...STRATEGIC CHOICE AND EVALUATION PAPER Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper Strategic, Planning, and Implementation/STR-581 Instructor: Sidney Morse April 09, 2012 According to www.wellsfargo.com, “Wells Fargo and Company is a diversified financial services company that provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgages, consumer, and commercial financial services through more than 9,000 stores and 12, 211 ATMs and the Internet across the United States and Internationally. Wells Fargo is ranked fourth in assets and first in market value among their U.S competitors. The company’s vision is to satisfy all their customer’s financial needs and help them succeed financially (www.wellsfargo.com, 2012).” Strategic choices concern the “decisions about an organization’s future and the way in which it needs to respond to pressures and influences” (Farid, and Flynn, 2000). Strategic choice is a part of the strategic planning process that involves identifying and evaluating alternatives that leads to future opportunities. A good strategic choice has to be challenging enough to keep ahead of competitors but also achievable for the company (Farid, and Flynn, 2000). In this paper I will identify and evaluate my target firm Wells Fargo best strategic choices and alternatives the firm must consider to realize growth and opportunity. Value discipline Value discipline is an alternative approach to generic strategy. This alternative focus on delivering superior customer value...
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...Strategic Analysis and Choice Intake: October 2006 Student ID # 069017970 Master of Business Administration Module 2 Strategic Analysis and Choice Submitted by: Mohammed Hassan Sidahmed Student ID # 069017970 Intake: October 2006 1 Strategic Analysis and Choice Intake: October 2006 Student ID # 069017970 Strategic Analysis and Choice With reference to empirical examples, identify the circumstances in which a company should consider implementing a process of strategic renewal. What business strategies can they adopt in such circumstances and what factors are likely to influence the success of such strategies? 2 Strategic Analysis and Choice Intake: October 2006 Student ID # 069017970 A close look upon circumstances in which a company should consider implementing a process of strategic renewal and how to clearly identify these circumstances , analysts have to explore checklists and frameworks to find information necessary for conducting an internal and External Audit , to assess very clearly the internal and external Environments , so that the Company finds out where it currently stands and in order to take advantage of opportunities and its strong areas and to make plans for threats and weak areas when preparing business strategies. For the assessment External environment, it is best conducted by the PESTLE Analysis the factors are : ( P – Political , E – Economical , S – Social , T – Technological , L - Legal...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation Strategic decisions are an important factor to help with growth within an organization. Coca-Cola analysis trends in buying from the consumer in each market unit and provides the products that consumers want. Being able to analysis the trends will help the company to be able to set up goals to be able to grow. This paper will discuss value discipline, generic strategy, grand strategy to help the company realize growth, and a recommendation on what can be done to help the company grow. Value Discipline Value disciplines are a model that was created to describe three generic value that companies can adopt these values are operational excellences, product leadership, and customer intimacy (Business Dictionary website, n.d.). Coca-Cola has recently rolled out the Operational Excellent (OE) Site Lead within all of the facilities. This new position is in place to drive the OE culture, built OE capability, and to deliver the OE vision across the facility. The OE site lead is responsible to provide expertise, training and leadership on Lean Principles and Structured Problem Solving to all employees. Other programs that OE has led to are Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and Total Quality Management (TQM) Recently Coca-Cola has been rolling out a new program called Total Productive Maintenance. This Total Productive Maintenance is a maintenance program that involves a newly defined concept for maintaining facility and equipment. The goal of the Total...
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...Strategic Choices and Evaluation Name: Subject: Date Strategic Choices and Evaluation Value Discipline Strategies These are strategies that will allow Vizio Inc. to provide the best offering in their market places by excelling in a specific dimension of value. The company should adopt the best value discipline that is compelling and unmatched and off course one that maintain the threshold standards on other dimension of value. There are three different kinds of value based on the value proposition namely operational leadership, product leadership and customer intimacy (Treacy & Wiersema, 2004). Operational Excellence Vizio Inc. is an electronics company that need to be operational excellent to ensure its definite and rapid growth in all its strategic activities. The company ought to deliver a combination of quality HD entertainment products including home audio systems, high definition televisions, personal computers, tablets and accessories, efficient prices for its entertainment products and also enhance the easiness of purchase that no any other competitor in the market can match. The company should start viewing itself as not a service innovator or product innovator and should also not cultivate one-to-one relationship with the customers. The company should learn to execute extra-ordinarily well and their proposition to their mass customers should be guaranteed low prices and hassle-free services. Vizio Inc. should adopt the four characteristics of operational...
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...Buckle, Inc. Strategic Choice and Evaluation Takeisha Gilbert University of Phoenix STR-581, Strategic Planning and Implementation Instructor: Suchitra Veera The Buckle has had the opportunity to experience stability in a fluctuating market. Other organizations within its market have had close stores, file bankruptcy, lay off workers, and change distributors to save cost. It is important to understand the value discipline, generic strategy, grand strategy and rational that was essential in helping Buckle, Inc remain successful during economic hardships. Recommendations for what the organization should implement in future strategic planning will be given. Value discipline The Buckle recognized that in an economy where consumers value quality items but are dealing with decisions to buy based on affordability should always offer layaway services. This service allows consumers to afford expensive brands that express individualism with stress free payment plans. Consumers no longer have to worry about handing over large amounts of money at one time but make timely payments before the end of the layaway period. The value the organization had to offer is (1) high end merchandise, (2) layaway opportunities (affordability), (3) custom screen printing services (customer service option, and (4) alteration service. No matter what a consumer’s wallet may look like it is a realization that he or she can still afford luxury brands with the layaway option....
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...Primerica Life Strategic Choice and Evaluation Shauntel Reeves STR/581 April 7, 2014 Charles Millhollan Strategic Choice and Evaluation It is very important for organizations to identify different alternatives in order to continue growing within an industry. Primerica Life is a company that offers life insurance, investments, and financial education. Primerica finds that they are in a very competitive industry and must discover their competitive advantage. The paper will discuss the strategic choices and evaluation that Primerica will need to consider to realize growth in the industry and to achieve long term objectives. Generic Strategy Generic Strategy is “a core idea about how a firm can best compete in the marketplace” (Pearce & Robinson, pg. 195). Primerica must look at the three generic strategies to gain a competitive advantage in the industry. The three strategies consist of low cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. “Advocates of generic strategies believe that each of these options can produce above-average returns for a firm in an industry” (Pearce & Robinson, pg. 195). Focus Primerica will perform best using the focus strategy. The focus strategy is when “a firm targets a specific, often narrow, segment of the market. The firm can choose to concentrate on a select customer group (youths or senior citizens, for example), product range, segment of a market (professional craft persons versus do-it-yourselfers), geographical areas (East...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation United Natural Foods, Inc (UNFI) “is the leading U.S. independent national distributor of natural, organic, specialty foods and related products, including: nutritional supplements, personal care items, and organic produce” (UNFI, 2012, para. 1). UNFI started out as Mountain People’s Warehouse in 1976, when people started becoming interested in natural product. In 1996, Mountain People’s Warehouse and Cornucopia Natural Foods merged and formed United Natural Foods, Inc. Today the company employs 6,900 individuals throughout the United States and Canada. This paper is going to evaluate the best value discipline, generic and grand strategies, and the recommended strategy UNFI should implement in the organization. Best Value Discipline Value disciplines are strategies that center on delivering customer value through operational excellence, customer intimacy, and product leadership (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). Operational Excellence Operational excellence is the approach to the production and delivery of products and services. Using this approach the organization leads the industry in price and convenience by focusing on lean and efficient operations. Organizations using this approach work hard to minimize costs by reducing overhead costs, eliminating unneeded production steps, reducing transaction costs, and optimizing business processes (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). To implement this strategy organizations generally restructure their delivery processes...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco) operates a membership-only warehouse that sells quality products and services at an affordable price. Costco remains an organization known for providing quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices (Costco, 2013). This paper evaluates Costco’s strategic choices and evaluates considerations for growth. The paper identifies the best value discipline, generic strategy, and grand strategy for Costco. Finally, the paper includes a recommended strategy for Costco to implement. Best value discipline According to Pearson and Robinson (2013), consultants Michael Treachy and Fred Wiersema described the Value-Discipline Model as a strategy took to help organizations recognize what the organization wants their customers to value them for. The Value-Discipline Model focuses on three areas for an organization to focus on, operating excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy. Of the three areas of the Value-Discipline Model, customer intimacy best describes Costco’s business model. According to Pearson and Robinson (2013), “a strategy of customer intimacy continually tailor and shape products and services to fit an increasingly refined definition of the customer” (p. 198). Customer intimacy differentiates Costco from competitors with low prices and hassle free service. Costco’s mission statement states the importance of providing “quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices” (Costco...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper Target Firm: Hamilton Sundstrand is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation and is among the largest global suppliers of technologically advanced aerospace and industrial products. With more than 50 major facilities worldwide, Hamilton Sundstrand designs and manufactures aerospace systems for commercial, regional, corporate, and military aircraft, and is a major supplier for international space programs. Introduction A company is continuously faced with decisions to select among the factors that would make the business more attractive and focus on the ones that defines and aligns with its visions of “what it would like to be”. A company can overextend itself by attempting to have the best service or delivery time, the highest quality product, and the lowest cost; and could possibly result in failure. Therefore, it is inherent that a company use strategic planning to focus on primary objectives for long-term preparation and success. Hamilton Sundstrand and its sister companies are already market leaders in many established and mature markets; however, in order to continue its growth in the near future an examination of its long-term objectives is necessary. According to Pearce and Robinson, Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control, there are seven common categories of long term objectives: profitability, productivity, competitive position, employee development, employee relations, technological leadership...
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...TIU University Heather Hilfer MGT 499 Module Four Case: Strategic Choices Dr. Jim Young June 7, 2009 Strategic Choices In April 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs took $1,300 and founded Apple Computers. They began building computers for companies in a garage. As with any company Apple has seen its fair share of successes and failures. But today Apple is one of the most recognized brands in the world for not just computers, but also of other technologies. “According to surveys by J. D. Power, Apple has the highest brand and repurchase loyalty of any computer manufacturer.” (http://www.answers.com/topic/apple-computer-inc.). What has made Apple so successful? For this case assignment, I will use background materials along with other research to what I feel is one of the most important strategic choices Steve Jobs made that turned Apple into the powerhouse we know today. Mission Statement After much digging, I found Apple’s mission statement in a press release. “Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.” (http://www.apple.com/investor/). What has Steve Jobs done in the last decade to help Apple’s mission statement come true and make it one of the most powerful companies in the world? Dealing with threats When Steve Job took the position of...
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...development of new strategies for the organization in order to ensure that the business remains viable. The strategic choice of the organization is critical for the achievement of both short term and long term goals of the organization. Organizational leaders and analysts must therefore conduct a thorough evaluation of various strategic alternatives by analyzing the risks involved, organizational capabilities, external environment, and whether the strategies form a good fit with the objectives and values of the organization. (Peng and Dess, 2013) A good strategy will ensure that the organization operates at its maximum potential and achieves exemplary performance. The strategic approach that the organization adopts will however depend on the organizational culture, organizational structure and leadership style. (Abu-Jarour, 2014) The bottom line is that organizations will design strategic plans that seek to improve customer satisfaction and service quality, gain competitive advantage, improve business processes, attract and retain employees and manage their costs. Strategic Alternatives In developing and adopting a strategic choice, an organization has to put into consideration various strategic alternatives that are crucial in making a decision on which strategy to adopt. An important step in this process includes identification and evaluation of the best strategic alternatives for the organization. Evaluation is done on the basis of suitability, feasibility and sustainability...
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...Strategic Choices and Evaluation Christel McCrory STR/581 April 23, 2012 Professor Frank C. Bearden Strategic Choices and Evaluation Target Stores Strategic Choice and Evaluation The first Target Store was opened in 1962 by the Dayton Company. Though there were other discount chains in the US at that point of time, many of them do not exist today. Target was able to adapt itself to the changing environment and by 2002; it was the second largest discount retailer in the US (Target.com, 2012) http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy/BSTR164.htm] In June 2002, Target Corporation (Target) had 1,330 retail stores in 47 states of the United States. Even though it only had a fifth of the sales and profits of Wal-Mart, it had a loyal customer base that was looking for a trendy, yet, affordable range of merchandise (Hays, 2002 pg. 2). Target's customers, whom it referred to as 'Guests', were younger and more affluent than that of its rival Wal-Mart | | An early strategic choice to build a brand around the Target name fostered the company's steady growth. From the very beginning, George Dayton's strategy was to position Target as an upscale discount chain at which the prices would be just above the lowest prices. To achieve this upscale image, it offered trendy and stylish goods in an environment that was bright and attractive, unlike other discount stores of the time (HBS Working Knowledge, 2004 para 2). Once a generic strategy is selected...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation STR/581 July 13, 2015 Strategic Choice and Evaluation The Sonoco Products plant in Memphis, TN has been in business for over 40 years. Many of the operations have been very manual. The plant was just introduced to the new technology of supply chain. Of course many of the productions workers are having being brought up to speed to the new technology. Production workers have the responsibility of entering the umbers into the system in which they produce. It is very critical that the numbers that they enter are accurate. However, in order to assure accuracy, one must understand how the system works. In this industry, it is very important that the workers understand the essence of their job and how critical it is that each worker does their part tot he fullest. To assure long term operation of this plant, strategic choices have been made to ensure successful generic strategy, value discipline, and overall grand strategy for Sonoco Products. Generic Strategy Pearce and Robinson (2013), describes generic strategy as the core idea about how a firm can best compete in the marketplace. Sonoco Products is a company that is always about bettering their customers as well as their employees. There have been several changes made to the process of operations and leadership throughout the business. Value Discipline I am having a little trouble trying to find the right words for this section. Team, I need your comments on...
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...* * * * * Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper * Tanya Gurule * University of Phoenix * STR 581 * Leon Baudot * June 22, 2012 * Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper * Starting a new company could be a very challenging feat. Finding the right demographic, location, and product could become a very intense endeavor. A comprehensive detailed strategic plan will be needed to ensure a new company’s success. Modesty Apparel Company is no exception to this process. * Mission, Vision, and Value Statement * Modesty Apparel Company is a new store which will cater to the modest women in Denver Colorado, and across the United States on line, and in time. As our name suggests, modesty will provide modest clothing and accessories, as we position ourselves at the top of this particular market. Modesty is the first and only Christian Clothing store in the city of Denver. The intention of Modesty is to obtain 70% market share for the modest women population. We at Modesty intend to provide opportunity to purchase clothes and accessories which make women feel modest, yet be fashionable. What will Modesty Look like? Modesty is a small boutique, which will be based on a familiar setting of many clothing stores. The store front will be placed in a strip mall in the Cherry Creek area of Denver. Upon entering the store, the view to the left is clothing racks filled with modest apparel for the plus...
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...you sure you have strategy? focuses on the key components of a strategy. Its purpose is to expand on the past 30 years of strategic frameworks and help us identify what actually constitutes a strategy. When executive call everything strategy, they create confusion, so this article works to dispel the misconception many executives and scholars hold that a strategy is a catchall term used to describe whatever they wish. Instead, Hambrick and Fredrickson persuade us that a sound strategy, or as they define – an integrated set of choices, incorporates five separate elements that must work together to create one unified strategy. These five key elements, which are guided by the company’s mission, objectives and strategic analysis form the strategy - consisting of these domains of choice: arenas, vehicles, differentiators, staging, and economic logic. Consideration should be placed on all five elements, and not just a few components of a strategy. These elements call not only for choice, but also preparation and investment. It is important that they align and support one another. Finally, only after the design of all five elements can the strategist plan other supporting activities that are needed to reinforce the strategy such as functional policies, organizational arrangements, and operating programs. The arenas element is the most fundamental choice a strategist makes. It answers the questions, where will the company be active? It includes what product categories, market...
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