Strategy Management Tasks - Essay Example

? Reflection on Strategy Management task The first task of the assignment was to produce a business plan for a newly developed standalone organization. It is important to understand the concept and significance of a business plan. Proper understanding about the task has helped me to initiate appropriate steps. Business plan provides the strategy and direction for a new business. The initial part of the first task was to undertake the Horizon Scanning. Horizon scanning helps the managers to detect the early potential signs of a business through an effective examination of environmental threats and opportunities. First of all, I made an approach to understand each and every aspects of the task. Then several secondary researches were executed in order to collect suitable information and data within a quick period of time. The PEST analysis was easy to implement in this study. The recent political, economical, technological and economical scenarios of the industry can be obtained easily from text books or other academic journals. These sources helped to provide reliable data and information of the specific industry. Horizon scanning was the most difficult part in this task. It is very much difficult for a manager to estimate future threat and opportunities. Inadequate detection of early signs can affect the financial stability of the firm. On the other hand, the economic and political situation is changing constantly. Therefore, this part of the task has created several initial problems. I learned several significant and important things while completing the first task. Industry analysis and Horizon scanning were the two most interesting parts of this task. Through the industry analysis, an analyst can gain important knowledge about the situation of external environment. On the other hand, effective Horizon scanning can increase the future estimation and analytical skill that can increase the productivity of a manager. The second task is all about the competition and business unit strategy. The aim of this task is to provide example of two organizations that adopted cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy. Firstly, I made an approach to understand the generic strategies of Porter. There are three strategies, such as Cost leadership strategy, Differentiation strategy and Focus strategy. An organization can implement cost leadership strategy through the operating cost reduction strategy. This process helps an organization to implement competitive pricing strategy that can increase the client base. On the other hand, organizations implement differentiation strategy through the product and service differentiation policy. It is one kind of niche marketing strategy that helps the organizations to create a potential client base. After understanding the concepts of generic strategy, I took help of text books to find example of two organizations. Several facts from academic journals and text books helped me to proceed with the task. The easiest thing of this task was to execute the positioning strategy of two business units. A perceptual draw map was implemented in this study in order to locate the appropriate position of those two business units. The most difficult part of this task was to examine the differentiation and cost leadership strategy of two different firms. It is quite difficult to get the information about product and service differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy of organizations within limited time period. These are time consuming processes as the secondary resources cannot present current and upgraded data and information most of the time. Positioning strategy of two different business units was the most significant and interesting part of this second task. Effective analysis of positioning strategy can help the analysts to understand the strategic position of an organization (Moore, 2002, p. 32). The implementation of perceptual map helped me to decide the position of two business units. The third task is all about the global business expansion strategy. Cross border mergers, joint ventures and acquisition are popular business expansion strategy in recent time. The aim of this task was to find the reasons for failure or success of this strategy basis on the theoretical content. Academic journals, relevant secondary academic sources and text books helped me to find a recent example. Moreover, theories and arguments of several authors and literatures helped me to complete the task. Before discussing the reasons, it was important for me to understand the significance, advantages and limitations of these three expansion strategy. These are very much critical concepts to understand. However, this task was time consuming. The easiest thing of this task was to find the examples of these expansion strategies. Text books and academic journals helped me to provide review of literatures and theoretical concepts in this task. The most difficult task was to find reliable and appropriate data and information. Moreover several authors shared different views on this subject. On the other hand, the secondary resources cannot provide current and upgraded information most of the time. Therefore, it was difficult for me to analyze and evaluate the factors effectively within a short period of time. Understanding the concept of cross border merger was the most significant part of this third task. Employees, pre-steps, liabilities, contracts and licences are the key issue of cross border merger. The knowledge about alternative option of cross border merger, such as transfer of asset and trades is quite interesting (Lessambo, 2013, p.121). These facts are very much interesting. These helped me to learn several significant things of cross border merger. The fourth task is all about the CSR and corporate governance of Alliance Boots. The objective of fourth task was to analyze the CSR activities of Alliance Boots and find ethical issues in the organization. We, as a group made several approaches to understand the concept of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance of an organization. We took the help of text books to understand the basic concept about the corporate social responsibility. The organizations implement CSR strategies in their business process in order to increase their business sustainability. Effective CSR policies and corporate governance helps the organizations to avoid several ethical and legal issues (Mullerat, 2011, p.448). The annual report of the organization helped us to find the CSR activities of Alliance Boots. Moreover, the organization is trying to implement several strategies in future in order to reduce the carbon emission level. The information about the CSR strategies was collected from the annual report of the organization. This was the easiest thing of the task. Information about several event and future strategies helped us to complete this task. Most difficult part of this task was to find the ethical issues. It is true that nobody will provide ethical issues in the company website or annual report. It was very difficult to find the information about the ethical issue. Most significant and interesting part of this task was to find the future CSR strategies of Alliance Boots. It is evident that the organization is trying to implement advanced technology in logistics and supply chain process in order to reduce the carbon emission level. Moreover, fuel consumption strategy and future event plans can help the organization to overcome recent ethical issues. These are most significant and interesting strategies. References Lessambo, F., 2013. The International Banking System. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Moore, G., 2002. Crossing the Chasm. London: Harper Business Essentials. Mullerat, R., 2011. Corporate Social Responsibility. London: Kluwer Law International. Read More