Strategy statements: Mission and vision
At the base of the strategy stay the mission and vision statements that define the direction of the company (Blythe: 2003) and refer to the goals that the company want to achieve (Johnson, Whittington, Scholes: 2011). The mission strategy helps the managers to concentrate on what is essential in terms of strategy (Kaplan, Norton:2004).
An example of failure in knowing the business in which the brand was in and the inability of adapting to the changes that took place along time is the M&S example that lost what is central in their strategy. Also the vision statement for M&S was difficult to be put into practice because the brand was left behind due to the market changes and their vision was to reinforce the old established traditions that were no longer effective in a new changed marketplace (Collier:2004) Also another example that M&S was not clear regarding the mission statement was the fact that was respecting none of the 5 characteristics of vision offered by Blythe(2003), some of them being the inability to differentiate from the competitors that were offering same goods at lower prices and a the lack of excitement and inspiration as well.
Strategic choices
Porter (1996) sees strategy from different angle, more exactly that: “Strategy is not about doing things better –this is the concern of operational effectiveness” (Grant: 2008, p.19), as well he describes strategy as “making choices” (Grant: 2008, p.19) and the strategic choices should answer to the questions” Where to compete?” and “How to compete?” answers that divide and delimit corporate and business strategy (Morgan: 2011).
Jain (1999) sustains the same perspective on strategy and sees essential in the foundation of a strategy the first two questions sustained by Porter (1996) in Grant (2008), Jain completing with the 3rd question: “When to compete?” (Jain: 1999, p.24, Green: 1995, Lieberman and Montgomery:1998). Jain (2009) formulates the three questions on the concept of the three C`s :customer, corporation and competition. In order to create a successful strategy the customer needs should positively meet the corporation needs and must be better than the competitors`. In the M&S case study (Collier:2004) the organization was not familiar with the customer needs, misreading the target market and ignoring the changings that lead to being over topped by competitors represented by niche organizations that kept updated to the change in customer needs.
Value preposition
According to Slater and Nerver (1995) the value preposition is another aspect on strategy. The positive context is when the product/services value conveyed by the organization is perceived in the same way by customers. Kaplan and Norton (2004) describe on the other side the value preposition and its clarity as being the:” single most important dimension of the strategy” (2004: p. 10) In the case of M&S the products were not meeting the customer needs because the brand was product focused lacking massively the customer approach. Different perspectives on Strategic Management
The process of strategy
In Lynch (2009) view the strategic management is represented by identifying and achieving the purpose of a company. Strategic management is also the strategy in process (Mintzberg and Lampel: 1999). David (1995) has a different angle on the concept more exactly that it is about “formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions” (1995:p.4) in order to achieve the objective. In terms of formulating the decisions for M&S case study, the company used an ineffective and wrong strategy based on the misanalysing of customer needs, offering something that they were not attracted anymore. In terms of implementing and evaluating decisions, many inappropriate and ineffective decisions were taken by M&S like not focusing on long term, but on day to day aspects, excess of stock that lead to many discounted items and in the end to loss of profit, also ignoring the customers preferences, expansions initiatives in Europe where were not positive opportunities, lack of improvement that lead to closing stores (Collier: 2004).
Flexibility
Other authors, Doyle and Stern (2006) explain some perspective of strategic management that help leading to success if they are taken into consideration like the flexibility of a company, as example M&S was lacking of flexibility of the environment and lacked of faster response for the market change.
Competitive advantage
According to Grant (2008) and Johnson, Whittington, Scholes (2011) an aspect of strategy and strategic management is the competitive advantage. Hill and Jones (2008) add more to the concept by explaining that in order for a company to have a sustained competitive advantage should use a strategy that offers an over average profit for a number of years. On the other hand according to Porter (1985) should differentiate by offering something unique and that cannot be duplicated (Barney: 1991) except a low price in order to enable the company to ask for a “premium price” (Porter: 1985, p.120). Applying to M&S case when the company was successful, the competitive advantage was the fact that they had a good and reliable relationship with the suppliers who assured high standards and simple pricing policy, proved by their massive success regarding profit and market share (Collier: 2004). The sustained competitive advantage was represented by the family nature of the firm, offering a feeling of “camaraderie” and “close-knit family atmosphere” (Collier: 2004) in every store offered by staff and managers who fit in the picture, being owned at that time only by family members.
Summary conclusion
To conclude, the strategy and strategic management are effective concepts when used effectively and each company uses them in different combinations and concentrates on different aspects. Some of the key points of a successful strategy are the relationship to the customers, having a clear idea of what the mission and vision statements are, focusing on flexibility to different environmental changes and creating a competitive advantage. Also is essential the way the strategy is implemented, to have a long term direction as well the use of resources effectively and with competence.
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