[answered] Lecture Notes Strategic issues may be defined as fundamenta

This is the 2nd discussion question. ?250 words or less.?

Due to the changing environment and external triggers, contingency planning is necessary. What qualities make a future issue a ?trigger??

Consider you are on the strategic planning team for a soft drink company. Here is your company?s future trigger:? ?merger of our two major competitors next year.? Formulate the three-part trigger/contingency pair. Discuss the three guidelines that good contingency plans should follow.

Lecture Notes

 

Strategic issues may be defined as fundamental policies or serious challenges, which must be

 

addressed for an organization to be able to accomplish or achieve its vision. According to (Kader,

 

2014), strategic management involves managing businesses and projects proactively with a ?focus

 

on long-term strategy, rather than reacting to day-to-day hiccups? (p.1). In your opinion, and based

 

on your work experience, what are the itching issues that companies may face? What are the

 

possible solutions that you would recommend to your organization? No company or organization is

 

above strategic issues. Multinationals such as Microsoft were once faced with multiple issues such

 

as improving standing as an innovator and navigating the new internal politics (Bishop, 2014). If left

 

unchecked, strategic issues ruin the progress of an organization through loss of market share, profit

 

margin, and even destruction of the brand.

 

Identifying strategic issues of an organization is pivotal to delivering the company from potential

 

disaster. According to Abraham (2012), strategic planning may come from both external and internal

 

sources. External issues may include company?s industry, competitors, customers, suppliers,

 

opportunities and threats, and other environmental forces; while the internal strategic issues may be

 

identified as key organizational resources, culture, technology, or strategic decisions that the

 

company must address. It is difficult to deal with strategic issues without discussing the concept of

 

strategic planning. It is an important concept to the success of any business. Source: http://patimes.org/static-dynamic-choice/strategic-plan-cycle/ Strategic planning defines the objectives of an organization and evaluates the internal and external

 

situation in order to formulate the strategy, implement the strategy, evaluate the progress of the

 

organization and make necessary adjustments to remain on the right path. Once the strategic

 

planning is done, presenting the gathered information is really important. To learn about some tips

 

for preparing a strategic-analysis presentation, check the following

 

link: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/promo/strategic_planning/tips_for_strategic_analysis_p

 

res.pdf Here is another interesting Forbes article that explains what really needs to be included in a

 

strategic plan: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/10/18/strategic-plan-template-what-toinclude/

 

Creating the best strategic planning and strategic alternatives are major challenges to management.

 

It is therefore important for management to often be engaged in strategic conversations concerning

 

their organizations. According to Abraham (2012, p.188) ?strategic alternatives did not consist solely

 

of strategies but rather bundles?. He adds that strategic-alternative bundles may include

 

?strategies, strategic intent, core competence, programs (which are an operational component of a

 

strategy), financing method, geographic scope, and any other element that would help define and

 

clarify a future course of action to an observer? (2012, p.188). It is crucial for organizations to create

 

worthy bundles and to do so they have to look for six criteria to meet when it comes to creating

 

strategic-alternative bundles: ?be mutually exclusive (involve either/or decisions); contain significant

 

variety; be feasible; lead to success; challenge the organization?s existing goals, aspirations, longheld assumptions, and beliefs; and have addressed all the strategic issues)? (Abraham, 2012,

 

p.198).

 

When Starbucks realized dwindling sales in the United Sates market, due to market saturation, it

 

decided to explore foreign markets (Allison, 2010). In order to be successful in the international

 

market, it developed none-coffee products such as Frappuccino. Frappuccino was developed with one aim in mind to satisfy the needs of non-coffee drinking customers world-wide. The result of this

 

alternative strategy was outstanding; the company enjoyed a higher sale and profit margin.

 

Choosing the Best Business Strategy

 

Identifying strategic issues and creating alternatives paves ways to the selection of the appropriate

 

criteria for solving the organization?s potential problems. In this ever changing business

 

environment, choosing the best alternative would enable the organization to adapt to these changes.

 

Which alternative would give your organization the highest market share, or technological

 

competiveness? Your choice must be relevant to your organization?s situations. It is necessary for

 

management to have a brainstorm session in order to select the best alternative suitable to solve the

 

organization?s strategic issues.

 

But, no matter how well they do on choosing the best strategy, it is always a great idea to consider

 

what could potentially go wrong in the future and plan some actions to properly face it. This is

 

called contingency planning for triggers. Great managers and successful organizations have

 

learned to be proactive by developing well-prepared contingency plans for their organizations. Good

 

contingencies should meet three criteria; Abraham (2012) explains that: first, contingencies should

 

not renege on the adopted best strategy or strategic bundle. They should more focus on the

 

operational changes rather than trying to modify the strategy. Second, managers should avoid make

 

contingency as something the company is already doing. It is simply because if it was successful at

 

the first place, it wouldn?t put the company in this situation. Lastly, the contingency should address

 

the problem implied in the trigger and not something that is indirectly related to the trigger. To learn

 

more about risk assessment, contingency planning and its challenges read the below article

 

here: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_51.htm

 

References: Abraham, S. (2012). Strategic management for organizations. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint

 

Education.

 

Allison, M. (2010). Starbucks has a new growth strategy more revenue with lower

 

costs. The Seattle Times. Retrieved from

 

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2011861321_starbucksstrategy16.html

 

Bishop, T. (2014). The top 5 challenges facing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella - GeekWire.

 

Retrieved from http://www.geekwire.com/2014/top-5-challenges-facing-microsoft-ceo-satyanadella/

 

Kader, M. (2014). Strategic management. Retrieved from

 

https://www.open2study.com/courses/strategic-management

 

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