MNG3701_EXAM_PACK_SEMESTER_1_2020

MNG3701: STRATEGIC PLANNING EXAM PACK 2020 COMPILED BY VICTOR CHABALALA Email: Contact no: 0 IMPORTANT NOTICE This EXAM PACKAGE highlights key focus areas for MNG3701 for you as a student in preparation for the examination. It’s compiled from Study Guide, prescribed textbook, tutorial letter and previous papers. It is therefore NOT A SCOPE but guidelines that will prepare you for your examination. Please study it carefully, and treat it as a guideline of how to approach the questions in the exam OTHER INFORMATION This exam pack consist of GENERAL questions that you may come across in your exam as well as the proposed solutions to previous exam questions papers were provided. This exam pack consist of 94 pages LEARNING UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Define the concept of strategy and briefly explain its relationship to strategic management. Solution Strategy:  It’s generally seen as the result or outcome of fundamentally important pre-emptive, innovative management decisions about an organisation‘s strategic direction and strategic action plans to attain a sustainable competitive advantage and achieve its long-term objectives in rapidly changing and competitive external business  is the direction provided by the actions and decisions of strategists in pursuit of organisational goals.  a deliberate choice of activities  coherent narrative about the future direction of the organisation  provides members of the organisation with a framework to guide their decision making  the verbalisation of the organisation‘s aspirations and can inspire, unite and motivate members of the organisation Explain what is meant by strategic management and discuss the dynamic nature of the traditional strategic management process. Define strategy, strategic planning and strategic management. Illustrate and explain the strategic management process. Solution Strategic management: is a rational approach that organisations use to achieve strategic competitiveness and competitive advantage. Traditional it draws on the perspective that the management tasks consists of planning, organising, leading and controlling. Building on this view, the strategic tasks of top management consist of formulation strategy (planning), implementing strategy (organising and leading) and control Strategic management can be looked at from a traditional perspective and in a new perspective (strategy-as-practice) The traditional perspective is structured and a process as explained below: 1. Strategy Planning/Formulation -The planning and thinking phase, where top management:  Decides on the organisation‘s strategic direction and its long-term objectives (usually found in the vision and mission statement)  Analyses the organisation‘s external (to identify opportunities and threats )and internal environments(to identify best resources and capabilities and the organisation‘s strength and weaknesses)  Selects appropriate competitive strategies strategic choice such as focus, differentiation or best cost 2. Strategy Implementation/Execution- it’s the doing part where both human and nonhuman factors in the organisation are applied to ensure that the strategy is executed in line with the devised plans. These are the key elements to be considered:  Leadership and culture- a strategic leader must ensure that the culture of the organisation is aligned with strategic choice  Implementation competencies- The organisation must ensure that individuals have the right mix of knowledge, skills and attitudes to support the strategy  Learning organisation-The organisation must be a learning organisation through its