Business Policy and Strategic Analysis Short Notes
Business Policy and Strategic Analysis Short Notes
Business Policy and Strategic Analysis Short Notes
The Quest for Competitive Advantage (1980-1990) Corporate versus business strategy.
Emphasis on resources and capabilities ● Corporate strategy defines the scope of the firm in terms of the industries
Shareholder value maximization and markets in which it competes. Corporate strategy decisions include
Refocusing, outsourcing, delayering, cost investment in diversification, vertical integration, acquisitions and new
cutting
ventures; the allocation of resources between the different businesses of the
firm; and divestments.
Adapting to Turbulence(2000-2014) ● Business strategy is concerned with how the firm competes within a
particular industry or market. If the firm is to prosper within an industry, it
Exploiting information and communications must establish a competitive advantage over its rivals. Hence, this area of
technology strategy is also referred to as competitive strategy.
Strategic alliances Roles: 1.strategy as decision support 2. strategy as a coordinating device 3.
The quest for _exibility and strategic innovation strategy as target 4. strategy as animation and orientation.
Social and environmental responsibility Importance of Corporate Strategy
1.Universal 2. Keeping pace with changing environment- 3. Minimizes
competitive disadvantage- 4. Clear sense of strategic vision and sharper focus on goals and objectives- 5.Motivating employees- 6.
Strengthening Decision-Making- 7. Efficient and effective way of implementing actions for results- 8. Improved understanding of internal
and external environments of business
Levels of strategy: 1.Corporate strategy 2.Business strategy 3.Functional strategy 4.Operating strategy
BCG Matrix
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix is a four celled matrix (a 2 * 2 matrix) developed by BCG, USA. It is the most renowned corporate
portfolio analysis tool. It provides a graphic representation for an organization to examine different businesses in it’s portfolio on the
basis of their related market share and industry growth rates. It is a two dimensional analysis on management of SBU’s (Strategic
Business Units). In other words, it is a comparative analysis of business potential and the evaluation of environment.
According to this matrix, business could be classified as high or low according to their industry growth rate and relative market share.
BCG matrix has four cells, with the horizontal axis representing relative market share and the vertical axis
denoting market growth rate. The mid-point of relative market share is set at 1.0. if all the SBU’s are in same
industry, the average growth rate of the industry is used. While, if all the SBU’s are located in different
industries, then the mid-point is set at the growth rate for the economy. Resources are allocated to the
business units according to their situation on the grid. The four cells of this matrix have been called as stars,
cash cows, question marks and dogs. Each of these cells represents a particular type of business.
Limitations of BCG Matrix
1. BCG matrix classifies businesses as low and high, but generally businesses can be medium also. Thus, the
true nature of business may not be reflected.
2. Market is not clearly defined in this model.
3. High market share does not always leads to high profits. There are high costs also involved with high market share.
4. Growth rate and relative market share are not the only indicators of profitability. This model ignores and overlooks other indicators of
profitability.
5. At times, dogs may help other businesses in gaining competitive advantage. They can earn even more than cash cows sometimes.
6. This four-celled approach is considered as to be too simplistic.
Value chain
A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for
the market. The idea of the value chain is based on the process view of organizations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing (or service)
organization as a system, made up of subsystems each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs. Inputs, transformation
processes, and outputs involve the acquisition and consumption of resources – money, labor, materials, equipment, buildings, land,
administration and management. How value chain activities are carried out determines costs and affects profits.
Firm-level
.
A firm's value chain forms a part of a larger stream of activities, which Porter calls a value system A value system, or an industry value
chain, includes the suppliers that provide the inputs necessary to the firm along with their value chains. After the firm creates products,
these products pass through the value chains of distributors (which also have their own value chains), all the way to the customers. All
parts of these chains are included in the value system. To achieve and sustain a competitive advantage, and to support that advantage
with information technologies, a firm must understand every component of this value system.
Primary activities: 1.Inbound Logistics 2.Operations 3.Outbound Logistics 4.Marketing and Sales 5.Service
Support activities 1.Infrastructure 2.Technological Development 3.Human Resources Management 4.Procurement
Type: 1.Physical, virtual and combined value chain 2.Global value chains 3.Cross border / cross region value chains-
Porter's Value Chain – the seminal ‘business school
definition’
“The idea of the value chain is based on the process view
of organizations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing (or
service) organization as a system, made up of subsystems
each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs.
Inputs, transformation processes, and outputs involve the
acquisition and consumption of resources - money, labor,
materials, equipment, buildings, land, administration and
management.
'Value chain' versus 'supply chain' A ‘supply chain’ refers to the system and resources required to move a product or service from supplier
to customer. The ‘value chain’ concept builds on this to also consider the manner in which value is added along the chain, both to the
product / service and the actors involved. From a sustainability perspective, ‘value chain’ has more appeal, since it explicitly
references internal and external stakeholders in the value-creation process.
Knowledge management
"Knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge."
Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization.
It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.
Implementing knowledge management thus has several dimensions including: 1.Strategy 2.Organizational Culture 3.Organizational
Processes 4.Management & Leadership 5.Technology 6.Politics
Knowledge management (KM) technology can be categorized: 1.Groupware 2.Workflow 3.Content/Document management
4.Enterprise portals 5.Scheduling and planning 6.Telepresence
Explicit, Implicit and Tacit Knowledge
Explicit: information or knowledge that is set out in tangible form.
Implicit: information or knowledge that is not set out in tangible form but could be made explicit.
Tacit: information or knowledge that one would have extreme difficulty operationally setting out in tangible form.
Stages of KM Second Stage of KM: HR and Corporate Culture
First Stage of KM: Information Technology Third Stage of KM: Taxonomy and Content Management
Satisfying the spirit of the law and not just the letter of the law Communicating externally in a truthful manner about how the
Going beyond the law in upholding corporate governance company is run internally
standards Complying with the laws in all the countries in which the company
Maintaining transparency and a high degree of disclosure levels operates
Making a clear distinction between personal convenience and Having a simple and transparent corporate structure driven solely
corporate resources by business needs
Embracing a trusteeship model in which the management is the
trustee of the shareholders' capital and not the owner
OBJECTIVES OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
1. To build up an environment of trust and confidence amongst those having competing and conflicting interest.
2. To enhance the shareholders‟ value and protect the interest of other stakeholders by enhancing the corporate performance and
accountability.
Stakeholders and Performance Expectation
1. Investor Expects high dividend and capital appreciation in the organization.
2. Lender Expects timely repayment of loan and interest
3. Supplier Expects fair terms and timely payments
4. Employee Expects good working environment, fair remuneration and security
5. Customer Expects Quality product & services at fair price (value for money)
6. Government Expects the company to partner in nation building by paying taxes or directly spending on social projects
7. Society Expects the company to use resources judiciously so as to maintain ecological balance and sustainable
development and also partner in nation building.
NEED FOR GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE The following issues are important for good Corporate Governance.
The rights and obligation of shareholders. The role of board of directors clearly defined.
Equitable treatment of all stakeholders. The role of non-executive members of the board clearly defined.
The role of all stakeholders clearly defined and the linkage for Executive management and compensation and performance
corporate governance established. clearly defined.
Transparency, disclosure of information and audit.
Nature of Business Ethics 1. Code of conduct 2.Based on moral and social values 3.Gives protection to social groups 4.Provides basic
framework 5.Voluntary 6.Requires education and guidance 7.Relative Term 8.New concept
Importance of Business Ethics 1. Long-term growth 2.Cost and risk reduction 3.Anti-capitalist sentiment 3.Limited resources
Scope of business ethics 1.Ethics in Compliance 2.Ethics in Finance 3.Ethics in Human Resources 4.Ethics in Marketing 5.Ethics of
Production
Advantages of business ethics 1.Attracting and retaining talent 2.Investor Loyalty 3.Customer satisfaction 4.Regulators
Business Strategy- The decisions a company makes on its way to creating, maintaining and using its competitive advantages are
business-level strategies. After evaluating the company’s product line, target market and competition, a small business owner can better
identify where her competitive advantage lies. A gourmet candy company, for example, might find that it cannot compete on price;
larger corporations often enjoy economies of scale that keep costs low. Instead, the small business would choose a differentiation
strategy, emphasizing freshness, quality ingredients or some other attribute consumers will value highly enough to pay extra. Business
strategy will affect the small company’s functional decisions such as the selection of its promotions and distribution channels.
Corporate Strategy- When a business identifies opportunities outside its original industry, it might contemplate diversification. When
additional businesses become part of the company, the small business owner must consider corporate-level strategy. To be effective, the
umbrella company must contribute to the efficiency, profitability and competitive advantage to each business unit. The gourmet candy
maker may decide to enter the dried-fruit business, for example. This corporate decision is sound only if the parent company can extend
and develop a competitive advantage – say economy of scope, integrated management or procurement – over both businesses. For
example, the owner may determine that her mail-order candy distribution system is perfectly suited for the dried-fruit business and that
customer research indicates existing customers will purchase items from both companies. Or she may be able to negotiate volume
discounts for raisins, dried cranberries and dried cherries she will use in both businesses.
Strategic management processes and activities 1.Formulation 2.Implementation
Instead Mintzberg concludes that there are five types of strategies: 1.Strategy as plan 2.Strategy as pattern 3.Strategy as position
4.Strategy as ploy 5.Strategy as perspective
Three Models of Strategy, 1.Linear strategy 2.Adaptive strategy 3.Interpretive strategy
types of corporate strategies 1.growth, 2.stability, 3.renewal.
Types of Business-Level Strategies 1.Coordinate Unit Activities 2.Utilize Human Resources 3.Develop Distinctive 4.Identify Market Niches
5.Monitor Product Strategies
Impact Effort Matrix
The impact effort matrix was designed specifically for the purpose of deciding which of many suggested solutions to implement. It
provides answers to the question of which solutions seem easiest to achieve with the most effects.
The steps in constructing an impact effort matrix are:
1. Retrieve suggested solutions from previous discussions.
2. Construct an empty diagram with effort required to implement the solution on the horizontal axis and impact of the solution on the
vertical axis, and divide it into four quadrants.
3. Assess effort and impact for each solution. Place the solutions in the diagram according to these assessments. Use a symbol, color, or
label to identify each possible solution.
4. Solutions falling into the upper left-hand quadrant will yield the best return on investments and should be considered first.
EFFORT/IMPACT MATRIX
The effort/impact matrix is used to help the team to decide which of the numerous solutions to implement appear to be the easiest
(least effort) while having the most favorable impact.
Use: When this author was considering the feedback from the Villanova University six sigma students, the senior staff members were
presented with an effort/impact matrix. The matrix illustrated the relative effort for redesigning the courses as compared to the relative
impact that various solutions might provide. The senior staff liked the concept because it made it visual to see where they could get the
biggest impact with the least amount of effort. Note that some of the larger impacting solutions with larger impacts were still
entertained, but those solutions were put a longer-term implementation plan.
EXPERIENCE CURVE
"The experience curve is mostly used to assess declining production costs as a result of cumulative production (Bake et al., 2009)."
Experience curve refers to a diagrammatic representation of the inverse relationship between the total value-added costs of a
product and the company experience in manufacturing and marketing it. The concept reviews the history of the term and explores the
relationship between production cost and cumulative production quantity.
Experience Curve Definition
A diagrammatic representation of the inverse relationship between the total value-added costs of a product and company experience in
manufacturing and marketing it (McDonald and Schrattenholzer, 2001). For many products and services, unit costs decrease with
increasing experience. The idealised pattern describing this kind of technological progress in a regular fashion is referred to as a learning
curve, progress curve, experience curve, or learning by doing (Dutton and Thomas, 1984; Argote,1999).
The experience curve
The more experience a firm has in producing a particular product, the lower its costs
The experience curve is an idea developed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the mid-1960s. Working with a leading manufacturer
of semiconductors, the consultants noticed that the company's unit cost of manufacturing fell by about 25% for each doubling of the
volume that it produced. This relationship they called the experience curve: the more experience a firm has in producing a particular
product, the lower are its costs. Bruce Henderson, the founder of BCG, put it as follows:
Costs characteristically decline by 20-30% in real terms each time accumulated experience doubles. This means that when inflation is
factored out, costs should always decline. The decline is fast if growth is fast and slow if growth is slow.
There is no fundamental economic law that can predict the existence of the experience curve, even though it has been shown to apply to
industries across the board. Its truth has been proven inductively, not deductively. And if it is true in service industries such as
investment banking or legal advice, the lower costs are clearly not passed on to customers.
By itself, the curve is not particularly earth shattering. Even when BCG first expounded the relationship, it had been known since the
second world war that it applied to direct labour costs. Less labour was needed for a given output depending on the experience of that
labour. In aircraft production, for instance, labour input decreased by some 10–15% for every doubling of that labour's experience.