Chapter 8.Business Strategy课品.pptVIP

Chapter 8Business Strategy Background introduction Strategy is defined as follows: Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations. In other words, strategy is about: Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term? (direction) Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? (markets; scope) How can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? (advantage)? What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete? (resources)? What external, environmental factors affect the businesses ability to compete? (environment)? What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business? (stakeholders) In Text A, there are instances where the loss of value makes one wonder what went wrong with the strategy of the company. This text looks at five such cases of significant value destruction, i.e. when acquisition was followed by divestiture at a much lower price. At the time, they were universally acclaimed in the media to be examples of acquisition failures due to bad management. A closer examination reveals several fault lines that companies frequently encounter as they execute their corporate strategy. It is not easy to articulate a clear corporate strategy that applies equally to all the different businesses a company may be engaged in. Yet, because corporate strategy deals with visualizing the future and how the company fits into that scenario, the companys sense of identity and direction depend on a well-defined strategy. Warm-up Scan the text and write down the key terms related to the topic. Sum up the main ideas of the text by referring to the key phrases and