Strategy

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Strategy :
An organization’s strategy must be appropriate for its resources, environmental
circumstances, and core objectives. The process involves matching the company's [internal resources (e.g. IT) and capabilities (e.g. quality management)] to the external business environment the organizationfaces.

-Strategy formulation involves:

--Doing a situation analysis: both internal and external; both micro-environmental and
macro-environmental. Concurrent with this assessment, objectives are set. This involves crafting vision statements (long term view of a possible future), mission statements (the role that the organization gives itself in society),overall corporate objectives (both financial and strategic), strategic business unit objectives (both financial and strategic), and tactical objectives.

These objectives should, in the light of the situation analysis, suggest a strategic plan. The plan
provides the details of how to achieve these objectives. This three-step strategy formulation process is sometimes referred to as determining where you are now, determining where you want to go, and then determining how to get there. These three questions are the essence of strategic planning.

--SWOT Analysis: I/O Economics for the external factors and RBV for the internal factors.

-Strategy implementation involves:
Allocation of sufficient resources (financial, personnel, time, technology support) Establishing a chain of command or some alternative structure (such as cross functional teams) Assigning responsibility of specific tasks or processes to specific individuals or groups It also involves managing the process. This includes monitoring results, comparing to benchmarks and
best practices, evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of the process, controlling for variances, and making adjustments to the process as necessary.
When implementing specific programs, this involves acquiring the requisite resources, developing the process, training, process testing, documentation, and integration with (and/or conversion from) legacy processes.
Strategy formulation and implementation is an on-going, never-ending, integrated process requiring continuous reassessment and reformation. Strategic management is dynamic; . It involves a complex pattern of actions and reactions. It is partially planned and partially unplanned.
Strategy is both planned and emergent, dynamic, and interactive. Some people (such as Andy Grove at Intel) feel that there are critical points at which a strategy must take a new direction in order to be in step with a changing business environment. These critical points of change are called strategic inflection points.