Mr. Reyes

Strategic Management

Zeivier Reyes

University of Phoenix

MGT 578

Dr. Stuart Gold

May 17, 2007

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning plays a big role in today’s market. What this mean is the process of developing and maintaining a strategic fit between the organization’s goals and capabilities and its changing marketing opportunities. It involves defining a clear company mission, setting supporting objectives, designing a sound business portfolio, and coordinating functional strategies (Armstrong, Gary, Kotler, Philip, 2003).

Lessons learned

Environmental Scanning

Identifying the factors that characterize a company’s strategic situation is the basis for the strategy process. These factors can be classified as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Analyzing these factors using various tools enables a manager to formulate strategies more effectively (University of Phoenix, 2007).

In this simulation, one determines a long-term objective for a bicycle manufacturing company on the basis of internal and external information. Using the long-term objective as a framework, one isolates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company. Then one performs strategic analysis using a tool known as the Matched Pair Analysis to identify strategies that enables a company achieve its long-term objective.

According to the University of Phoenix Week Three overview (2007), SWOT is one outcome of doing an environmental assessment. It thus becomes a central tool a manager should use when developing plans for the future. A company that is aware of its weaknesses and threats can either hire people who are better in those areas and train its staff to overcome the weaknesses or bring in the new equipment that is needed to do the job. If a company doesn’t know what the threats are, it will not know how to defend or conquer them.

Strategy Formulation & Choice

A Grand Strategy can be defined as a comprehensive general approach that guides a company’s key actions. The Grand Strategy Clusters matrix is a 2 X 2 cluster of 15 Grand Strategies based on the growth rate of the general market and the company’s competitive situation in that market (University of Phoenix, 2007). In this simulation, one analyzes the strategic situation of a toy manufacturing company and identifies the correct position of the company in the Grand Strategy Clusters matrix. One guides a company’s strategic choices through three phases in the company’s growth path. Each of these phases situates the company in different quadrants of the Grand Strategy Clusters matrix, and therefore requires different strategic responses.

In addition, one is introduced to the concept of core competencies (strengths), which are those capabilities that are critical to a business achieving competitive advantage. Core competencies are not fixed, but should be modified in response to changes in the company's environment. They are flexible and evolve over time. A firm's core competencies consist