...Thompson−Strickland−Gamble: Crafting and Executing Strategy: Concepts and Cases, 16th Edition I. Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy 1. What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? chapter one © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2008 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. —Jack Welch Former CEO, General Electric A strategy is a commitment to undertake one set of actions rather than another. —Sharon Oster Professor, Yale University The process of developing superior strategies is part planning, part trial and error, until you hit upon something that works. —Costas Markides Professor, London Business School Without a strategy the organization is like a ship without a rudder. —Joel Ross and Michael Kami Authors and Consultants Thompson−Strickland−Gamble: Crafting and Executing Strategy: Concepts and Cases, 16th Edition M I. Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy 1. What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2008 anagers face three central questions in evaluating their company’s business prospects: What’s the company’s present situation? Where does the company need to go from here? How should it get there? Arriving at a probing answer to the question “What’s the company’s present situation?” prompts managers to evaluate industry conditions and competitive pressures, the company’s current performance and market standing, its resource strengths...
Words: 9278 - Pages: 38
...crafting and executing strategy 18th edition.pdf DOWNLOAD HERE WHAT IS STRATEGY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 1 http://testbanksolutionmanualcafe.com/free_samples/Solution%20Manual%20and%20Case%20Solution s%20for%20Crafting%20and%20Executing%20Strategy%20The%20Quest%20for%20Competitive%20A dvantage%20Concepts%20and%20Cases%2018th%20Edition%20by%20Thompson.pdf Crafting & Executing Strategy 18th Edition 115 b. Outcompeting rivals on the basis of differentiating features such as higher quality, wider product Assignment Questions http://testbanksfor.com/NewSamplesfile/Solution-Manual-and-Case-Solutions-for-Crafting-and-ExecutingStrategy-The-Quest-for-Competitive-Advantage-Concepts-and-Cases-18th-Edition-by-Thompson.pdf Crafting & Executing Strategy 18th Edition 269 Students will also question whether the monastery possesses sufficient resources to operate a thriving coffee Free PDF: Crafting And Executing Strategy 15th Edition http://www.productmanualguide.com/newpdf/crafting-and-executing-strategy-15th-edition.pdf ... (Crafting Crafting and executing strategy 18th edition answer - Data . Crafting€. Quest for Competitive Advantage, Concepts and Cases, 15th ed., ... (Syllabus Template-Required Content) - Texas A&M ... http://www.tamuct.edu/departments/syllabi/fall2011/G%20B%20588%20110.doc value-adding student support materials for the 18th edition of crafting & executing strategy. tho12729 fm i-xlviii - McGraw-Hill http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0078112729/898107/Preface...
Words: 434 - Pages: 2
...(1987) strategy distinctions between planning strategy and crafting strategy. Planning strategies being those which are internally defined and implemented, similar to that of a blueprint (Findley, 1988). Crafting strategy is a continuous form of strategy which incorporates the learning process into the decision making. From this it is important to recognise the definition of strategy according to Mintzberg who bases his assumptions on “a pattern in a stream of decisions” (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985, p. 259). Mintzberg (1987) had found that “an organisation can have a pattern without knowing it, let alone making it explicit”. The article ‘Crafting strategy’ by Mintzberg (1988) represents the argument that strategy is deductive and not inductive, strategist recognise patterns and do not plan. To find a company strategy you can look at the interplay of the environment as well as the leadership and organisation of the company, Action leads to change and innovation, this in turn leads to strategy. Mintzberg (1987) sets out to compare the lone work of a potter to that of an organisation. Using this potter as a metaphor Mintzberg aims to demonstrate that both face the same strategic issues of being able to know their own capabilities well enough in order to formulate a ‘strategic direction’ through crafting. To integrate the article into the wider debate of Strategy we must look at the two key schools of thought, that of deliberate strategy (planning) and emergent strategy (crafting). Having...
Words: 1046 - Pages: 5
...review of ‘Crafting Strategy’ by Henry Mintzberg Strategy is a topic that receives a considerable amount of focus in both business schools and industry throughout the world (Knight and Mueller, 2004). A key debate in the field strategy is how exactly strategy is formulated. In ‘Crafting Strategy’ Mintzberg (1987) examines the distinctions between planning strategy and crafting strategy. This literature review will discuss Mintzberg’s argument and approach in the wider debate of strategy, followed by an analysis of the articles strengths and weaknesses. The position of the article in the wider debate about processes of strategy Whittington (2001) categorised strategy in to four principle approaches; Classical, evolutionary, processual and systematic. Mintzberg challenged traditional classical planning on a number of levels; Classicalist believed that the world was stable enough that strategist could accurately forecast through a rational process of deliberate calculation and analysis and that they are best created by senior management away from the operating environment (Whittington, 2001). Prescriptive strategic management literature indicates there is “a correlation between organizational performance and strategic planning, although empirical evidence is less than conclusive in this respect (Glaister and Falshaw, 1999; McKiernan and Morris, 1994; Pearce II et al., 1987; Rigby, 2001),” (Gunn and Williams, 2007, p206). Mintzberg believes that the term ‘planning strategy’ causes...
Words: 1543 - Pages: 7
...Thompson, Jr. University of Alabama 1. J. mmmm m University of Alabama University of South Alabama Crafting and Executing Strategy The Quest for Competitive Advantage Concepts and Cases 17TH EDITION McGraw-Hill Irwin Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogota Caracas Kuala Lumpur Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi Santiago Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto Irfbfl ®(f Part O n e Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy 3 Section A: Introduction and Overview 1. What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 4 What Do We Mean by Strategy? 6 Strategy and the Quest for Competitive Advantage 7 Identifying a Company s Strategy 10 Why a Company's Strategy Evolves over Time 11 A Company s Strategy Is Partly Proactive and Partly Reactive 11 Strategy and Ethics: Passing the Test of Moral Scrutiny What Makes a Strategy a Winner? 15 13 14 The Relationship between a Company's Strategy and Its Business Model Why Are Crafting and Executing Strategy Important? 17 17 Good Strategy + Good Strategy Execution = Good Management Illustration Capsules 1.1. Starbucks' Strategy in the Specialty Coffee Industry 8 1.2. Microsoft and Red Hat: Two Contrasting Business Models 16 2. Leading the Process of Crafting and Executing Strategy 22 What Does the Strategy-Making, Strategy-Executing Process Entail? Phase 1: Developing a Strategic Vision 24 28 How a Strategic Vision Differs...
Words: 3391 - Pages: 14
...Business Policy and Strategy – Study Guide: Unit 1 Material from McGraw Hill website – Chapters 1 & 2 Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? Learning Objectives - After studying this chapter, you should be able to: LO 1. | Understand why every company needs a sound strategy to compete successfully, manage the conduct of its business, and strengthen its prospects for long-term success. | LO 2. | Develop an awareness of the four most dependable strategic approaches for setting a company apart from rivals and winning a sustainable competitive advantage. | LO 3. | Understand that a company's strategy tends to evolve over time because of changing circumstances and ongoing management efforts to improve the company's strategy. | LO 4. | Learn why it is important for a company to have a viable business model that outlines the company's customer value proposition and its profit formula. | LO 5. | Learn the three tests of a winning strategy. | Key Points: The tasks of crafting and executing company strategies are the heart and soul of managing a business enterprise and winning in the marketplace. The key points to take away from this chapter include the following: 1. A company's strategy is the game plan management is using to stake out a market position, conduct its operations, attract and please customers, compete successfully, and achieve the desired performance targets. 2. The central thrust of a company's strategy is undertaking moves...
Words: 4114 - Pages: 17
...Running head: ASSIGNMENT #1 CRAFTING AND EXECUTING STRATEGY Assignment #1 Crafting and Executing Strategy Jet Blue Airways Strayer University BUS599016VA016-1116-001 Strategic Management July 11, 2011 Abstract This paper examines the business strategy of Jet Blue Airways. The paper will also examine strategic elements that provide the organization with a competitive advantage. The company’s competitive strategy and the impact of the trends in the U.S. airline industry will also be discussed. Assignment #1 Crafting and Executing Strategy Jet Blue Airways David Neeleman worked in the travel and airline industry before starting JetBlue. He was well versed in customer service. He learned from his grandfather as a teenager never to disappoint customers; satisfied customers would return. As a young man Neeleman also learned to be frugal (C-53). David Neeleman started JetBlue Airways as a company that would combine the low fares of a discount airline with the comforts of a den. Passengers would save money, consume gourmet snacks, sit on leather seats, and watch television. Many of JetBlue’s ideas came from Neeleman’s own personal experiences. He decided to add leather seats because he was once assigned a cloth seat that was soaked with urine. Leather seats were more durable and easier to clean. Individual monitors provided entertainment. He decided to provide 24-channel live television via satellite for free (C-53). On February 11, 2000, JetBlue’s...
Words: 1447 - Pages: 6
...“Crafting Strategy” (Mintzberg, 1987) Positioning in the Field of Strategy “…I believe the problem often lies one step beyond, in the distinction we make between formulation and implementation, the common assumption that thought must be independent of (and precede) action.” (Mintzberg, 1987) The above quotation, taken from Henry Mintzberg’s “Crafting Strategy”, concisely outlines one of the most prominent debates in the field of strategy over the last fifty years. Although the field is heavily fragmented - a feature highlighted by Mintzberg’ et al.’s “Ten Schools of Thought” model (1998) – it can be reduced into the two key approaches implicit above: the prescriptive, or Planning School, and the descriptive, or Learning School. The prescriptive approach describes strategy formation as a deliberate, conscious process of thought that comes prior to implementation. Most authors from this school define strategy as the establishment of a company’s future position [see, for example, Andrews, 1965; Ansoff, 1965, Byers, 1985; Chandler, 1962], illustrating how planning is a cornerstone of the prescriptive approach to strategic management. Serving as a juxtaposition, the descriptive approach suggests that strategies will emerge through the process of trial-and-error and that intention need not precede action. Mintzberg and Waters (1985) argue that the “open, flexible and responsive” nature of emergent strategies is especially important during crises when the environment...
Words: 1545 - Pages: 7
...WHAT IS STRATEGY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 1. Understand why every company needs a sound strategy to compete successfully, manage the conduct of its business, and strengthen its prospects for long-term success. 2. Develop an awareness of the four most dependable strategic approaches for setting a company apart from rivals and winning a sustainable competitive advantage. 3. Understand that a company’s strategy tends to evolve over time because of changing circumstances and ongoing management efforts to improve the company’s strategy. 4. Learn why it is important for a company to have a viable business model that outlines the company’s customer value proposition and its profit formula. 5. Learn the three tests of a winning strategy. Copyright ®2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 1–2 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY STRATEGY ? ♦ What is our present situation? ● ● WHAT IS STRATEGY ABOUT? ♦ Strategy is all about How: ● ● ● ● Business environment and industry conditions Firm’s financial and competitive capabilities Creating a vision for the firm’s future direction How to outcompete rivals. How to respond to economic and market conditions and growth opportunities. How to manage functional pieces of the business. How to improve the firm’s financial and market performance. ♦ Where do we want to go from here? ● ♦ How are we going to get there? ● Crafting an action plan that will get us there 1–3 1–4 WHY DO STRATEGY ? ♦ A firm does strategy: ● ●...
Words: 1224 - Pages: 5
...COSTCO WHOLESALE IN 2012: MISSION, BUSINESS MODEL, AND STRATEGY Jim Senegal was a very effective CEO. He was able to take capitalize on the membership warehouse concept that he learned from Sol Price when he worked for Price club in the late 1970. In 1983, he developed a strategic mission and values “to continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest prices possible”. This resulted in the first Costco being opened in 1983. The crafted strategy objectives centered around “ultra-low prices, limited product selection, a “treasure hunt” shopping experience, low operating costs, and geographic expansion. The rapid inventory turnover, vendor financing, low operating costs, and self service facilities enabled Costco to operate at a significantly lower gross margin and to pass on those savings to members through lower prices and higher quality goods. By charging members a prepaid fee, which supplemented overall profitability, it provided shareholders with an acceptable return. Those strategies could make Costco Wholesale as the third largest retailer in the United States and the seventh largest retailer in the world, also being the clear leader of the discount warehouse and wholesale club segment of the North American retailing industry. Began its operation in 1983 until January 2012, Costco had a total of 598 warehouses in 40 states and Puerto Rico, 9 Canadian provinces, United Kingdom, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and Mexico. In 2011 Costco reached...
Words: 1613 - Pages: 7
...Nucor Corporation: Competing against Low-Cost Steel Imports Week 8 Assignment Bus 599 Nucor Corporation is today one of North America largest steel maker company. Although the company has a strong position in the steel market today, things have not always been as positive. According to Crafting & Executing Strategy, Nucor was first known as Nuclear Corporation of America, a company involved in the nuclear instrument and electronic business in 1950’s and early 1960’s. Facing bankruptcy, the company changed direction and decided to invest in the stable steel-joist business. The new name, Nucor Corporation, came along with the change in 1972 to break away from the nuclear image and embrace the new venture. This transformational change was due to the vision of new CEO and president, F. Kenneth Iverson. His strategic initiatives revealed to be a blessing as Nucor Corporation has been successfully growing since its creation. Discuss the trends in the steel industry and how it may impact Nucor’s strategy. The electric arc furnace technology was introduced in 1960. The “mini-mills” was limited when compared to integrated mills in the industry. In addition, the operating costs of companies are lower compared to integrated mills because they use electric arc furnaces that can produce various steel products to minimize production costs. (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2010). Nucor Corporation started using thin-slab casting during the 1980’s and it was their...
Words: 1512 - Pages: 7
...Confirming Pages PART 1 SA M PL E C H AP TE R Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy tho29503_ch01_001-017.indd 1 12/10/12 4:52 PM Confirming Pages WHAT IS STRATEGY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? AP Learning Objectives TE R CHAPTER 1 Learn what we mean by a company’s strategy. LO 2 Grasp the concept of a sustainable competitive advantage. LO 3 Develop an awareness of the four most basic strategic approaches for winning a sustainable competitive advantage. LO 4 Understand that a company’s strategy tends to evolve over time because of changing circumstances and ongoing management efforts to improve the company’s strategy. LO 5 Learn why it is important for a company to have a viable business model that outlines the company’s customer value proposition and its profit formula. LO 6 Learn the three tests of a winning strategy. M PL E C H LO 1 SA Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. Jack Welch – Former CEO of General Electric If your firm’s strategy can be applied to any other firm, you don’t have a very good one. David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad – Consultants and professors One must have strategies to execute dreams. Azim Premji – CEO Wipro Technologies and one of the world’s richest people tho29503_ch01_001-017.indd 2 12/10/12 4:52 PM AP Many factors enter into a full explanation of a company’s performance, of course. Some come from the external environment; others are internal to the firm...
Words: 7702 - Pages: 31
...The strategy-making, strategy-implementing process consists of five inter-related managerial tasks: 1. Developing forming a strategic vision and establishing a clear mission to be achieved. 2. Converting the strategic vision and mission into measurable objectives and performance targets. 3. Crafting a strategy to achieve the desired results. 4. Implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively. 5. Evaluating performance, reviewing new developments, and initiating corrective adjustments in long term direction, objectives, strategy, or implementation in the light of actual experience, changing conditions, new ideas, and new opportunities. 1. Developing a Strategic Vision and Business Mission "Who we are, what we do, and...
Words: 1582 - Pages: 7
...statements about a company's strategy is true? | | | A) | Crafting an excellent strategy is more important than executing it well. | | | B) | Managers at all companies face three central questions in thinking strategically about their company's present circumstances and prospects: What's the company's present situation? Where does the company need to go from here? How should it get there? | | | C) | A company's strategy deals with whether the revenue-cost-profit economics of its business model demonstrate the viability of the business enterprise as a whole. | | | D) | Masterful strategies come partly (maybe mostly) by doing things in much the same way as the industry leader but then being better than the leader in one particular area that counts heavily with buyers. | | | E) | Whether a company's strategy is ethical or not does not matter a lot because most customers and most suppliers are relatively unconcerned whether a company they do business with engages in sleazy practices or turns a blind eye to below-board behavior on the part of its employees. | | | | | | | | 2 CORRECT | | The competitive moves and business approaches a company's management are using grow the business, attract and please customers, compete successfully, conduct operations, and achieve the targeted levels of organizational performance is referred to as its | | | A) | strategic offensive for becoming a market leader. | | | B) | business model. | | | C) | long-term...
Words: 1120 - Pages: 5
...website. 2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his vision? Yes. Father Daniel Mary saw a vision and outline how he was going to achieve his vision. 3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? He would use a $250,000 toward the purchase and $75,000 earn during the first year for coffee sales. Then the profit from the website sales will pay off the property in the future. What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy produce? With a touch of a finger you can get it deliver to your home. Catholic religion people will purchase the coffee because of the between the two. 4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? Yes. He have it make out to the point of paying off the property. What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? 5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not? No. Because 6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and executing strategy for the monastery’s coffee operations? Are changed needed in its long-term direction? its objectives? its strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain. CASE 1 Mystic Monk...
Words: 1605 - Pages: 7
