Dr Bruce Mwiya
1: Introducing Strategy
Learning outcomes
• Summarise the strategy of an organisation in a ‘strategy
statement’.
•Distinguish between corporate, business and
operational strategies.
• Identify key issues for an organisation’s strategy
according to the Exploring Strategy model.
• Understand different people’s roles in strategy work.
•Appreciate the importance of different organisational
contexts, academic disciplines and theoretical lenses
to practical strategy analysis.
Definitions of strategy (1)
• ‘..the determination of the long-run goals and objectives
of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action
and the allocation of resource necessary for carrying out
these goals’
Alfred D. Chandler
• ‘Competitive strategy is about being different. It means
deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver
a unique mix of value’
Michael Porter
Sources: A.D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American Enterprise, MIT Press, 1963, p. 13 M.E. Porter, What is strategy?, Harvard Business Review,
1996, November–December, p. 60
Definitions of strategy (2)
• ‘..a pattern in a stream of decisions’
Henry Mintzberg
• ‘..the long–term direction of an organisation’
Exploring Strategy
•Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over
the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing
environment through its configuration of resources and
competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder
expectations
8th edition Exploring strategy
Sources: H. Mintzberg, Tracking Strategy: Towards a General Theory, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 3
Strategic decisions
Source: From G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R. Whittington. Exploring Corporate Strategy, 8th edn, Pearson Education 2008.
Three horizons for strategy (1)
•Horizon 1:
Extend and defend core business
•Horizon 2:
Build emerging businesses
•Horizon 3:
Create viable options
Three horizons for strategy (2)
