Week 3

      1) Why is strategy making like a science and why is it also like an art or craft? 

Strategy making is a science because it is derived from various logical recommendations or after conducting various types of experiments or researches. Strategy making might require various types of analytical tools or data. After going through all these process best recommendation or alternative is analysed and taken through to the implementation phase. 

It can also be taken as art or craft because the whole strategy making process could be creative and unpredictable. People with totally different human nature may come together to contribute during the process, where they could share their expertise, vision and some creative ideas. When all these people come together conflicts may arise, politics could be done and they might compromise to make the best strategy (Johnson G,Whittington R & Scholes K, 2013). 

           2) In your own words and using referenced quotes describe the difference between intended strategy and emergent strategy.

Intended Strategy	Emergent Strategy
The action pattern is planned and worked accordingly.	.      The action pattern changes and develops over time.
Intentions are more concerned about achieving organizations goal rather than making profit.	.      In emergent strategy, Businesses over time discover profitable methods of operation.
Intended strategy develops with a set of mission, vision, goals and objectives.	Emergent strategy develops within an organization in the absence of a specific mission and goals.
Intended strategy attempts to minimize outside     influence acting on business operations.	Some businesses choose an emergent strategy in daily operations to remain flexible to current demands.
In intended strategy, all employees of the company must learn perfect familiarity with future business goals and operations.	In emergent strategy, employees are flexible and upcoming and tend to adapt with the organizational goals according to the change in time.

Source: (Grant R, 2013) 

3) Choose two of the 10 schools of strategy thought and describe them in your own words. Try and provide a real world example for each e.g. an organization or a situation.

The two schools that I have chosen are Entrepreneurial and Learning school. 

The Entrepreneurial School: 

In this thought school, the strategy building process is authorized to the single leader (usually the CEO) and is built on a vision. The key to organizational success is based on strategic vision that the leader of the organization has come out with. Leader promotes vision and watches it closely and makes changes if necessary. These types of organization are more focused on growth.

GE is a very good example in this context which claims to have produced largest number of CEOs than Harvard. When Jack Welch took over the leadership he dismantled the way the organization was functioning under Jones and same was the case when Jeff took over Jack (12manage.com, 2013).

The Configuration School:

It combines all the schools of strategy and then creates an entirely new school of thought. The two main aspects of this school are configurations and transformations. In this thought of schools, organization adopts a form of structure which suits its needs and this gives rise to particular set of strategies. This school is more valid at different stages of an organization's development. The types of stages are:

• Stage of development.
•  Stage of stability.
• Stage of adaption.
• Stage of struggle.
• Stage of revolution.

Google is one of the leaders in today's' hyper competitive environment. It adapts itself to the environment. For example, in response to Facebook it came up with GooglePlus. It also entered the operating system industry. It is in to mailing service and last but not the least in to data maintenance. In data collection and maintenance, it is leader; in mailing service it is posing a tough competition to rest all service providers (12manage.com, 2013). 

      4)Write about your experience with today’s case study. What answers did you give to the questions? 

It was an interesting and knowledgeable case study. I knew many things about Google Company, about their market strategies, how they are dealing with their competitors and some problems inside Googleplex. Some of the questions asked in case study are answered below:

 a)      Would you describe Google’s strategy as more deliberate or more emergent? (list reasons for each)

I would describe Google's strategy as more emergent because they have always worked according to the demand of the market. They have been entering into new markets and exploring new markets. The previous statement can be proved by their activities of taking a stake in wind energy project and by testing self-driving cars. If they would have been deliberate they would be focused on achieving organization's goal rather than making profit but within a space of mere 12 years from tiny a startup they have already made a market capitalization of $180 billion. Likewise, with an acquisition of Youtube and DoubleClick, they have proved to be an emergent company.

b)      What are the advantages of being very 'experimental'? (list)

The advantages of being an experimental are:

• More creative and realistic ideas could come up.
• The outcome could be predictable.
• Different alternatives could be analysed and best alternatives would be chosen. 
• Company could know more about market, competitor and customers.
• With successful experiments, they could earn good profits and market share.

c)      What are the disadvantages of being very 'experimental'?(list) 

The disadvantages of being an experimental are:

• There could be conflicts while sharing the views and ideas.
• Some influential candidates could affect decision making process.
• The whole process could be costly and time consuming.
• Company could lose their reputation or brand image if they come out with bad decisions.
• The whole process might be tedious and rigid.

d)     What do you think of their strategy? (try and justify and support your views)

I think their strategy is going on right path till now, but it is important to diversify their product and also focus on other markets. They are successful at running their search engine and Youtube properly but they are down market at promoting their social networking site and other Google services like email and operating system. They are always willing to explore new markets and with new products like wind energy project and self driving cars they could be incredibly popular. As a whole they have a good strategy and it seems like they know what they are doing so sooner or later they will surely achieve what they want.

           

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.
• Grant R and Jordan J (2012 forthcoming) Foundations of Strategy,
• Wiley Ireland, R., Hoskisson, R, and Hitt, M. (2009) The Management of Strategy: Concepts and Cases, 8th Ed. Cengage Learning
• Mintzberg, H. (2013). 12manage.com. Retrieved 2013, from http://www.12manage.com/methods_mintzberg_ten_schools_of_thought.html