1.01 - A Strategic View

A Corporate Business Strategy

The Elements of Strategy

Vision

• The view of the expectation for the future business in the minds of the executives and the staff effecting business change.

Strategy

• The process by which a enterprise will expect to achieve the future state.

Marketing Strategy

• Covers an organisation’s overall direction in the market place. It will specifically deal with the issues of environmental analysis, market segmentation, asset exploitation, and positioning strategy. At this stage the organization will also consider issues relating to Research and Development and Innovation: how it will promote and support an infrastructure that develops and delivers products or services that customers perceive as new and superior. See guide 1.03.

Product Strategy

• The means by which an organization will design and develop products or services that will meet the current and futures needs of its customers and support its overall vision and business strategy. These products will be “brought to market” through an efficient and effective new product introduction process. This process will use all aspects of current engineering and multi-discipline team working to ensure that the product introduction is in-line with the cost targets, quality standards and delivery requirements of the customer.  See guide 6.02.

Supply Chain Strategy

• The way that an organization will bring together the various elements of material supply, manufacturing technology, human resources and logistics to serve the need of its customers. It will detail how it will use these resources to meet the objectives of quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost and how this will support the aims and objectives of the business. See guide 1.04.

Human Resource Management Strategy

• The overall and coherent long term planning of an organization’s human resources so as to gain from them the maximum added value, and to best position them to achieve them to maximum competitive advantage.

IS/IT Strategy

• The business driven technology architecture that drives, shapes and controls the IT infrastructure. It will recognize the role of IT in supporting the needs of the business and it will be concerned with the issues of the hardware and software environment within which the strategy can be implemented. See guide 7.01.

A Corporate Framework for Developing Strategy

The Three Levels of Strategy

1. The Corporate level – the overall scope of an organization and how it is run in structural and financial terms.
2. Competitive Business level – how to compete in the market. The development of products and services and the extent to which they meet customers needs to achieve the objectives of the organization.
3. Operational Level – concerned with how the different functions of the enterprise contribute to the other levels of strategy.