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34 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is business strategy? |
Its a plan for achieving the corporate objectives |
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What are internal influences on strategy? |
- skill and motivation of staff - quality of product and business finance -production capacity |
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What are external influences on strategy? |
- economic statues - technological and environmental - competition |
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What is Feasibility? |
A factor that need to be considered and its the needs to be able to access resources or skills necessary to implement the strategy. |
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What is contingency plans? |
Is a strategic plan which takes into consideration of what to do when something unexpected happens. |
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How is contingency plans helpful for a business? |
It could respond to different crisis like corrupt data caused by the computer virus or network that like the communication of the business if its trading internationally. |
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What are the benefits of strategic planning? |
- help with giving the business a clear direction so allow to get the expected outcome more efficiently - helps manager think about the strength and weakness of the business and also to spot any opportunities |
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What are the drawbacks of strategic planning? |
- restrict the businesses flexibility like employees might think they have to still follow the plan even if things change - the plan is based on analysis so it could be inaccurate - strategic only good for businesses that operate in a stable makret. |
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What is implementing strategy? |
Its where you put strategy into action |
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Why do business need different types of organisational structure? |
So they could pick the right one that suits the strategy. |
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What does a Functional structure do? |
It organises the staff by department like finance, marketing or HR department. -Each department can work in its own area of expertise and this makes it easier to put strategy into action. -Good communication is vital for it to work |
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What is Product based structure? |
Where staff organised by product: - where there is lots of product each product can be run as a separate business - good strategy for like growing market share of a particular product. |
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What is regional structure? |
Where staff are organised by geographic location: - regional structure are based on location and business that have branches in different countries would group them into a regional division - regional structure suits market development strategy where a new business is trying to expand in to new geographical market. |
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What is Matrix structure? |
Where staff are organised by a combination of factors like the Project and function (sales or finance) -The matrix structure ensure that staff know their objective and encourages them to build relationship with each other. -but could lead to conflicts |
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What is network analysis? |
Works out the quickest and most efficient way to finish a set of tasks. |
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What does critical path mean in network analysis? |
Critical path means to get the project done as fast as possible. |
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What does the circle mean in Network analysis? |
The circle is known as node and it must be finished so that the next task can start. |
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What do the left parts mean on a node? |
Show the number of nodes. |
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What does the top right number mean on a node? |
Earliest start time (EST) Its the earliest time for the project to start |
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What does the bottom right number mean on a node? |
Its the latest finishing time (LFT) -Its the latest time that the activity can finish without having an effect on making the projct late. |
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What does it mean if EST and LFT are the same? |
It means that the node is critical path. |
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What is float time? |
Is the spare time available for an activity and only non critical activities would have float time. |
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How to calculate float time? |
Total float = LFT- Duration - EST Total float is the total time you can delay an activity without delaying the completion of the whole project. |
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What are the advantages of network analysis? |
- identify ciritical activities that need extra attention so it meets its deadline - can help forcast the cash flow - network analysis allow to fins the shortest time to get the project done - if there are changes that occur mean the network can be adjusted to the changes |
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What are the disadvantages of network analysis? |
- relies on estimate of how long each task will take - constructing and amending the network will take a lot of time - there could be tight deadlines which could be critical toward the completion of the project |
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What are other factors that may make it harder to implement a strategy? |
- Lack of resources like if heavy investemnt is needed mean less working capital for day to day basis - manager not understanding the strategy could lead to miscommunication - manager don't provide good leadership could mean that employees may not be able to cope with the change - change in structure of company could create many difficulties. |
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What are the problems with planned strategies? |
- Can cost alot of time and money - Planned strategy will gradually become out of date - senior manager that create the plan may not really know with what is actually happen in the business - a planned strategy can be very detailed and theoritical |
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What is emergent strategy? |
Its a strategy that allow you to adapt your strategy and it solves problems with planned strategies. |
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What are the advantages of emergent strategy? |
- saves a lot of time and money - stay relevant because it can adapt to changing in environment -able to access more up to date information as it involves more of junior and middle managers than senior managers |
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What are the disadvantages of emergent strategy? |
- might not be clear with what the end goal is - if changes are happening at the lower rank of the company could mean that the higher rank wont even know, so senior manager may think that the company is going in a particular direction when its not. - bad for large companies that need to coordinate with each other so its better for flat structure as communication is easier and quick decisions are made. |
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What is strategic drift? |
When a strategy becomes less and less suited to the busines environment like its out of date. |
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What factors could cause strategic drift? |
- new technology -change in taste of consumers - legal or economic factors |
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What does market analysis show? |
Market analysis shows if the assumption about the maerket is correct. - done through use of primary and secondary market research and also look at sales levels. - also see the different between sale expected and actually achieved. |
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What does management information system show? |
It provide most of the information like: - the current state of the business and whether the business is on course of meeting its objective though Enterprise resource planning. - use extrapolating trends with the use of data. |
