Week 2

   1) In your own words and using referenced quotes, describe what “strategic management” is?

The term strategic management refers to the managerial process of forming a strategic vision, setting objectives, crafting a strategy, implementing and executing the strategy, and then in the end making a correction in the vision, objectives, strategy, and execution are considered appropriate ( I. o. C. A. o., 2010).

2) How is business strategy similar to military strategy? How is it different?

Similarities between business strategy and military strategy:

• Similar terms are used such as goals, mission, strength and weakness.
• Strategy is made to attack the competitor's weakness by using internal forces.
• Strategy is made according to the change in environment and always improves.
• Gathers information and analyses how to counterattack competitor's strategy.
• Strategy is always made by top level employees.

Differences:

• Business strategy is formulated and implemented with assumption of competition, but military strategy is based on conflict.
• Business strategy may affect small portion of market, but military strategy may affect whole nation.
• There is no use of weapon while implementing business strategy, but dangerous weapons could be used to implement military strategy.

(askbusinessdoctor.com, 2013)

3) What do you understand by the terms “strategic analysis”, “strategic development”, and “strategic  implementation”.

Strategic analysis is the judgment about what strategy to pursue need to flow directly from analysis of organizational external environment and internal situation. The two most important situational considerations are (1) industry and competitive competitions and (2) an organization's own competitive capabilities, resources, internal strengths and weaknesses and market position ( I. o. C. A. o., 2010).

Strategic development is the process of developing a strategic vision of where the company needs to head and what should they focus in the future to improve current market position and its future prospects ( I. o. C. A. o., 2010).

Strategic management process does not when the firm decides what strategies to pursue. There must be a translation of strategic plans into strategic action. Implementing strategy affects an organization from top to bottom; it affects all the functional and divisional areas of a business ( I. o. C. A. o., 2010).

4) Write about your experience with today’s case study. What answers did you give? Was it easy to answer the questions? Did your group agree with each other?

It was a very interesting and useful case study. It helped me to know more about the different towns of England and their development strategy. Although it was hard to understand the case study in first attempt, after some interaction within the group we could easily answer the questions.

                                

a) Why are Milton Keynes, Peterborough and Swindon growing rapidly? 

•  All these towns are on motorways connected to London and have decent.
•  All three towns are situated near the big and developed towns like London, Oxford and Cambridge. 
• The governing body of these towns took good marketing strategy to attract families and businesses. 
• The price of housing and commercial property costs much less than in nearby towns.

b)  Why might their growth strategy be "mad"? 

Their growth strategy might be considered "mad" because:

• Much of their growth now comes from immigrants.
•  Local residents are uneasy about the increasing number of immigrants and expansion.
•  It is now hard for businesses to attract highly skilled staff, especially those with degrees.
•  Young people who do well tend to leave.
• The town lacks decent bars and restaurants in the centre and people thing this will bring a little "vibrancy" to quiet town centre. 

c) What do you think – is it a good strategy to continue with? 

Yes, I think it is a good strategy to continue with because the cost of living will be economical in comparison to other towns. Likewise, these towns are located near to some well developed towns by which they can benefit from its vitality. These towns are also planning to build universities soon which can attract more students. 

d) Would you live in any of these three towns?

Yes, I would live in any of these three towns because the cost of living is low compared to other towns and these towns can surely take benefits from the well developed towns which are located nearby.

Reference

• Johnson G,Whittington R & Scholes K (2011), Exploring Strategy, Ed9, Prentice Hall
• Grant R (2010), Contemporary Strategy Analysis: concepts, techniques,applications Ed 7. Blackwell.
• Wiley Ireland, R., Hoskisson, R, and Hitt, M. (2009) The Management of Strategy: Concepts and Cases, 8th Ed. Cengage Learning
• India, I. o. C. A. o., 2010. Strategic Management. New Delhi: Sahitya Bhawan Publications.
• askthebusinessdoctor.com. (n.d.). Retrieved 2013, from http://askthebusinessdoctor.com/2011/08/24/similarities-between-business-military-strategy/