Question: 1 what are the main reasons to make Strategy?

Relate how it is
connected with business environment.
Ans: The main reasons to make strategy in strategy management include:
1. Providing a clear direction to reach your destination
2. Helping prioritize activities to do the right things at the right time
3. Creating a higher level of awareness and focus on activities that will make the
organization more successful
4. Defining and driving decisions in organizational design
5. Proactively pursuing new skills and knowledge
6. Making choices about resource allocation
7. Creating a single, forward-focused vision that can align the company and its
shareholders
Question:2 Mintzberg’s has 10 School of Strategic Thoughts. Explain any eight
of them.
Ans:
1. Design
2. Planning
3. Positioning
4. Entrepreneurial
5. Cognitive
6. Learning
7. Power
8. Cultural
9. Environmental
10. Configuration

Question:3 Highlight the various features of business policy?

Ans:
a) Specific
b) Clear
c) Reliable / Uniform
d) Appropriate
e) Simple
f) Inclusive / Comprehensive
g) Flexible
h) Stable

Question:4 Differentiate between Mission and Objective.

Question:5 Define: Strategy with extension of Strategic Management.
Ans: Strategy: A strategy is an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions
designed to exploit core competencies ad gain a competitive advantage.
• When choosing a strategy, firms make choices among competing alternatives.
• In this sense, the chosen strategy indicates what the firm intends to do, as well as what it
does not intent to do.

Question:6 Draw a flow chart of Strategic Management Process.

Ans:
Question:7 Efficient, Effective and Enough resources are very important
component for above average return. Draw the flow chart of Resource Based
Model of above average return.

Question:8 Explain Mintzberg’s 10 Schools of Strategic Thoughts.

Ans: Same as Question 2
Question:9 Differentiate between Strategy and Policy.
Ans:
Question:10 Write a Short note on Business Policy with its major eight
Features.
Ans: The term "Business Policy" comprises of two words, Business and Policy.
Business as we know means exchange of goods and services for increasing utilities.
Policy may be defined as, "the mode of thought and the principles underlying the activities of
an organization or an institution." Policies are general statements of principles which guide
the thinking, decision-making and actions in an organization.
- Business policy is a set of principles and rules which directs the decisions of the subordinates.
- Policies are framed by the top-level management to serve as a road map for operational
decision making. It is helpful in stressing the rules, principles and values of the organization.
- Policies are designed, by taking opinions and general views of a number of people in the
organization regarding any situation.
- They are made from the past experience and basic understanding. In this way, the people
who come under the range of such policies will completely agree upon its implementation.
- Policies help the management of an organization to determine what is to be done, in a
particular situation. These have to be consistently applied over a long period of time to avoid
discrepancies and overlapping.
❖ Features of business policy:
a) Specific
b) Clear
c) Reliable / Uniform
d) Appropriate
e) Simple
f) Inclusive / Comprehensive
g) Flexible
h) Stable
Question: 11 Differentiate between strategic management and business
policies with detailed example.
Ans:
Scope and focus
Business Policy: Encompasses a broader set of guidelines and principles that dictate the
organization’s overall approach to decision-making and operations. It defines the rules for
consistent behaviour across various functional areas.
Strategic Management: Focuses specifically on formulating and executing strategies that
position the organization competitively in its industry. It involves aligning resources to
achieve long-term goals and outperform competitors.
Timeframe
Business Policy: Primarily deals with short-term operational decisions and day-to-day
activities, ensuring consistency and uniformity.
Strategic Management: Has a long-term perspective, often spanning multiple years. It
involves setting long-range goals, anticipating market trends, and adapting to changes over
time.
Orientation
Business Policy: Primarily oriented toward internal efficiency, optimizing processes, and
ensuring smooth functioning within the organization.
Strategic Management: Oriented externally, focusing on gaining a competitive advantage in
the market, capturing opportunities, and addressing challenges posed by the external
environment.
Flexibility
Business Policy: Generally designed to provide stability and consistency, limiting deviations
from established norms.
Strategic Management: Requires flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances and
seize emerging opportunities, allowing for adjustments to strategies as needed.
Decision-making context
Business Policy: Guides routine decisions by providing a framework that ensures uniformity
and adherence to established norms.
Strategic Management: Guides critical decisions involving the allocation of resources,
entering new markets, innovation, and other choices that shape the organization’s future
direction.
Question:12 How strategy becomes a simple rule?
Ans: The concept of "strategy as simple rules" emphasizes the use of a few clear and
straightforward rules to guide an organization's key processes and decision-making. This
approach is based on the idea that in today's unpredictable and complex markets, clear and
simple strategies are essential for nimbleness and flexibility. The process of developing simple
rules is as important as the rules themselves, and it can involve a broad cross-section of
employees to ensure a shared understanding of what matters for value creation.
The key to this approach is to identify a small set of rules that capture the essence of the
organization's core strategic processes. These rules provide just enough structure for firms to
pursue opportunities and make decisions, without being overly prescriptive. They allow for
flexibility and adaptation, and they are based on the recognition that advantage often comes
from successfully seizing fleeting opportunities.
In essence, "strategy as simple rules" is about distilling a company's strategy into a small
number of clear and specific rules that can guide decision-making and action at all levels of
the organization. This approach can help companies to be more agile, to focus on what truly
matters for value creation, and to seize opportunities in a disciplined way.

Question:13 Evaluate any vision and mission statements of any two different
companies. Critically evaluate the statements.
Ans:
1. Tesla:
Mission statement: To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by
driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.
Vision statement: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• Tesla’s mission and vision statements are a class act.
• Their mission statement clearly defines their core goal: “To create the most
compelling car company of the 21st century.” Then it tells you how they intend
to accomplish that goal: “By driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.”
• It’s simple and it works.
• However, it’s Tesla’s vision statement that stands out.
• The car company’s clever use of the world “accelerate” helps to enliven their
lofty aspiration. This vision statement also showcases their drive (pun
intended) for sustainable energy and how it steers (pun intended) the business.
• It also allows them room to explore and develop their other set of energy
solutions, Powerwall, Powerpack and Solar Roof.
• All in all, Tesla’s vision for sustainable energy is one that resonates with
countless people around the world.
 2. Amazon:
Mission statement: We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best
available selection, and the utmost convenience.

Vision statement: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can

find and discover anything they might want to buy online.

• Amazon’s mission statement sums up the three things that have made them
loved by millions: low prices, a huge selection, and incredible convenience.

• Like all great mission statements, it shines a light on the values that bring success.

• Amazon’s vision statement brings these elements together into one unified goal:
“To be Earth’s most customer-centric company.”

Question:14 Write a short note on Internal and External Environment.

Ans: Components of Business Environment
Internal - It combines the factors that exist within the company. These are –
Human resources
Value system
Vision and mission
Labor union
Corporate culture
External - An external Environment includes those outside factors that exercise an influence
on a business’s
operations. It is further classified into two segments.
Macro - Sociocultural, political, legal, and global factors fall into this category.
Micro - This environment has a direct and immediate impact on a business. It consists of
customers, investors, suppliers etc.
Question:15 Draw a flow chart of I/O Model of above average return.
Ans:

Question:16 Write a short note on Strategy with Henry Mintzberg 5 P’s of

strategy.
Ans: Strategy is best understood as a plan of action that incorporates various other
components, such as theory, development, and implementation.
Henry Mintzberg, strategy includes any “means by which and individual or organization
achieves is objectives.” These means include:
1. Plans - This is an informal or formal intended course of action.
2. Patterns - Prior repeated behaviour acts as a guide to our future behaviour
3. Positions - Locating one’s self or resources with the intention of accomplishing a purpose.
4. Perspectives - An outlook concerning how things are done and a vision as to where a
company is going.
5. Ploys - Ploys are synonymous with tactics. They are a specific actions intended to achieve a
result.
Question:17 Differentiate between Vision and Mission.
Ans:

Question:18 Differentiate between Mission and Objective.

Ans: Same as Question 4
Question:19 Stakeholder analysis is equally important in scanning business
environment. Draw a short note on stakeholder with all classifications.
Ans:
Question:20 Define strategic management along with its importance.
Ans: What is Strategic Management?

Strategic management is mostly about identifying and describing the strategies that
the management may use to enhance efficiency and provide the company with a competitive
advantage. If a company’s profitability is higher than its competitors, then that company is
considered to have a competitive edge.

A manager’s decisions and actions that determine the performance of the company can also
be grouped together as strategic management. For the manager to make the best decisions,
the general and competitive organizational environment must be thoroughly understood and
analyzed.

Importance of Strategic Management

Strategic management’s two primary components, to formulate and implement strategies, might be
anticipated to have a number of advantages.

1. Because the environment for most firms is changing so quickly, strategic management is the
only approach to foresee potential issues and opportunities. It enables an organization to
form opinions on long-term projections rather than on-the-spot judgments.
2. Strategic management offers financial advantages. Based on empirical research and logical
reasoning, it is possible to assert that the influence of strategic management is mainly that
better financial performance in terms of growth and profitability of businesses with an
advanced strategic management system having a significant influence on the formulation and
management of strategies.
3. People work effectively once they are aware of what is expected of them and where the
company is headed. Strategic management gives all the employees specific goals and
objectives for the company’s future. Additionally, this lessens conflict. It offers management
and staff a strong motive to accomplish the company’s goal. Additionally, it makes sure that
the senior executives agree on key strategic decisions and challenges.
4. Group involvement in strategic management enhances the quality of strategic decisions.
Owing to the unique viewpoints of group members, the practice of group discussion for
decision-making allows the invention of alternative methods and better monitoring of opinion.
Therefore, it is likely that the finest options will be picked and used.
5. Enhanced employee motivation is a result of strategic management since it helps employees
and managers better grasp the objectives and understand how the incentive system works.
Additionally, they are more aware of the strategic plan’s built-in productivity-reward
correlation. As a result, rewards are likely to be followed by goal-directed behavior.
6. Strategic management reduces resistance to change. Greater knowledge of the factors
influencing a decision and the limitations of potential alternatives are probable to occur from
a participatory strategy-making procedure, which also has the added bonus of making changes
more acceptable with less resistance. Resistance to change is made harmless by the
procedure, which further eliminates the ambiguity that is linked to change.
Question:21 Explain the components of Strategic Management.
Ans: The key components of strategic management include goal setting, gathering
information, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation.
1. Goal Setting: This involves identifying and defining the organization's specific goals and
objectives. Short-term goals can act as a direct blueprint in achieving long-term
objectives.
2. Gathering Information: This component involves collecting information about all the
necessary factors that can impact the organization's ability to achieve its goals. This
includes analyzing the competitive environment, internal organization, and external
factors such as laws and regulations.
3. Strategy Formulation: Once the objectives and research are in place, the next step is
to formulate a strategy. This component defines the actions to be taken to achieve the
goals.
4. Strategy Implementation: This component involves executing the strategy seamlessly.
It includes allocating resources at each stage of implementation and transforming
planned activities into actual goal-oriented actions.
5. Strategy Evaluation: This component involves measuring, monitoring, and controlling
the strategies to ensure that the company meets its goals as defined in its strategic
management plan.

Question:22 Explain the process of Internal analysis.

Ans: Follow these steps to perform an effective internal analysis and improve company
functionality:
1) Set your objective
2) Choose a framework
3) Conduct research
4) Follow the framework
5) Set your priorities
6) Apply the findings

Question:23 Define Mission in your own words. Mention the characteristics of

good Mission Statements.
Ans: A mission statement is a concise declaration of an organization's purpose and reason
for existence. It defines the company's core goals, values, and the main competitive sphere in
which it operates.

A good mission statement is short, specific, realistic, memorable, and clear. It should
be written in common language that everyone understands, avoiding jargon or buzzwords. It
should also be inspiring and focus on the company's future rather than its current position.
Question:24 Write down the factors of internal environment.
Ans:
Human resources
Value system
Vision and mission
Labor union
Corporate culture

Question:25 Describe the importance of vision and mission of an organization

on its strategy formulation.
Ans: The vision and mission of an organization are crucial for its strategy formulation. The
mission statement outlines the company's present business, goals, and strategies for
achieving those goals, shaping the organization's culture. On the other hand, the vision
statement focuses on the future direction of the company, providing a target for strategy
development. Both statements help communicate the organization's purpose to stakeholders,
inform strategy development, and guide the setting of measurable goals and objectives to
gauge the success of the organization's strategy.
They also serve as focal points for individuals to identify with the organization and
provide a sense of belonging and identity to the employees, motivating them to work towards
a single purpose and increasing efficiency and productivity in the organization.
In summary, the vision and mission statements are the foundation of an organization's
planning and strategy, providing a compass and destination, and are essential for aligning
everyone with the organization and driving its success.

Question:26 Define Vision, Mission and Objective with suitable example.

Ans:
❖ Vision: Vision statement describes a long-term idealistic state of the FUTURE.
• It depicts a vision of what the company will look like in the future and sets a defined
direction for the planning and execution of corporate level strategies.
Example:
Microsoft: “To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full
potential.”
Amazon: "To be the world's best employer and safest workplace"

❖ Mission: A Description of a Company's Culture, Values or Purpose of being.

• A concise description of organization's core purpose, answering the question, “why
do we exist?”
• Mission statements encourage employees to think about how their actions will impact
future business success and positive company culture.
Example:
Linked in: Connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and
successful
Pay Pal: “To build the web’s most convenient, secure, cost- effective payment solution.”
❖ Objective:
An objective is a goal or purpose that one aims to achieve. It can also refer to information
or opinions that are based on facts and are not influenced by personal feelings or biases.
For example, a company's objective may be to increase its sales by 20% in the next quarter.
In a more general sense, being objective means making decisions or forming opinions
based on factual information rather than personal emotions or biases.

Question:27 Write down the Pitfalls of Strategic Management.

Ans: Strategic management is essential for businesses to navigate the ever-changing business
landscape. However, there are several pitfalls that can hinder the success of strategic planning
and execution. Some of these pitfalls include:
1) Overly complex plans: Complicating the strategic planning process can increase the
chances of failure. It is crucial to streamline the plan and develop realistic operational
plans that enable success and empower the team.
2) Not addressing current problems: Focusing solely on future goals can leave
unresolved issues in the present. It is essential to identify problems within the current
strategic landscape and make adjustments in real-time to correct them.
3) Short-termism: Focusing on short-term profits over long-term sustainability can lead
to a lack of investment in areas such as sales and infrastructure, ultimately eroding a
company's position in the market.
4) Failure to respond to structural changes: Ignoring structural changes in the market
can result in flawed strategic responses. It is crucial to acknowledge these changes and
adapt accordingly.
5) Inability to foster belief in the strategy: A lack of passionate and consistent
reinforcement of the strategy can undermine it and cause a decline in belief in it.
6) Lack of ownership: Unclear ownership and follow-through can hinder the
achievement of goals defined during the strategic planning process. Using a framework
like OKR (Objectives and Key Results) can help ensure clear ownership and tracking of
progress.
7) Poor communication: Ineffective communication can lead to misalignment and
confusion among team members and stakeholders. Clear and concise communication
is essential for aligning goals and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
8) Lack of alignment: Ensuring that all departments and team members are aligned with
the strategic plan is crucial for successful execution. This can be achieved through
regular updates, meetings, and progress tracking.
9) Slow adoption: Moving too slowly in adopting new strategies and tactics can give
competitors an advantage in the market. It is essential to be agile and adapt quickly to
changes.
10) Trying to do everything immediately: Attempting to implement too many strategic
initiatives at once can lead to a lack of focus and poor execution. It is better to prioritize
a reasonable number of initiatives and execute them effectively.