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F-2,Block, Amity Campus Sec-125, Nodia (UP) India 201303 ASSIGNMENTS PROGRAM: MBA – IB SEMESTER-III Subject Name : International Strategic Management (ISM) Study COUNTRY : The Gambia Permanent Enrollment Number (PEN) : A40002014038 Roll Number : IB01122014-2016023 Student Name : Saikou Saidy Jeng IN...

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F-2,Block, Amity Campus Sec-125, Nodia (UP) India 201303 ASSIGNMENTS PROGRAM: MBA – IB SEMESTER-III Subject Name Study COUNTRY Permanent Enrollment Number (PEN) Roll Number Student Name

: International Strategic Management (ISM) : The Gambia : A40002014038 : IB01122014-2016023 : Saikou Saidy Jeng

INSTRUCTIONS a) Students are required to submit all three assignment sets. ASSIGNMENT Assignment A Assignment B Assignment C

DETAILS Five Subjective Questions Three Subjective Questions + Case Study 40 Objective Questions

MARKS 10 10 10

b) c) d) e)

Total weightage given to these assignments is 30%. OR 30 Marks All assignments are to be completed as typed in word/pdf. All questions are required to be attempted. All the three assignments are to be completed by due dates (specified from time to time) and need to be submitted for evaluation by Amity University. f) The evaluated assignment marks will be made available within six weeks. Thereafter, these will be destroyed at the end of each semester. g) The students have to attached a scan signature in the form.

Signature:

Date : 18-11-2015 ( √ ) Tick mark in front of the assignments submitted Assignment ‘A’ √ Assignment ‘B’ √ Assignment ‘C’

√

International Strategic Management Assignment A Answer the following questions:

Q1: Briefly explain strategy. The term strategy is derived from a Greek word strategos which means generalship. A strategy in the generic sense of the word can be said to be a plan or course of action or a set of decision rules making a pattern or creating a common thread. The term strategy proliferates in discussions of business. Strategy is a word with many meanings and all of them are relevant and useful to those who are charged with setting strategy for their corporations, businesses, or organizations. Some definitions of strategy as offered by various writers are briefly reviewed below; Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., author of Strategy and Structure (1962), the classic study of the relationship between an organization‟s structure and its strategy, defined strategy as “the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources for carrying out these goals.” Robert N. Anthony, author of Planning and Control Systems (1965), one of the books that laid the foundation for strategic planning, didn‟t give his own definition of strategy. Instead, he used one presented in an unpublished paper by Harvard colleague Kenneth R. Andrews: “the pattern of objectives, purposes or goals and major policies and plans for achieving these goals stated in such a way as to define what business the company is or is to be in and the kind of company it is or is to be.” (Here we can see the emergence of some vision of the company in the future as an element in strategy.

Kenneth Andrews, long-time Harvard professor and editor of the Harvard Business Review, published the first edition of The Concept of Corporate Strategy in 1971 and updated it in 1980. His published definition of strategy took this form in the 1980 edition: “the pattern of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purposes or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of businesses the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organization it is or intends to be, and the nature of the economic and non -economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers, and communities.”Andrews‟ definition of strategy is rather allencompassing and is perhaps best viewed as a variation on the military notion of “grand strategy”. George Steiner, a co-founder of the California Management Review, and author of the 1979 “bible,” Strategic Planning: What Every Manager Must Know, observed that there was little agreement on terms or definitions and confined his discussion of the definition of strategy to a lengthy footnote. But, nowhere does he define strategy in straightforward terms. Although there are many similarities in the definitions above, there are also some important differences. We are left, then, with no clear-cut, widely-accepted definition of strategy; only different views and opinions offered by different writers working different agendas. Given this backdrop, we can try our own working definition and explanation of strategy. The words ‗strategy‘ is typically associated with issues like these:

●The long-term direction of an organization; Strategy involves long-term decisions about what sort of company it should be, and realizing these decisions would take plenty of time. ●The scope of an organization‘s activities; For example, should the organization concentrate on one area of activity, or should it have many? ●Advantage for the organization over competition; Advantage may be achieved in different ways and may also mean different things. For example, in the public sector, strategic advantage could be thought of as providing better value services than other providers, thus attracting support and funding from government. ●Strategic fit with the business environment; Organizations need appropriate positioning in their environment, for example in terms of the extent to which products or services meet clearly identified market needs. This might take the form of a small business trying to find a particular niche in a market, or a multinational corporation seeking to buy up businesses that have already found successful market positions. ●The organization‘s resources and competences; Following ‗the resource-based view‘ of strategy, strategy is about exploiting the strategic capability of an organization, in terms of its resources and competences, to provide competitive advantage and/or yield new opportunities. For example, an organization might try to leverage resources such as technology skills or strong brands. Yahoo! claims a brand ‗synonymous with the Internet‘, theoretically giving it clear advantage in that environment. ●The values and expectations of powerful actors in and around the organization; These actors – individuals, groups or even other organizations – can drive fundamental issues such as whether an

organization is expansionist or more concerned with consolidation, or where the boundaries are drawn for the organization‘s activities. ●Uncertainty is inherent in strategy, because nobody can be sure about the future. ●Operational decisions are linked to strategy. This link between overall strategy and operational aspects of the organization is important for two other reasons. First, if the operational aspects of the organization are not in line with the strategy, then, no matter how well considered the strategy is, it will not succeed. Second, it is at the operational level that real strategic advantage can be achieved. Indeed, competence in particular operational activities might determine which strategic developments might make most sense. ●Integration is required for effective strategy. Managers have to cross functional and operational boundaries to deal with strategic problems and come to agreements with other managers who, inevitably, have different interests and perhaps different priorities. ●Relationships and networks outside the organization are important in strategy, for example with suppliers, distributors and customers. ●Change is typically a crucial component of strategy. Change is often difficult because of the heritage of resources and because of organizational culture. Overall, the most basic definition of strategy might be ‗the longterm direction of an organization‘. However, the characteristics described above can provide the basis for a fuller definition: Strategy, within the context of business, is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources

and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations. Strategy is therefore the long-term direction of the organization. It is likely to be expressed in broad statements both about the direction that the organization should be taking and the types of action required to achieve objectives. For example, it may be stated in terms of market entry, new products or services, or ways of operating. An organization‘ strategy can take the form of intended or realized strategy. Henry Mintzberg introduced two terms to help clarify the shift that often occurs between the time a strategy is formulated and the time it is implemented. An intended strategy (i.e., what management originally planned) may be realized just as it was planned, in a modified form, or even in an entirely different form. Occasionally, the strategy that management intends is actually realized, but the intended strategy and the realized strategy—what management actually implements—usually differ. Hence, the original strategy may be realized with desirable or undesirable results, or it may be modified as changes in the firm or the environment become known. Organizations‘ strategy can also be seen from a variety of perspectives, as suggested by the four strategy lenses. A design lens sees strategy in logical analytical ways. An experience lens sees strategy as the product of individual experience and organizational culture. The ideas lens sees strategy as emerging from ideas within and around an organization. The discourse lens highlights the role of strategy language in shaping understandings within organisations, and points to the importance of being able to talk this language effectively.

Generally, strategy is usually found on three different layers of organizations, that is, corporate, business and functional levels (these are dealt with later in this course work). Differentiate strategy from strategic management. In order to differentiate strategy from strategic management, it behooves us to mention what each entails. The term strategy is derived from a Greek word strategos which means generalship. A strategy can be said to be a plan or course of action or a set of decision rules making a pattern or creating a common thread. Strategy is an action that managers take to attain one or more of the organization‘s goals. Strategy can also be defined as ―A general direction set for the company and its various components to achieve a desired state in the future. Strategy results from the detailed strategic planning process‖. Strategy is a well defined roadmap of an organization. It defines the overall mission, vision and direction of an organization. The objective of a strategy is to maximize an organization‘s strengths and to minimize the strengths of the competitors. Strategy, in short, bridges the gap between ―where we are‖ and ―where we want to be‖. Strategic Management, on the other hand, is defined as the dynamic process of formulation, implementation, evaluation and control of strategies to realize the strategic intent of the organization. The strategic management process means defining the organization‘s strategy. It is also defined as the process by which managers make a choice of a set of strategies for the organization that will enable it to achieve better performance. Strategic management is a continuous process that appraises the business and industries in which the organization is involved; appraises it‘s competitors; and fixes goals to meet all the present and future competitor‘s and then reassesses each strategy. Strategic management process has following four steps:

1. Environmental Scanning- Environmental scanning refers to a process of collecting, scrutinizing and providing information for strategic purposes. It helps in analyzing the internal and external factors influencing an organization. After executing the environmental analysis process, management should evaluate it on a continuous basis and strive to improve it. 2. Strategy Formulation- Strategy formulation is the process of deciding best course of action for accomplishing organizational objectives and hence achieving organizational purpose. After conducting environment scanning, managers formulate corporate, business and functional strategies. 3. Strategy Implementation- Strategy implementation implies making the strategy work as intended or putting the organization‘s chosen strategy into action. Strategy implementation includes designing the organization‘s structure, distributing resources, developing decision making process, and managing human resources. 4. Strategy Evaluation- Strategy evaluation is the final step of strategy management process. The key strategy evaluation activities are: appraising internal and external factors that are the root of present strategies, measuring performance, and taking remedial / corrective actions. Evaluation makes sure that the organizational strategy as well as it‘s implementation meets the organizational objectives. These components are steps that are carried, in chronological order, when creating a new strategic management plan. From the above explanation, we can discern that the principal difference is that while strategy is a course of action to achieve a certain objective, strategic management is a process, the byproduct of which results into a strategy. Thus strategic management is the means to obtaining strategy whilst strategy results from the strategic management process. Strategic management is a broader term than strategy and is a process that includes top management‘s analysis of the

environment in which the organization operates prior to formulating a strategy, as well as the plan for implementation and control of the strategy. The difference between a strategy and the strategic management process is that the latter includes considering what must be done before a strategy is formulated through assessing whether or not the success of an implemented strategy was successful. Strategic management is a body of knowledge that answers questions about the development and implementation of good strategies and is mainly concerned with the determinants of firm performance. A strategy, in turn, is the central, integrated, and externally oriented concept of how an organization will achieve its performance objectives. Also explain the levels of strategy formulation. Strategy formulation, the process of planning strategies, is often divided into three levels: corporate, business, and functional or operational levels. In other words, strategies exist at a number of levels in an organization. Taking Yahoo! as an example, it is possible to distinguish at least three different levels of strategy. The top level is corporate-level strategy, concerned with the overall scope of an organization and how value will be added to the different parts (business units) of the organization. This could include issues of geographical coverage, diversity of products/services or business units, and how resources are to be allocated between the different parts of the organization. For Yahoo!, whether to sell some of its existing businesses is clearly a crucial corporate-level decision. In general, corporate-level strategy is also likely to be concerned with the expectations of owners – the shareholders and the stock market. It may well take form in an explicit or implicit statement of ‗mission‘ that reflects such expectations. Being clear about corporate-level strategy is important: determining the range of business to include

is the basis of other strategic decisions. The second level is business-level strategy, which is about how the various businesses included in the corporate strategy should compete in their particular markets. For this reason, business-level strategy is sometimes called ‗competitive strategy‘. In the public sector, the equivalent of business-level strategy is decisions about how units should provide best value services. Business-level strategy typically concerns issues such as pricing strategy, innovation or differentiation, for instance by better quality or a distinctive distribution channel. So, whereas corporate-level strategy involves decisions about the organization as a whole, strategic decisions relate to particular strategic business units (SBUs) within the overall organization. A strategic business unit is a part of an organization for which there is a distinct external market for goods or services that is different from another SBU. Yahoo!‘s strategic business units include businesses such as Yahoo! Photos and Yahoo! Music. Of course, in very simple organizations with only one business, the corporate strategy and the business-level strategy are nearly identical. None the less, even here, it is useful to distinguish a corporate-level strategy, because this provides the framework for whether and under what conditions other business opportunities might be added or rejected. Where the corporate strategy does include several businesses, there should be a clear link between strategies at an SBU level and the corporate level. In the case of Yahoo!, relationships with online advertisers stretch across different business units, and using, protecting and enhancing the Yahoo! brand is vital for all. The corporate strategy with regard to the brand should support the SBUs, but at the same time the SBUs have to make sure their business-level strategies do not damage the corporate whole or other SBUs in the group. Firms choose from among five business-level strategies to establish and defend their desired strategic position against

competitors: cost leadership, differentiation, focused cost leadership, focused differentiation, and integrated cost leadership/differentiation. When selecting a business-level strategy, firms evaluate two types of potential competitive advantage: ―lower cost than rivals, or the ability to differentiate and command a premium price that exceeds the extra cost of doing so.‖ Having lower cost derives from the firm‘s ability to perform activities differently than rivals; being able to differentiate indicates the firm‘s capacity to perform different (and valuable) activities. Thus, based on the nature and quality of its internal resources, capabilities, and core competencies, a firm seeks to form either a cost competitive advantage or a uniqueness competitive advantage as the basis for implementing its business-level strategy. We therefore can see that business- level strategy encompasses the business‘s overall competitive theme, the way it positions itself in the marketplace to gain a competitive advantage, and the different positioning strategies that can be used in different industry settings— for example, cost leadership, differentiation, focusing on a particular niche or segment of the industry, or some combinations of these. The third level of strategy is at the functional or operating end of an organization. Here there are functional or operational strategies, which are concerned with how the component parts of an organization deliver effectively the corporate- and business-level strategies in terms of resources, processes and people. For example, Yahoo! has web-page designers in each of its businesses, for whom there are appropriate operational strategies in terms of design, layout and renewal. Functional strategy is therefore the approach a functional area takes to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by maximizing resource productivity. It is concerned with developing and nurturing a distinctive competence to provide a company or business unit with a competitive advantage. Just as a

multidivisional corporation has several business units, each with its own business strategy, each business unit has its own set of departments, each with its own functional strategy. The orientation of a functional strategy is dictated by its parent business unit‘s strategy. For example, a business unit following a competitive or business level strategy of differentiation through high quality needs a manufacturing functional strategy that emphasizes expensive quality assurance processes over cheaper, high-volume production; a human resource functional strategy that emphasizes the hiring and training of a highly skilled, but costly, work...