This document provides a detailed summary of the course Strategy. It is written in English, but applicable to BOTH DUTCH AND ENGLISH students following the course strategy / strategie. It contains a lecture-by-lecture summary of all the important information, including all the readings and paradoxe...
Strategy Summary
This document summarizes the strategy course. It is written in English, but applicable to both the Dutch
and English branches of this course. The course is summarized as taught, meaning by lecture.
The summary also includes the readings that are given in each lecture. These will be placed under a
separate heading at the end of the lecture. If more information is provided than simply the title, that is
the provided relevant information on these readings in the lecture. If nothing more is provided than
simply the details of those readings, the relevant information has been incorporated in the lecture
summary already.
,Lecture 1 Introduction
Strategy is about dilemma’s and paradoxes. Will you create alliances? What is your position in the
market? These types of issues are discussed when talking about strategy.
We can define multiple levels of strategy. See the figure below. At the highest form, we have networks.
Networks show the relationships, partnerships and interactions between companies. It concerns which
competitors you aim to fight and which you want as temporal allies.
One level lower we have the corporate level. On the corporate level, we mainly talk about diversified
companies. Any company X has multiple business units, and the corporate level. They operate on
multiple divisions which can be but are not necessarily related. A form of related divisions can be a car
manufacturer that also produces its own car parts. A form of unrelated divisions for example is a
company like Yamaha, which produces motorcycles but also pianos. Some companies deliberately look
or unrelated divisions, as they have the advantage of hedging risks.
The Business level looks at only one of the divisions within a company. It concerns important issues like
staff allocation and HR management, as well as finance, accounting and R&D. They take place on an
operating unit and hence there can be multiple ways to organize the same e.g. R&D strategy within a
company.
Finally, there is the functional level. This concerns the way marketing and sales are governed. Think for
example of name branding, product management and communicating about marketing. There is one
functional department within your operating unit that tackles these issues.
,There are two ways of viewing strategic questions:
- tool-driven: think of measurements like the SWOT-analysis or PESTLE analysis.
- problem driven: identifying key strategy issues and examine them from the perspective of the most
appropriate theories.
Some key terms of strategy issues:
- Strategizing concerns the cognitive processes of an individual strategist.
- missioning and visioning concerns the purpose as the impetus for strategy activities
- the content of a strategy are the combined decisions and choices that lead a company into the future
- the process of a strategy is the way in which strategies come about
- the context of a strategy is the set of circumstances under which the strategy content and process are
determined
These concepts are often dynamic. They can change over time, depending on what is most suitable for
your company in its environment.
A paradox is a situation without answer (or set of answers). There are six different ways of dealing with
a paradox:
1. Navigating: focus on one contrary element at a time
2. Parallel processing: separating the contrary demands in different internal/external organizational
units
3. Balancing: trade-off elements of the imposing demands
4. Juxtaposing: manage opposite demands
5. Resolving: developing a new synthesis between competing demands
6. Embracing: embrace and actively use the tension as a source of creativity
, There are many situations where paradoxes play a role in strategies. The following image gives an
overview of all the different lectures/ book chapters, and some of the paradoxes we will discuss during
them:
One example of a paradox can be seen in the Friedman vs Freeman discussion.
Friedman vs. Freeman:
Friedman: if a company is profitable, it contributes to national importance
- income can be spent, tax can be collected for it, improves the greater good
- businesses don’t need to focus on other external factors first
- companies need to turn a profit above all
- shareholders approach
Freeman: a company should look at different stakeholders
- the environment is an important factor to consider
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