COURSE OVERVIEW:

Why do we refer to business strategy as a process? The answer is that it is never a once for all event – it goes on and on. There is a need to continually review strategic objectives because the environment is always changing. The purpose of strategy is to make a business fit into its environment. By achieving this, the probability that it will survive and prosper are enhanced.

Business strategy is the strategic initiatives a company pursues to create value for the organisation and its stakeholders and gain a competitive advantage in the market. This strategy is crucial to a company's success and is needed before any goods or services are produced or delivered.

A business strategy is foundational to a company's success. It helps leaders set organisational goals and gives companies a competitive edge. It determines various business factors, including:

·       Price: How to price goods and services based on customer satisfaction and cost of raw materials

·       Suppliers: Whether to source materials sustainably and from which suppliers

·       Employee recruitment: How to attract and maintain talent

·       Resource allocation: How to allocate resources effectively

Strategic management can be viewed as a set of theories, frameworks, tools and techniques designed to explain the factors underlying the performance of organisations and to assist managers in thinking, planning and acting strategically. In simple terms, it is a vehicle through which a business can review past performance and, more importantly, determine future actions geared towards achieving and sustaining superior performance.

Strategic thinking and strategic management are the most important activities undertaken by any business or public sector organisation. How skilfully these activities are carried out will determine the eventual long-term success or failure of the organisation.

Strategic thinking is based upon strategic learning. Strategic learning is concerned with the processes by which leaders, managers and organisations learn about themselves, their business and environment. Strategic learning is vital to the development of the strategic knowledge upon which superior performance is based.

In this course, we introduce the basic concepts in the study of these activities. The various definitions of the word strategy are discussed and then we explore the levels of decision-making in successful strategic management (at the strategic and operational levels). These are defined and the links between the levels are discussed. The different frameworks and ways of approaching strategy are introduced and then, finally, we discuss the nature of strategic objectives – who is responsible for setting them and what they are essentially about.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

·       The strategic business process     

·       The purpose and stages of strategic analysis  

·       The rules that should be followed when presenting the SWOT

·       The purpose of strategic selection

·       The purpose of strategic implementation and management

·       What implementation typically involves?

·       The purpose of the ‘feedback’ link

·       Strategic thinking and strategic management

·       What is strategy?         

·       The Mintzberg’s 5 Ps

·       The elements of strategy

·       Chandler’s definition of strategy

·       The three components of strategy

·       What is strategic management?

·       The relationship between strategic thinking and leadership

·       Strategic planning and strategic management

·       The debate about the ‘sources’ of strategy

·       The five distinct but often interrelated strands to strategy theory

·       The planning approach

·       The competitive positioning approach

·       The emergent or learning approach

·       The core competence approach

·       The learning and knowledge-based strategy approach

·       The levels of strategic decision-making

·       The concept of congruency

·       Where is a strategy actually carried out?

·       How do businesses set strategic objectives?

·       The stockholder approach

·       The stakeholder approach

·       How stakeholders exert influence on an organisation’s objective?

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

You must have access to a computer or any mobile device with Adobe Acrobat Reader (free PDF Viewer) installed, to complete this course.

COURSE DELIVERY:

Purchase and download course content.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.