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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Inscrutable Love

Chapter 1
The world uses you when it needs you and the world throws you when it’s done with you. This was
what Ananta Jha, the 24 year old MBA student of Management Institute of Patan was thinking while
he walked towards his college. The first trimester exams had recently ended and the new session
had begun. As he reached towards the main entrance he saw the parking lot full of motorbikes;
quite a few of them his friends’.
“How dare they not call me?” he thought adjusting his thick black spectacles. As he walked the flight
of stairs he glanced upon the stream of Class photos hung on the wall like he usually did for no
particular reason.
Before entering his class, there was a loud voice from behind “Yo AJ, what’s up yo?” it was Sakti
Pradhan aka ‘The Dude’. Sakti walked towards Ananta in a brief pace with a grin on his face and
offered a customary handshake.
Ananta extended his hands in acceptance of the strange custom. Instead of the usual handshake,
Sakti pulled him to another classroom.
“Let me show you our new classroom” he said
“What new classroom?” Ananta responded
“It seems our classroom has been shifted bro.”
“Oh freak! I hate changes.”
“Don’t worry. It’s kind of cool.”
The classroom was on the far left corner of the building facing north. The room was filled with
unusual collages with the theme “What great managers’ do?”. The room was empty except for
several backpacks kept in random benches. Ananta kept his Swiss Gear backpack in the last bench
and approached the collages one by one. He appreciated the hard work of the previous batch. This
gave him a sense of achieving something similar, probably even more.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Strategic Management - II

Identifying Core Competence

  1. Provides potential access to a wide variety of markets
  2. Should make a significant contribution to the perceived customer benefit of the end products
  3. Should be difficult for competitors to imitate and it will be difficult if it is a complex harmonization
Components of a mission statement

  • Customers: who are the firms customers
  • Products or services: what are the firms major product or services
  • Markets: Geographically where does the firm compete
  • Technology: Is the firm technologically current?
  • Concern for survival, growth and profitability
  • Philosophy: what are the basic beliefs, values, aspirations and ethical priorities of the firm
  • Self Concept: what is the firms distinctive competence
  • Concern for public image
  • Concern for employees

Criteria for setting objectives
  •  Suitable
  • Measurable
  • Feasible
  • Acceptable
  • Flexible
  • Motivating
  • Understandable
  • Commitment
  • Participation
  • Linkages
Internal External Matrix
  • I, II, and IV Grow and Build
  • III, V, and VII Hold and Maintain
  • VI, VII, and IX Harvest and Divest

Grand Strategy Matrix

Quadrant I
  • Market Development
  • Market Penetration
  • Product Development
  • Forward Integration
  • Backward Integration
  • Horizontal Integration
  • Concentric Diversification

Quadrant II
  • Market Development
  • Market Penetration
  • Product Development
  • Horizontal Integration
  • Divesture
  • Liquidation

Quadrant III
  • Retrenchment
  • Concentric Diversification
  • Horizontal Diversification
  • Conglomerate Diversification
  • Liquidation

Quadrant IV
  • Concentric Diversification
  • Horizontal Diversification
  • Conglomerate Diversification
  • Joint Venture
Corporate Strategy
  • Concerned with entire organisation
    • Resource allocation
    • Diversification
    • Portfolio Management
  • Business, divisional, or strategic business unit (SBU) strategy
    • What product or service to offer
    • How to compete
  • Strategy within business
    • Functional plans

Need for Integration
  • Avoid duplication and wastage of resources
  • Trasfer pricing
  • Information sharing
  • Knowledge transfer

Remult's Criteria to Evaluate Strategy
  • Consistency
  • Consonance
  • Feasibility
  • Advantage

Process of Evaluating Strategies
  • Reviewing bases of strategy (IFE EFE)
  • Measuring organisational performance
    •  compare actual results with expected
    • investigate deviations
    • evaluate individual performance
    • examining the progress in meeting the objectives
  • Taking Corrective Actions


Characteristics of Effective Evaluation System
  • Economical and simple
  • timely information
  • true picture of what is happening
  • should not dominate decision
  • foster mutual understanding, trust and common sense