Summary Global Strategy and Leadership (GSL) Condensed Study Notes
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Course
Global Strategy and Leadership
Institution
Global Strategy And Leadership
1.1: Introducing Strategy and Leadership (p.3)
• Strategy: Those decisions that have high medium-term to long-term impact on the activities
of the organisation, including analysis leading to the resourcing and implementation of those
decisions, to create value for key stakeholders and to outpe...
CPA Global Strategy and Leadership (GSL)
Condensed Study Notes for Semester 1,
2023
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CPA Global Strategy and Leadership (GSL) Study Notes:
Module 1 – An Introduction to Strategy and Leadership:
1.1: Introducing Strategy and Leadership (p.3)
• Strategy: Those decisions that have high medium-term to long-term impact on the activities
of the organisation, including analysis leading to the resourcing and implementation of those
decisions, to create value for key stakeholders and to outperform competitors.
The Evolution of Strategy (p.4):
• ‘Strategy’ derives from the Greek word strategos, meaning the art of planning and
conducting a war.
• While often involving competition, strategy can also involve cooperation between
competitors to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
1.2: The Strategy Process (p.6):
The Rational Approach to Strategy (p.8)
• The Rational Approach to Strategy: Based on a linear and mechanistic model, in which the
conception and execution of strategy are treated as discrete, sequential activities
• It involves systematically comparing external and internal contexts, adopting a particular
position to achieve future goals and expressing that in a recognisable form, such as a vision.
• This approach also selects options on the basis of their relative merit and allows
implementation to be designed on the basis of clear and well- supported statements.
• Chandler (1962) defined strategy as a process made up of 2 chronological activities:
1. Setting the basic, long-term goals of an organisation, implementing courses of action
2. Allocating the resources necessary to achieve those goals.
• The rational approach to strategy provides a logical process of analysis and evaluation:
1. Provides a way of talking, analysing and organising a complex set of issues
2. Is a means of communication and legitimisation to stakeholders
3. Is useful as an organising framework to analyse and plan strategy
• The strategy process involves:
o Agreeing the strategy context
o Analysing the operating and competitive environment
o Assessing current performance against goals
o Identifying and developing options for growth
o Evaluating and selecting options and updating the strategy – implementing and
monitoring outcomes.
• In order to overcome the shortcomings of the rational approach to strategy development,
leaders should provide the ability to iterate through using rules and processes that are
robust but not so rigid that they do not allow for flexibility and modification of the strategy.
Rational Approach to Strategy Processual approach to strategy
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Strategy Development in Practice (p.10):
• Strategic management is an ongoing and dynamic process that requires constant monitoring
and adjustment.
• The execution of strategy and the resulting performance needs to be evaluated to ensure
operations are on track.
• The nature of a true competitive strategy involves performing activities differently, or to
perform different activities from one’s competitors.
• Converting strategic plans into actions and results tests a manager’s ability to direct
organizational change, motivate people, build and strengthen company competencies and
competitive capabilities, create and nurture a strategy-supportive work climate, and meet or
beat performance targets.
• While the rational approach is presented as a linear, step-by-step approach the process is
iterative and interdependent.
• Activities undertaken later in the process may lead to the need for change in the earlier
steps (E.g. Obstacles may occur that prevent implementation of the strategy, thus it might
be necessary to consider a completely new direction and develop an updated strategy)
• Leaders and managers need to:
o Be sensitive to the environment for new ideas and challenges
o Create context rather than plans, to encourage innovation and variety
o Tolerate imperfection
o Appreciate that the process of strategy is rarely a purely linear process, even if it
makes it easier to act as if it is
o Be prepared to regularly review the performance of the strategy
o Be prepared to refine/modify the strategy if it becomes evident change is required
o Keep rules simple and build adaptive tension in other words, provide sufficient order
to make things happen, but not stifle people with rigid controls.
• Strategy can therefore be understood as both planned and emergent, representing a pattern
of decisions intended to improve the performance and competitive position of the
organisation (E.g. Amazon’s planning, prioritisation and benchmarking process)
1.3: Gaining a Competitive Advantage (p.12):
• Competitive advantage is the ability of an organisation to outperform its competitors and
make more profits than its competitors do from an equivalent set of activities (E.g. Doing
things in a different way)
• It can do this by being more efficient than competitors or undertaking different activities
that allow it to charge higher prices or gain more market share and brand loyalty.
• Where data can create networks, it can create competitive advantage (e.g. Google maps
provides real time traffic data, road conditions and travel times unlike its competitors)
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• The ubiquity of the Internet challenges the activities that many established companies have
considered as central to their businesses, as they are offered by new, specialised
competitors that are better, faster, and more efficient products, services and solutions in
their area of focus.
• It is critically important for organisations to understand that what has set them apart from
competitors at one point in time will become commonplace and less valuable over time.
• The challenge for firms is how to respond before and when this happens and why
organisational speed, agility and innovation are key for growth and competitiveness.
Purpose and Strategy (p.13):
• ‘Creating new markets’, ‘serving broader stakeholder needs’ and ‘changing the rules of the
game’ are strategies commonly used by high-growth organisations.
• A company’s purpose extends the focus of the organisation across a network of connected
interests and relationships
• Their research suggests that competing based on current competitive conditions means that
competitive advantage becomes commoditised and found that high-growth companies
avoid limiting themselves in this way; instead they pursue opportunities that are consistent
with their purpose (E.g. Mars Petcare – Pedigree)
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