What Are the Different Types of Strategies? Thesis Paper Example

What are the different types of strategies? What are the differences among these strategies? How do you determine which type of strategy is most appropriate for your organization?

There are several strategies applied in the business environment. These important strategies help improve the fundamental components of an organization. They are organization strategies, financial strategies, market strategies, services and product strategies and people strategies.

Financial Strategies-This type of strategy defines a company’s way of managing, monitoring and utilization of its capital resources to help it grow. This includes financial and budgeting management, quality of accounting skills and systems, management of cash and credit and access to capital.

People strategies: This strategy encompasses the employees’ abilities, skills, attitudes and energies which can be harnessed to promote growth. Company’s growth goes hand in hand with its people’s growth and therefore if a company provides maximum opportunities for growth of its people, it also gets growth opportunities in maximum.

Products and services strategies: This is a fundamental business component which defines a company’s capacity to deliver its services and products. It includes the quality of services/products and also the range of such products or services marketed by the company, the knowledge of the technicalities and skills of service and sales , and the level of technology employed in its products/services and also used to do the  business.

Market strategies. This refers to the relationship between a company and its existing potential customers or clients, the means used by the company to identify and reach its customers ,the quality of services it gives to its customers ,the level of knowledge on opportunities and changing needs in the market as well as advertising, marketing ,its management skills and the selling .

Organization strategies refers to the business component that binds all parts of the company  together into one and is comprised of systems ,structures business procedures and activities, policies, leadership ,decision making communication coordination and integration of activities

The choice of the strategy to be employed is determined by the market outlook of the company.This involves analyzing a situation, analyzing self and the micro and macro environments.  The results of the analysis are used to set short-term or long-term objectives. Considering the situation of analysis the objectives should be capable of developing a strategic plan which provides ways through which the objectives can be achieved.

Several business analysis models are employed in strategic analysis. These include PEST analysis model, PORTERS FIVE FORCES model and SWOT analysis.

Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST) analysis describes the benchmark of macro-environmental factors that are useful in environmental scanning during strategic management. Further modification of the model has turned it into STEEPLE and STEEPLED to include demographics and education as part of the factors. This targets the analysis of the environmental factors that the company has to put into consideration. It’s a good tool for understanding the dynamics and the forces that shape the market.

The factors considered in this model offer different benefits to a given Company depending on the goods it produces.  Business to Business (B2B) and consumer companies are more affected by social factors while political factors tend to affect more a contractor involved in global defense. Some factors will also be more relevant to some companies than others. For example focusing on economic factors especially interest rates will be of great importance for a company that has heavily borrowed.

The five porters’ model provided by Michael Porter shows that business as being influenced by five forces .this model can be used by a strategic manager to understand better the industry context in which a firm operates and thus be able to develop an edge over rival firms.

The five forces are rivalry, buyer power, supply power, barriers to entry, and threat of substitutes.

What are strategic objectives? What is the purpose of strategic objectives? What makes an effective strategic objective? What are some examples of strategic objectives for you organization or one with which you are familiar?

A strategic objective is broadly defined as a target that must be achieved by an organization for its strategy to succeed. Strategic objectives generally are focused on external environment. Examples of strategic objectives include innovation objectives which touch on development of new services and goods, financial resources which target identification and use of sources of capital, Market stand which target the level of knowledge on the present opportunities and changing needs, human resources objectives which are used in determining employee selection and development among others

What is the difference among strategic, long-term, and short-term objectives? What is the relationship between objectives and goals? What are some examples of this relationship?

Strategic objectives are the objectives that define underline the vision and mission of an organization. These objectives therefore form the overall business strategy and are in tandem with the company’s long term plan.  Short term objectives are the precursor objectives upon which the long term objectives are built. This implies that the progress of short term objectives determines the way the long term plans progress. The short term objectives are the building blocks on which the long term objectives are built. Goals are the short term targets that are planned for achieving of objectives. The goals are planned to follow each other in what is called goals sequencing to ensure that the objectives are achieved.  The relationship between goals and objectives is that the goals are set with an aim to lead to the objectives. For example if the objective of a company is to have 5,000 customers in three months, the first step will be to set the goals towards this objective. These goals could be set such that, first they could be split into 2,000 customers every month. The second step would be to set a goal on how many customers are to be pried away from the competition and how many are to be new clients. These goals should eventually lead to the objectives and link up with the strategy.

What is corporate governance? What role does corporate governance play in strategic planning? Why is it important? Explain your answer and give an example

Corporate governance is the system by which organizations are directed and controlled by senior officers. This system is vital in strategic planning because the senior management plays the role of setting organizations direction, making policies and handling crisis which is vital in strategic planning. Corporate governance ensures good supervision, accountability and management of an organization within best set practice guidelines and hence enhances overall performance of the organization. An example of corporate governance is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is charged with the responsibility of regulating the auditors of public companies to ensure that the accounts they give are true and fair representation of the companies in question. This has ensured that the investors and the general public as well as the employees are not given erroneous information concerning the financial situation of the companies.