strategic planning/generic porters

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.