Strategy and practise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategy and practise - Essay Example Strategic decisions are concerned with the issue of setting a direction for the organization to move or the course the organization will follow Though very crucial, yet preparing 'strategic moves' for future often is not based on hard fact, but on presumptions. It involves past experience, forecasting and 'surround-effect'. Strategic management can be described as what Bernard called 'maintaining the organization in operation'2. For any organization to function effectively; three main aspects are critical; Contribution from the concerned helps in widening the thoughts, assigning responsibilities helps in implementing and constantly monitoring the results and feedback helps in devising a still better strategy. It is said that organizations are not passive components. They are live, full of activity and environment-responsive like living beings. Organizations do acquire character and develop a typical personality with time and we tend to make an image of the employee depending on the organization he/ she works for. This very personality of the organization considerably influences the functions of the organization in the long run. For example we tend to remember some companies as employee friendly, as well paying, as investor friendly, as market friendly, as customer friendly etc. depending upon their past performances and behavior. To meet and exceed customer satisfaction, the business team needs to follow an overall organizational strategy. Traditionally 'maximizing' profits has been considered to be the objective of any organization. Not any more.This criteria has been discarded. Now organizations are supposed to have multiple objectives, monetary as well as non-monetary. There are short-term objectives as well as long-term ones. Strategists are supposed to prioritize all such objectives, so that there is clarity and ease of decision making in situations where there is an apparent clash of objectives. Situations like these at times present testing times for organization. Failure doesn't come with a one off decision, in fact it is the result of continuous interactions in a system. It has structure and sequence. John Martin, CEO, Taco Bell says, "When you are on the right road and the wind is behind you, you can make all kinds of mistakes."3 And the real test comes in overpowering these mistakes and taking corrective and preventive steps. Strategic intent cannot be planned all in advance. It has to be a continuous evolut ionary process depending upon the experiences. Henry Ford say, "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently"4 Basic Building Blocks of Strategy: 1. Environment Analysis 2. Doing a SWOT Analysis 3. Preparing a Business Policy. Environment Analysis: It involves studying and analyzing the surroundings to identify the competitors, the threats and opportunities. Maslow's hierarchy of needs argued that the driving force for human actions is the urge for satisfaction of one or the other need. These needs go on changing depending upon a number of factors. In fact the needs of consumer/ customer and those of the organization are inter-linked because organization too is an active component so needs of the