MGMT344 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS A+ GRADED
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Henry Mintzberg's Five P'S for Strategy
PLAN= consciously intended course action
PLAY= specific manoeuvre to outwit opponents
PATTERN = pattern in a stream of actions
POSITIONS= position in relation to the organisation's environment
PERSPECTIVE = the organisation's shared mindset
Strategic management is
- Setting objectives for the organisation, planning and implementing the necessary
changes and measuring the outcome.
- Setting the direction and scope of an organisation :
o Over the long term
o To achieve advantage
- By:
o Configuring its resources
o To adapt to a changing environment
o To meet the needs of markets
Strategic Perspective
- integrates multiple disciplines
- organisation wide
- big picture - defines the context
- higher ambiguity and uncertainty
- non-routine, non-programmable, unique, creative
Operational Perspective
- Discipline Specific
- operationally specific
- with a defined context
- lower ambiguity
- more amenable to systematic approaches
Corporate Level Strategy
- is concerned with the overall scope of an organisation and how value is added to the
constituent businesses of the organisational whole.
-Corporate-level strategy issues include geographical scope, diversity of products or
services, acquisitions of new businesses, and how resources are allocated between the
different elements of the organisation.
Business - Level Strategy
,- is about how the individual business should compete in their particular markets
-Business-level strategy typically concerns issues such as innovation, appropriate scale
and response to competitors' moves.
Operational Strategy
concerned with how the components of an organisation deliver effectively the corporate-
and business-level strategies in terms of resources, processes and people
For example, Vice Media had to keep raising external finance to fund its rapid growth:
its operational strategy is partly geared to meeting investment needs.
4 key perspectives in Strategy
ENVIRONMENT-LED PERSPECTIVE
- based on adapting to external opportunities and threats
- enter attractive markets and niches
- manage portfolios of businesses and products
RESOURCE-LED PERSPECTIVE
- based on exploiting unique and valuable resources
- create new markets and niches
- enter markets in which the firm's resources give it advantage
- manage portfolios of resources and competences
PROACTIVE STRATEGY
- emphasis on new markets or new products/services
- constant search for new strategic position
- advocated even for public sector/not-for-profit
REACTIVE STRATEGY
- emphasis on protecting market share on margins
- global markets and information flow render this often unsuccessful
Emergent Strategy
- a flexible approach is needed for an unpredictable world.
- makes good use of autonomous action by lower level - managers
Strategy Development Processes
- Typically combine some emergent and some deliberate elements:
- Mostly Deliberate: Strategic Planning
• Mostly Emergent: Logical incrementalism
- Participation and activities vary according to decision significance and urgency:
• Immediate actions (e.g. corporate acquisition)
○ Project teams, task-forces, meetings
• Longer term strategic shifts (e.g. growth opportunities, understanding competition)
Strategy workshops and on going strategic conversation.
Who 'does' strategy in business?
- The CEO and top management teams
- Board of directors
, - Strategic planners
- Middle managers
Strategy consultants
4 main roles in Strategic planning systems
• Formulating strategy
○ Often using analytical approaches, encouraging long term view etc.
○ This aspect is what MGMT344 focuses on most
• Learning
○ Challenge and discovery through participation in the process
• Coordinating
○ for example business and corporate level strategies
○ A forum for negotiation, and compromise
• Communicating plans, objectives, milestones
○ Hence, implementing.
Emergence in Strategy Processes
trategies emerge on the basis of a series of decisions, which a pattern becomes clear
over time.
This explains an organisation's strategy, not as a 'grand plan', but as a developing
'pattern in a stream of decisions'18 where top managers draw together emerging
themes of strategy from lower down in the organisation, rather than direct strategy from
the top.
Managing Stakeholders
- individuals or groups that
- have an interest, claim or stake in an organisation
Power-Interest Matrix
- HIGH POWER- HIGH INTEREST:KEY PLAYERS
○ Example : major investors, major funding agency
○ Likely blockers or facilitators of a strategy
- HIGH POWER - LOW INTERESTS: KEEP SATISFIED
○ Example: passive investors
○ If unsatisfied, raise their interest levels and become key players
- LOW POWER - HIGH INTEREST: KEEP INFORMED
○ Example : community group
○ Actively provide information
○ Avoid alienating - view as potential allies
- LOW POWER - LOW INTEREST MINIMAL EFFORT
Benefits of Effective Governance
- lower cost of capital due to access to capital markets
.Buy Quality Materials!
Henry Mintzberg's Five P'S for Strategy
PLAN= consciously intended course action
PLAY= specific manoeuvre to outwit opponents
PATTERN = pattern in a stream of actions
POSITIONS= position in relation to the organisation's environment
PERSPECTIVE = the organisation's shared mindset
Strategic management is
- Setting objectives for the organisation, planning and implementing the necessary
changes and measuring the outcome.
- Setting the direction and scope of an organisation :
o Over the long term
o To achieve advantage
- By:
o Configuring its resources
o To adapt to a changing environment
o To meet the needs of markets
Strategic Perspective
- integrates multiple disciplines
- organisation wide
- big picture - defines the context
- higher ambiguity and uncertainty
- non-routine, non-programmable, unique, creative
Operational Perspective
- Discipline Specific
- operationally specific
- with a defined context
- lower ambiguity
- more amenable to systematic approaches
Corporate Level Strategy
- is concerned with the overall scope of an organisation and how value is added to the
constituent businesses of the organisational whole.
-Corporate-level strategy issues include geographical scope, diversity of products or
services, acquisitions of new businesses, and how resources are allocated between the
different elements of the organisation.
Business - Level Strategy
,- is about how the individual business should compete in their particular markets
-Business-level strategy typically concerns issues such as innovation, appropriate scale
and response to competitors' moves.
Operational Strategy
concerned with how the components of an organisation deliver effectively the corporate-
and business-level strategies in terms of resources, processes and people
For example, Vice Media had to keep raising external finance to fund its rapid growth:
its operational strategy is partly geared to meeting investment needs.
4 key perspectives in Strategy
ENVIRONMENT-LED PERSPECTIVE
- based on adapting to external opportunities and threats
- enter attractive markets and niches
- manage portfolios of businesses and products
RESOURCE-LED PERSPECTIVE
- based on exploiting unique and valuable resources
- create new markets and niches
- enter markets in which the firm's resources give it advantage
- manage portfolios of resources and competences
PROACTIVE STRATEGY
- emphasis on new markets or new products/services
- constant search for new strategic position
- advocated even for public sector/not-for-profit
REACTIVE STRATEGY
- emphasis on protecting market share on margins
- global markets and information flow render this often unsuccessful
Emergent Strategy
- a flexible approach is needed for an unpredictable world.
- makes good use of autonomous action by lower level - managers
Strategy Development Processes
- Typically combine some emergent and some deliberate elements:
- Mostly Deliberate: Strategic Planning
• Mostly Emergent: Logical incrementalism
- Participation and activities vary according to decision significance and urgency:
• Immediate actions (e.g. corporate acquisition)
○ Project teams, task-forces, meetings
• Longer term strategic shifts (e.g. growth opportunities, understanding competition)
Strategy workshops and on going strategic conversation.
Who 'does' strategy in business?
- The CEO and top management teams
- Board of directors
, - Strategic planners
- Middle managers
Strategy consultants
4 main roles in Strategic planning systems
• Formulating strategy
○ Often using analytical approaches, encouraging long term view etc.
○ This aspect is what MGMT344 focuses on most
• Learning
○ Challenge and discovery through participation in the process
• Coordinating
○ for example business and corporate level strategies
○ A forum for negotiation, and compromise
• Communicating plans, objectives, milestones
○ Hence, implementing.
Emergence in Strategy Processes
trategies emerge on the basis of a series of decisions, which a pattern becomes clear
over time.
This explains an organisation's strategy, not as a 'grand plan', but as a developing
'pattern in a stream of decisions'18 where top managers draw together emerging
themes of strategy from lower down in the organisation, rather than direct strategy from
the top.
Managing Stakeholders
- individuals or groups that
- have an interest, claim or stake in an organisation
Power-Interest Matrix
- HIGH POWER- HIGH INTEREST:KEY PLAYERS
○ Example : major investors, major funding agency
○ Likely blockers or facilitators of a strategy
- HIGH POWER - LOW INTERESTS: KEEP SATISFIED
○ Example: passive investors
○ If unsatisfied, raise their interest levels and become key players
- LOW POWER - HIGH INTEREST: KEEP INFORMED
○ Example : community group
○ Actively provide information
○ Avoid alienating - view as potential allies
- LOW POWER - LOW INTEREST MINIMAL EFFORT
Benefits of Effective Governance
- lower cost of capital due to access to capital markets
