Strategic Management/Strategy Formulation

Essay by AmBeddUniversity, Bachelor's March 2005

download word file, 19 pages 3.8 2 reviews

What aspects of strategy formulation do you think requires the most time? Why?

"Strategy formulation includes developing a vision and mission, identifying an organization's external opportunities and threats, determining internal strengths and weaknesses, establishing long-term objectives, generating alternative strategies, and choosing particular strategies to pursue. Strategy formulation issues include deciding what new businesses to enter, what businesses to abandon, how to allocate resources, whether to expand operations or diversify, whether to enter international markets, whether to merge or form a joint venture, and how to avoid a hostile takeover. Strategy implementation often is called the action stage of strategic management. Implementing strategy means mobilizing employees and managers to put formulated strategies into action. Often considered to be the most difficult stage in strategic management, strategy implementation requires personal discipline, commitment, and sacrifice."

Why is strategy implementation often considered the most difficult stage in the strategic-management process?

"Strategy implementation requires a firm to establish annual objectives, devise policies, motivate employees, and allocate resources so that formulated strategies can be executed.

Often considered to be the most difficult state in strategic management, strategy implementation requires personal discipline, commitment, and sacrifice. Successful strategy implementation hinges upon managers' ability to motivate employees, which is more an art than a science."

Why is it so important to integrate intuition and analysis in strategic management?

"The strategic-management process can be described as an objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization. Yet strategic management is not a pure science that lends itself to a nice, neat, one-two-three approach. Based on past experiences, judgment, and feelings, most people recognize that intuition is essential to making good strategic decisions. Intuition is particularly useful for making decisions in situations of great uncertainty or little precedent. Analytical thinking and intuitive thinking complement each other."

Discuss relationships among...