Strategic decision Making

Chapter 8: Marketing, Finance/Accounting, R&D, and MIS Issues

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify and describe strategic marketing issues vital for strategy implementation.

2. Explain why social media marketing is an important strategy-implementation tool.

3. Explain why market segmentation is an important strategy-implementation tool.

4. Explain how to use product positioning (perceptual mapping) as a strategy-implementation tool.

5. Identify and describe strategic finance/accounting issues vital for strategy implementation.

6. Perform E P S/E B I T analysis to evaluate the attractiveness of debt versus stock as a source of capital to implement strategies.

7. Develop projected financial statements to reveal the impact of strategy recommendations.

8. Determine the cash value of any business using four corporate evaluation methods.

9. Discuss I P Os, keeping cash offshore, and issuing corporate bonds as strategic decisions that face many firms.

10. Discuss the nature and role of research and development (R&D) in strategy implementation.

11. Explain how management information systems (M I Ss) impact strategy-implementation efforts.

Chapter 9: Strategy Review, Evaluation, and Control

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the strategy-evaluation process, criteria, and methods used.

2. Discuss three activities that comprise strategy evaluation.

3. Describe and develop a Balanced Scorecard.

4. Identify and describe published sources of strategy-evaluation information.

5. Identify and describe six characteristics of an effective strategy-evaluation system.

6. Discuss the nature and role of contingency planning in strategy evaluation.

7. Explain the role of auditing in strategy evaluation.

8. Identify and discuss three twenty-first-century challenges in strategic management.

9. Identify and describe 17 guidelines for effective strategic management.

Initial Postings:  Read and reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Then post what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding in each assigned textbook chapter.Your initial post should be based upon the assigned reading for the week, so the textbook should be a source listed in your reference section and cited within the body of the text. Other sources are not required but feel free to use them if they aid in your discussion.

Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:

i. To raise capital, what are the pros and cons of selling bonds, compared to issuing stock or borrowing money from a bank in terms of raising capital?

ii. As owner of a local, independent supermarket, explain how you would evaluate the firm’s strategy.

[Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student's own words - do not provide quotes!]

 [Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA review]

Overall submission requirements –

1. discussion needs two chapters overview or any topic discussion in your own words

2. Add your answers to the questions highlighted in yellow to the discussion post

3. Total 500 words, apa format, no plagiarism and verbatim

4. Two peer reviews with 200 words each

Student -1

Strategy Evaluation

So far, we have learned concepts around strategic planning and management. However, strategy implementation does not end there. Consistently and continually evaluating the implemented strategies is important now more than ever, in an ever-growing technology-driven world not only to maintain a competitive advantage but to also protect the organization from potential threats and risks. There can be threats and risks from getting complacent about strategy planning and implementation, without actually having a plan for monitoring and evaluating the strategies (David et al., 2020). Rival organizations that have implementing better plans to evaluate competitions and their current strategies can take advantage of the situation to climb up to a higher competitive advantage. The textbook also indicates that there are several organizations that started off with excellent strategy planning in year 1 only to find out that they ended up struggling and unable to keep up the success year 2 and onwards (David et al., 2020). This is typically because of complacency associated with the growth and success of the organization.

How organizations can measure competitive advantage is through three of the main parameters, that include resources, skills, and position (David et al., 2020). The chapter also helps us realize that continuous evaluation of strategy during the initial stages of development in the organization can be extremely beneficial. This is because once the organization establishes a solid position in the market/industry, rivals usually are deterred from any large-scale attacks (David et al., 2020).

Compared to organizations two decades ago, managers need to be more aware, diligent, and transparent with their employees today. The workforce today demands to be treated fairly, with respect, and gain rights to full transparency. How can this be achieved and how does strategy evaluation help? With the advent and increased use of social media, organizations are more at risk from their own employees damaging their reputations and demanding fines. If strategies that address these issues are planned and implemented, but they are not followed-through as the organization grows in size, they are putting themselves at risk of being open to these issues (David et al., 2020). Additionally, the technological advancements are moving so rapidly leading to a need for shorter timelines and faster product development (David et al., 2020). Due to this, organizations are subject to keeping up with the rapidly growing markets to ensure they are able to stay in business, keep the customers engaged, and keep their employees satisfied.

Strategy evaluation is not as easy as simply looking back every year at values or balance sheets to determine if there has been in an improvement in net profits, revenue, sales, product portfolios etc. In fact, the success of implemented strategies may not be determined at a set timeline. Sometimes, strategies may lead to short-term advantages but have long-term implications on the business. This may not be realized until years after the implementation (David et al., 2020). Therefore, it is important to look at strategy evaluation as something of a continuous process instead of periodic assessments.

References

David, F. R., David, F. R., & David, M. E. (2020). Strategic management: Concepts and cases, a competitive advantage approach (17th ed.). Pearson.

Student -2

For this week’s reading the focus toward inward. Often, when looking at strategies, companies look at the way that other companies are impacted. However, this week’s reading focused mostly on the evaluation of the company. The idea of a scorecard makes sense for me as a soccer coach. In my sport, the categories of a scorecard would contain things like “passes completed, goals scored, and even tackles won.” As a company, the scorecard would look much different. The idea of a balanced scorecard is important for the companies as they look to build something to judge themselves. As the goal of being good in many categories is important as the companies hope to build something important. The aim of creating balance help shareholders feel confident and comfortable as the company helps to weigh the company needs with the customer wants. Remembering an objective way of reflecting on performance is important for every company through a scorecard (David et al., 2020).

When a company is addressing different options and the impact on their scorecard, there are many ways to balance the card. Raising capital is a tough thing to do for some companies. There are many ways for a company to bring in a great deal of money at one time. Selling stocks, taking a loan, and even selling bonds are all ways that companies help to bring in large profits. Selling stock has some pros. Whether it is a stock split or just selling some of the company owned shares, there are many options. Selling stock does have cons though. By selling these shares, there is power given up. The company ownership is changing hands. Next, taking a loan can be a good option. However, the same reasons a person might not be wise to take a loan apply to the company. Interest rates, the nature of the loan, and many other reasons are a negative for a loan. Clearly, this can be a simple way to raise capital. Finally, selling bonds can raise capital for a company. This can be a great option as the company is basically just taking a loan from normal people. Selling the future of the company can be bad. However, betting on the growth and the ability to fulfill those bonds is a small price to pay for the capital now (David et al., 2020).

Finally, the scorecard can be used to analyze a firm’s strategy. If I were to own a shop, I would use a scorecard to assess my companies’ plan. Since we would be working to stand out against Walmart and Kroger, our scorecard would be important to focus on our customers. Since we cannot compete with the prices and range of those big brands, we should balance our strategy would good customer service. We should keep our ideas and plan focused on the customer to boost and outweigh our negatives (David et al., 2020)

References

David, F. R., David, F. R., & David, M. E. (2020). Strategic management: A competitive advantage approach.