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strategic management: competitive position, portfolio analys

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1.There is a major debate in the strategy field - does a firm's unique resources create a distinctive competitive position (and therefore a sustainable competitive advantage) OR does a firm's unique competitive position allow for the firm to create unique resources through its increased profitability? Your opinion?

2.Describe the benefits and limitations to portfolio analyses of firms - which approach seems to be the strongest approach from this grouping? Does this approach seem to have limitations?

3.What other organizational factors impact the relationship between strategy and structure? How do these factors mitigate those relationships?

4.Is there a best and worst structure for a strategy? If so, when? If not, why not?

5.What is the relationship between strategy, structure, leadership and culture? How does each affect strategy formulation and strategy implementation?

6.How does one "manage around culture?" How can a firm's culture be changed? If so, how?

7.Explain Fortune 500 business's "love affair" with quality standards such as Six-Sigma, ISO 9000 and the Baldridge Awards - what's the "big deal?"

8.Using levels of analysis - differentiate between strategic controls, operating controls, and functional controls. Give an example of each.

9.What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and strategic management?

10.Using Miles and Snow's (1984) typology of firms, discuss whether certain types of firms have "innovative and entrepreneurial" personalities.

11.How does entrepreneurship and innovation impact the firm's life cycle?

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This posting gives you an in-depth insight into strategic management: competitive position and portfolio analysis

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Questions for strategic management...

1.There is a major debate in the strategy field - does a firm's unique resources create a distinctive competitive position (and therefore a sustainable competitive advantage) OR does a firm's unique competitive position allow for the firm to create unique resources through its increased profitability? Your opinion?
In my opinion the firm's competitive position allows for the firm to create unique resources through its increased profitability. Consider the example of large restaurant chains. McDonalds has a distinctive competitive position because of which it has been able to create unique resources through its profitability. McDonald's would not have been able to gain worldwide recognition (brand) had it mot occupied a unique position.

2.Describe the benefits and limitations to portfolio analyses of firms - which approach seems to be the strongest approach from this grouping? Does this approach seem to have limitations?
The benefits of the portfolio analysis of firms is that it enables the companies to decide which businesses should receive more or less investment and helps it form strategies for developing new products, and divesting of products. The limitation of these matrices arises from the simplistic designations of the dimensions like market growth, and market share. The strongest approach is the McKinsey/ General Electricity Matrix. It replaces market growth with market attractiveness, and competitive strength with market share. The limitations are that aggregations of indicators is difficult, core competencies are ignored and interactions between SBUs is ignored.

3.What other organizational factors impact the relationship between strategy and structure? How do these factors mitigate those relationships?
The culture of the organization and leadership impacts the relationship between strategy and structure. Consider the culture; if a firm has a culture where hierarchies are held sacrosanct and rank is respected, a vertical structure will support a strategy very ...

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