Business Strategy
Business strategy is the plan of action that prescribes resource allocation and other activities for dealing with the environment and helping the organisation attain its goals (Daft, 2000: 240). The aim of strategy is to identify ways in which an organisation can outperform others. Strategy therefore involves the creation, implementation and evaluation of purpose, goals, work activities and performance measures (Coulter, 1998: 361). Strategy is important as it gives organisations a sense of purpose and direction, helps coordinate the activities of people and functions and serves as a control device. Strategy is normally split into three levels- corporate, business and functional.Corporate-level strategy is concerned with the broad and more long-term questions of 'what business(es) are we in or do we want to be in and what do we want to do with these business(es)' (Coulter, 1998: 9). Whether to acquire new businesses, to add or divest business units, plants or product lines or to participate in joint ventures with other corporations (Daft, 200: 242). Organisations have three choices with respect to corporate-level strategy: growth, stability or renewal.A growth strategy is one that aims to increase the level of an organis
Organisations can implement growth strategies by participating in mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, internal development, strategic partnering, joint ventures, long-term contracts and strategic alliances. This resulted in the merger with Billiton plc, creating the largest diversified mining company in the world (Gibson, 2000: 29). At the marketing level, a single 'face' will be created, rather than different marketing strategies for different business units (Walker, 2001: 35). BHP's strategy has changed enormously since Paul Anderson took control of the company in 1998. As can be seen from the examples of BHP, Macquarie and Leighton strategy differs immensely over all levels across organisations. Cost cutting can be implemented to initiate renewal as can restructuring, which may involve divestment, spin-offs, liquidation, reengineering, downsizing or bankruptcy. While almost all businesses adopt some form of strategy, it differs across organisations. Turnaround is the other option, which is undertaken when the organisation's performance problems are more serious (Coulter, 1998: 272). This is because all businesses are different in nature, even those in the same industry. Abell's framework focuses on two important aspects of business-level strategy- competition and product differentiation. It is now a broadly based investment banking specialist whose activities stretch from funds management to financial markets to structured finance to technology investment banking. Promotion of do-it-yourself superannuation, financial planning and margin lending will also be boosted to support the business-level strategy. Organisations may wish to undertake a strategy of stability if they have just completed a frenzied period of growth or their industry is in a period of rapid upheaval and the future is highly uncertain. Porter's generic competitive strategies approach proposes three strategies for outperforming other corporations in the same industry: differentiation, cost-leadership and focus (Wheelan and Hunger, 2000: 113). A further $US6 billion has also been set aside to fund future growth.
Common topics in this essay:
Wheelan Hunger,
Miller Dess,
,
Macquarie Leighton,
Holdings TradingRoom,
Paul Anderson,
Miles Snow's,
QCT Resources,
John Moss,
Lucent Technologies,
coulter 1998,
business units,
daft 2000,
wheelan hunger 2000,
wheelan hunger,
business-level strategy,
jacques 2000,
hunger 2000,
corporate-level strategy,
strategy growth,
mergers acquisitions,
hunger 2000 134,
daft 2000 240,
williams 2001 30,
functions serves control,
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Acceptance Essays
