoticed – essential to emergent strategy.
- The discovery of Viagra and post-it notes are examples of serendipity captured
Serendipity, luck, and chance are excluded from rational planning views of strategy
Strategic tensions
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