Strategic Market Management For Retail Management

Comparison / Similarities

Describe about the Strategic Market Management for Retail Management?

Johnson, Scholes, Whittington (2005) demonstrated the idea of strategic lenses and it designs the lens as a part of it and explains the designed lens as a formulated strategy through effective and careful analysis of implementation by the top management. Strategy is defined as a design that is viewed with respect to strategic development through a rational, structured or analytical process. The major principles are associated on it where managers are required to be rational decision makers and managers should be taking decisions to optimize the performance of economy in the organizations.

Although most strategies are deliberate and Mintzberg, a proponent of the emergent school of thought focused on the creation of objectives for the future of the company but leaving the implementation to the flexibility of market forces. These schools of thought make it inappropriate to agree the statement that strategy is a mixture of design as it is not always a case. (Aaker, 2004)

Since strategic judgment has been attributed to experience, it is related to strategy as experience which is the main strategy lenses. The strategy experience lens views strategy development as the outcome of an individual and collective experience of individuals represented by cultural influences.

Strategic management is a term which is used in all organizations. It defines the strategic management with respect to the strategy that integrates the goals, policies and actions of an organization. The well formulated strategy helps to place and utilize the organization’s resources. Therefore, it analyzes the strategic management and evaluates the key issues of strategic management. Thus, the focus of this section will be based on the perspectives of different authors such as Mintzberg, Whittington and Johnson as well as Scholes. In the dynamic and complex business world, strategy is vital from management and it includes plethora of information’s. It is formulated in terms of resources and develops the brand position in an organization with respect to effective communication. (Wiley, 2009)

The rationalistic view describes that the strategy is an outcome of series of preplanned actions to achieve the desired goals. It emphasizes strategy as a science and it is known well as systematic and rational attributes.

The adaptive and incremental views of strategy are evolved through an accumulation of minor changes over time and it is called as art with respect to creative and dynamic features.

The interpretive view describes it as a product of individual to make sense and it interprets the past events and evidence.

The assumptions of strategy are discussed in different forms such as:

Strategic positioning with the analysis that offers the comparison of organizational strengths and resources with respect to environmental change to deal with the major advantages and opportunities as well as threats. (Johnson.et.al, 2005)

The classical approach deals with the strategy as a rational process depend on analysis and quantification. It agrees on the unitary goal of profit maximization as the major outcome of the strategy. Thus, the evolutionary approach deals with the different position that protects profit maximization while the classical approach is similar to the metaphor of Gareth Morgan that deals with efficiency. The evolutionary approaches use analogy of biological evolution to define strategy development through an art. This approach shares a similarity and its ability to deal with the environment. The processual approach focuses on nature of market and organization. The processual approach relies on the micro environment of the organization as the determinant of strategy formulation. The systematic approach works as a strategy to link the dominant features of the local systems and it involves deliberate process and planning. Thus, the effective business strategy might include both the strategic thinking and the essential elements of strategic planning process and it identify to involve the creativity and intuition. The systemic and the classical approaches exchange the same goals on long term planning but differ on expected outcome of the strategy. It also shares a similarity with evolutionary approach and favors the formulation of strategy. Systemic approach is identical to Mintzberg’s cultural school and it has an image organization. (Scholes,et.al, 2008)

Johnson’s views of strategy

It is focused by essential elements with respect to major strategies such as:

The intent focused strategy develops the managerial vision of where the firm is going and what it try to become. This is known as strategic intent and the comprehensive strategy focuses on important perspectives that involve value creation. It determines the linkages between the firm and other parts of the system. It seizes opportunities and develops the foundation of realities. (Johnson & Whittington, 2005)

Whittington’s model formulates two different outcomes such as profits maximization and pluralist.

Profits maximization: Whittington deals with the outcome of strategy for classical and evolutionary schools that is to increase the profit. The classical approach focuses on profit as the major goal of business and rational planning helps to achieve it. Top management is in control of the strategy of the organization. (Berman, et.al, 2006)

Pluralist: Whittington’s systemic schools look at the result of strategy as pluralistic and it adds, additional outcomes are envisioned and not profit.

Wealth and sons are attractiveness of the life of this world and it is called as best foundation for hopes. (Michael, 2004)

Prescriptive schools: This school suggests how the strategies should be formulated and it discuss about the methods in terms of strategy.

Design school: The design school is a concept that helps to formulate the strategy with respect to the tools and techniques like SWOT analysis and Ashridge mission model. The companies who follow this concept should deal with the SWOT to identify the strengths, weaknesses and threats as well as opportunities. It is influenced by architecture and is formulated with the concept of change. (Mintzberg.et.al, 1998)

Planning school: As per Mintzberg, this concept helps an organization to analyze the current scenario of business and it deals with the contemporary issues as well as implementation. This concept motivates brainstorming, innovation and other goals that helps the company to utilize the resources as per their needs.

Positioning school: The positioning school recommends the focus of the current position of the company and it deals with the image as well as position of the company in the minds of the customer, this concept is influenced by military and is useful for large firms but it is not useful for small firms and it is not the process of strategic formulation.

Descriptive schools: This concept talks about the organization that formulates the strategy.

Entrepreneurial school: This helps an organization to follow the strategy and make changes as per the contemporary environment. It is influenced by biology and it is centralized. This concept has few limitations but it cannot impact the strategy at the time of strategic formulation.

Cognitive school: This concept formulates the strategy by the psychological needs of the customers. It focuses on the needs and responses of the consumers to certain circumstances. It is influenced by psychology and sounds very meaningful in the contemporary business environment. This is very time consuming and expensive to deal with the customers.

Learning school: The learning concept formulate the strategies in accordance with the learning from mistakes. It formulates a strategy and is influenced by education. It is very useful and expensive because it has to be carried to formulate a strategy.

Whittington’s generic approach

Power school: This concept helps to deal with the competitive advantage and it exerts some power over the customers. This concept resembles as there are some visionary leaders to deal with the vision. It could be done with the formulation of wrong strategy. (Benningson, 1999)

Cultural school: The cultural school concept motivates employee involvement and the strategy concerns the cooperation of the employees. This also guides the employees on how to lead with the mergers and acquisitions.

Environmental school: This concept demonstrates the fact based on the strategy and other factors. It resembles the design school with the formulation of the strategy. The external environment is very unstable in contemporary business environment and it evaluates both the internal as well as external factors for innovation.

Configuration school: This concept develops the strategy to focus on change and keep on changing the decisions based on strategic formulation. It is influenced by this context. It is not practical to establish the kind of strategic formulation process that needs a very flexible approach of organization structure who will be able to adjust with change rapidly. (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005)

Overall, the strategy is arrived from a multiple level of source that is combined with the major techniques. Johnson and Scholes talk about the term “strategic lenses” that are meant to name it as “strategy” and it is described as:

Strategy as a design

This is the major strategic formulation that deals with the predictions and strategic choices are made with respect to implementation. It can be a logical process in which forces and limitations are weighed carefully in the organization and to establish the techniques, the organization requires clear strategic direction. It is to be planned to summarize the analysis and reflection on how the organization is to be there. The more people who work in the organization are participated in the strategic development and the more strategy is likely to succeed.

Strategy as an experience

This approach emphasizes the way in which the future can be shaped by the reflection of the past and it is dependent on the future strategies of the organization that is influenced by the experience of the managers in the work place. It is something that needs to be planned in an effective manner. There is high influence of wisdom and culture about how the things could be done in an organization. (Wilson, 2003)

Strategy as ideas

It deals with innovation and characteristics of organization that are able to innovate. It is dependent on the role of strategic leadership that is not to control the organization’s development and wish to contribute to the future direction. (Nationalcollege.org.uk, 2015)

This is mainly the part of innovation that leads to focus on the senior managers at the level of corporate planning. It will be created with the diverse organization as people try to handle their everyday jobs and changing situations. (Baker, 2007)

Johnson and Scholes recommended that the above strategies are the lenses that helps to resolve the problems and the other lenses might show up are missed such as high reliance on incremental changes might overlook the changes and developments that could be vital for the success of an organization. Thus, it is worth considering the very strong influence the design and experience lenses have in large organizations and government departments. Ideally, there is a need for managers to look at the strategy through all three lenses. (Kaplan.co.uk, 2015)

Conclusion

In conclusion, the major aspect of success or failure of an organization is depending on its strategy and the misconception on strategy is futile without strategic management. Thus, it can be said that both the strategy and the strategic management of an organization helps to identify the success or failure of an organization. It focused on the perceptions of different authors called as Henry Mintzberg, Richard Whittington who has shown that strategy formulation is very important to deal with the strategy and the ten schools of thought consists of prescriptive and descriptive that has shown us what to have in mind while planning a strategy. These concepts are really important to focus on the perfect one.

Every organization exists and operates in ever changing environment with the aim from time to time with different goals and objectives. Whittington has no doubt that made the strategy crafting and it condemns right to deal with flexibility as well as to become responsive to changes with business environment. Strategy does matter and provides meaning to an organization that helps the employees to identify the organization. It is not sufficient for organizations to have a strategy and it formulates from many other organizations. Effective strategies can focus on the strangest places through the most unexpected means and there is no best way to make strategy. (Baird, 2014)

References

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Johnson et al. 2005. Strategic lenses are three different ways of looking at the issues of strategy development for an organisation: Strategy as design, Strategy as experience and Strategy as ideas.
Johnson, G., Scholes, K. & Whittington, R. 2005. Exploring Corporate Strategy (7th Edition) England: Prentice Hall

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Michael P, 2004, Competitive Strategy, Technique for Analysing Industries and Competitors, New York, Free Press
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Scholes et al 2008, exploring corporate strategy 8th edition prentice hall pp 2

Wiley J & Sons 2009 strategic management journal volume 18 issue 4 pp 255-273
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