Learning Activity- Assume that you work for a medium-sized business corporation with several business units under the same corporate umbrella.
Your boss knows that you have attended a course on Strategic Management at University of Maryland University College, and recommended you to become a member in the strategic planning committee to design the appropriate strategy in gaining further progress on the road of economic recovery.
The mettle of a person, or a firm, is best tested and judged not in the euphoria of prosperity and boom conditions but in the bleakness of adversity. (Hartley, 2005, p.247)
According to Introduction to Strategic Management (2014), in Chapter 5 "Selecting Business-Level Strategies", "focusing on generic strategies allows executives to concentrate on the core elements of firms' business-level strategies."
Since 2008, the US economy was in Great Recession. Companies in different industries had to weather this turbulent negative economic cycle with their respective strategic moves.
References:
Hartley, R.F. (2005). Management mistakes and successes (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Unknown (2014). Introduction to strategic management. Washington, D.C.: The Saylor Foundation.
Step 1: Initial response
- Use what you have learned in this course and provide (a) the SWOT analysis and (b) EFE (external factor evaluation) of your focal company.
- Preferably your focal company is your current (or past employer). If the size of your employer is (was) not medium-sized, then you will be better off to choose a medium-sized company in the same industry as your current (or past) employer is (was) in. Or you may choose a medium-sized company in an alternative industry where you are interested to be working (after your graduation or in your future career).
- Decide an appropriate strategic corporate plan
- Devise the business level strategies as well as operational strategies in full support of this newly devised strategy.
- List the implementation stages of the business level strategies.