College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT, IR & HRM

MGT703 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

TUTORIAL 1
TOPIC: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND
STRATEGIC COMPETITIVENESS
(INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT)

Groups Members

Neha Nasheen Ali 2017144055

Raisha Khan 2016133911

Komal Reddy 2017142195

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QUESTIONS
1. An often spoken word in management is ‘strategy’. Explain what strategy is.

Strategy can be defined as an integrated and coordinated set of

commitments and actions designed to exploit core competencies and gain
a competitive advantage

2. Provide definitions of the following:

 Strategic competitiveness - Strategic competitiveness is a type a

strategy that certain firm can plan to achieve their organizational
goals even though there are a lot of competitors around them. It
can be achieved when a certain company or firm successfully comes
out with a special ideas or strategy that can allows the firm to
create wealth to its organization when it is implemented or in other
word, implementing value-creating strategy.

 Competitive advantage a condition or circumstance that puts a

company in a favorable or superior business position.

 Above-average returns are returns in excess of what an investor

expects to earn from other investments with similar amount of risk.

 Strategic management process is the full set if commitment

decisions and actions required for a firm to achieve stratigic
competitiveness and earn above average returns.

3. List and discuss at least three challenges of strategic management process

of an organization.

 fundamental nature of competition is changing constantly

 the pace of change the full set of commitments, decisions and

actions required for a firm to achieve strategic competitiveness and
earn above-average returns

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  conventional sources of competitive advantages no longer
guarantee success

4. Critically discuss the Strategic Management Process by following the model

and by relating to an organization that you know well.

5. Describe the 21st century competitive landscape an explain how

globalization and Technological changes shape this competition.

 The nature of competition in many of the world’s industries is

changing: rapid technological change the size of investments required
for global business can be enormous the post global financial crisis
business environment hyper competition.

 Technology and cheap access to energy have altered the way the world
does business, by reducing the costs of certain types of business-to-
business transactions. These reduced transaction costs, driven by
changes in government policies and improved communications
infrastructure, have led to a wide array of business practices referred
to as globalization.

6. Discuss what type of market competition is hyper competition.

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 In today's business environment, hyper competition is focused upon
making quick decisions intended to disrupt the competitive advantage of
market leaders. These types of decisions are now centered to create a
competitive advantage through strategic maneuvering.

7. Describe what you understand by world-economy. Provide examples.

The world economy or global economy is the economy of the world,

considered as the international exchange of goods and services that is
expressed in monetary units of account

8. Describe the meaning of ‘globalization’ and discuss at least three challenges

of globalization .the process by which businesses or other organizations
develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

1. Climate change / destruction of nature

2. Large scale conflict / wars

3. Inequality (income, discrimination)

9. Technological change (TC) is a term that is used to describe the overall

process of invention, innovation and diffusion of technology or processes.
List and discuss five (5) activities or technological concepts that are part or
involved in the technological change.

 Disruptive technologies: technologies that destroy the value of

existing technology and create new markets.

 The information age: the ability to effectively and efficiently access

and use information has become an important source of competitive
advantage

 Increasing knowledge intensity: firms must be able to adapt quickly

to achieve strategic competitiveness and earn above-average returns.
They must have strategic flexibility.

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  Strategic flexibility: strategic flexibility is a set of capabilities used to
respond to various demands and opportunities that are a part of a
dynamic and uncertain competitive environment. To achieve
strategic. Slack resources offer some flexibility to respond to
environmental changes. to be strategically flexible on a continuing
flexibility, many firms have to develop organizational slack basis, a
firm has to develop the capacity to learn

10.There is a business model called Industrial organization (I/O) model of

above-average returns that we learn’t in this topic.

(a) What does this model elucidate or explains?

This model specifies that the industry in which a firm competes has a
stronger influence on the performance than the choices managers
make inside their organizations.

(b) Critically discuss the four assumptions (expectations) of the I/O model of
above average returns.

 external environment imposes pressures and constraints that

determine strategies leading to strategies are highly mobile across
firms

 organizational decision-makers are assumed to be rational and

committed to above-average returns

 most firms competing in an industry control similar strategically

relevant resources and pursue similar strategies

 Resources used to implement citing in the firm’s best interests

(profit-maximizing).

11.There is also a business model called the Resource-based model of above

average returns that we learn‘t in this topic.

(a) What does this model exposes?

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 The resource-based view (RBV) is a managerial framework used to
determine the strategic resources with the potential to deliver
comparative advantage to a firm. These resources can be exploited
by the firm in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

(b) Critically discuss the three proposal of the Resource-based model of

above average returns.

The resource based model proposes that:

 that resources are inputs into a firm’s production process

 a capability is the capacity for set of resources to perform a task

 Capabilities evolve and must be managed dynamically.

12.Explain what core competencies of an organization are and how these core
competencies contribute to the competitive advantage of an organization do.

Core competencies are resources and capabilities that serve as a source

of competitive advantage for a firm over its rivals.

13.Critically distinguish between an organization vision and mission.

Strategic vision:

The foundation for a firm’s mission. The strategic vision is a picture of

what a firm wants to be in the future and what it wants to achieve in a
targeted period.

Strategic mission: the business or businesses in which a firm intends to

compete and the customers it intends to serve. An effective strategic
mission depicts what a firm does at present and establishes a firm’s
uniqueness.

14.Describe who are stakeholders of an organization and identify the three

stakeholder groups.

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 Individuals and groups who can affect, and are affected by, the strategic
outcomes achieved and who have enforceable claims on firm’s performance

15.What are strategic leaders? Identify and name positions in your organization
that in your best opinion are strategic leaders. Why this is so?

Strategic leadership refers to a manager's potential to express a

strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and
to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision. Strategic
leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management
of employees

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