strategic planning/generic porters

This is all covered in the lectures/notes

Porter's Generic Strategies: This model is very useful in P3 especially in the case study. If a business is successful it will be following one of these strategies. If it is not successful then it should be advised to follow one of these. - Cost leader - aims to have lowest cost and competition is liable to be 'stuck in the middle'. Focus is on cost control. - Differentiator - supply better products/services. They increase margins by raising prices. Focus is on innovation and higher customer service. - Focus - concentrates on a small sector of the market (niche market). It must then decide if it is going to be a cost leader or a differentiator. Levels of planning: - Strategic planning is a process where top-level management sets long-term organisational goals and determines where an organisation is going. - Middle managers interpret these goals and develop tactical plans for their departments that can be accomplished. - Supervisors within departments implement operational plans that are short-term and deal with the day-to-day work of their team. Short-term goals are aligned with the long-term goals. Mintzberg's emergent strategies: - Intended strategy - the original plan - Unrealised strategy - Some parts of the plan are then unrealised (abandoned) - Deliberate strategy - what you intended to do and actually did - Emergent strategy - become apparent as time passes and new opportunities or threats have to be dealt with - Realised strategy - the result of some strategies which were planned from the start, some strategies which were abandoned, and addition strategies with gradually emerged over the planning horizon.