Exploring Strategy 9th Edition Gerry Johnson ,Richard Whittington ,Kevan Scholes - Solutions

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Comment on Ozzie’s communications strategy with regard to the Internet Services Disruption.
Why was Ozzie more successful in creating follow-on action after the Robinswood retreat?
Why was the Semiahmoo retreat not successful in creating sustained momentum around the issue of Microsoft’s ‘core’?
.6Q For an organisation with which you are familiar, or one of the case organisations, write a strategic plan (for simplicity, you might choose to focus on an undiversified business or a business unit within a larger corporation). Where data are missing, make reasonable assumptions or propose ways
.5Q Go to a business plan archive (such as the University of Maryland’s www.businessplanarchive.org or use a Google search). Select a business plan of interest to you and, in the light of section 15.4.4, assess its good points and its bad points.
.4Q For any case study in the book, imagine yourself in the position of a strategy consultant and propose an initial descriptive hypothesis (section 15.4.3) and define the kinds of data that you would need to test it. What kinds of people would you want in your strategy project team (see sections
.3 If you had to design a strategy workshop, suggest who the participants in the workshop should be and what roles they should play in (a) the case where an organisation has to re-examine its fundamental strategy in the face of increased competitive threat; (b) the case where an organisation needs
.2 Go to the website of a large organisation (private or public-sector) and assess the way it communicates its strategy to its audiences. With reference to section 15.3.4, how focused is the communication; how impactful is it; and how likely is it to engage employees?
.1 Go to the careers or recruitment web page of one of the big strategy consultants (such as www.bain.com, www.bcg.com, www.mckinsey.com). What does this tell you about the nature of strategy consulting work? Would you like this work?
Are there any reasons to suspect that some people might want to exaggerate criticisms of strategy consultants’ conduct?
What measures can a strategy consultant take to reassure a potential client of his or her effectiveness?
What data should you gather to confirm this descriptive hypothesis and how would you collect it? Should the descriptive hypothesis be confirmed, what possible prescriptive hypotheses follow?
Select an important strategic issue facing an organisation that you are familiar with (or an organisation that is publicly in trouble or a case study organisation). Try generating a few descriptive hypotheses that address this issue. Use quick and dirty testing to select an initial descriptive
What benefits (or disadvantages) might such workshops have in comparison with other approaches to strategy development for such an organisation?
If you were a facilitator, how would you have organised the workshops differently?
Evaluate the design of the two workshops in terms of the guidelines in section 15.4.1.
If you had been one of the managers at the Italian restaurant, what would your views of the meeting been?
Could the consultants have influenced the agenda in more formal ways ? How?
Why are informal settings such as dinners useful?
If you were a smaller company, without the information technology resources of IBM or the help of government agencies as in Uganda, how might you be able to get employee input into strategy development?
Why was it important at IBM and in the Ugandan fishing industry to obtain wide input on strategic issues? What strategic issues would not require the same kind of input?
What relevant skills and experience do you already have, and what skills and experience would you still need to acquire before you were able to apply for this job?
What would be the attractions of this job for you? What would be the disadvantages?
Assess the effectiveness of the change programme.
What levers of change are being used (see section 14.4)? What others could be used and why?
Describe the change styles of John Howie and Craig Lockhart.
In relation to sections 14.2.1 and 14.5, what is the type of change being pursued at Faslane?
.6Q What would be the key issues for the corporate parent of a diversified organisation with a multidomestic international strategy (see Chapter 8) wishing to change to a more related portfolio? Consider this in terms of (a) the strategic capabilities that the parent might require(Chapters 3 and
.5Q There are a number of books by renowned senior executives who have led major changes in their organisation. Read one of these and note the levers and mechanisms for change they employed, using the approaches outlined in this chapter as a checklist. How effective do you think these were in the
.4Q In the context of managing strategic change in a large corporation or public-sector organisation, to what extent, and why, do you agree with Richard Pascale’s argument that it is easier to act ourselves into a better way of thinking than it is to think ourselves into a better way of
.3 Compare and contrast the different styles of managing change of leaders you have read about in the press or in this book (for example, John Howie and Craig Lockhart at Faslane, Fergus Chambers at Cordia* or Stuart Rose at Marks & Spencer*).
.2 Use a forcefield analysis to identify blockages and facilitators of change for an organisation(such as one for which you have considered the need for a change in strategic direction in a previous assignment). Identify what aspects of the changes suggested by this analysis can be managed as part
.1 Drawing on section 14.2.2 assess the key contextual dimensions of an organisation (such as for the case example on Faslane) and consider how they should influence the design of a programme of strategic change.
Are the different views irreconcilable?(You will find the perspectives on the management of strategy in the commentaries useful background reading.
If you were a senior executive which approach would you take and in what circumstances?
What are the problems associated with top-down or bottom-up views of change management?
Which levers for change described in the chapter are evident in each case? Which others might have been used and why?
How do they compare to that of John Howie and Craig Lockhart at Faslane (see the case example).
Compare the different approaches of Palmisano and Gaydon. Why were they different?
Why are these potential levers for change often ignored by change agents?
In what way could they be changed to support a different strategy? Be explicit as to how the symbols might relate to the new strategy.
Identify at least five important routines, symbols or rituals in the organisation.
Only some stakeholders are specifically mentioned in the examples. Does this mean that the style should be the same towards all stakeholders of the organisation? If not, how would they differ?
What might be the benefits and problems of each of the leadership styles? In what circumstances?
How would you describe each of the styles illustrated here in terms of those explained in section 14.3.2?
Undertake a forcefield analysis for an organisation of your choice.
What might be some of the problems in managing changes indicated by the forcefield analysis?
What approach to change should be adopted to improve the MOD’s ability to manage change?
Use the checklist of the Change Kaleidoscope in section 14.2.2 to identify the range of contextual issues that need to be taken into account in influencing change in the MOD.
Who was responsible for the organisational failures surrounding the response to Hurricane Katrina?
In the light of this strategy, what, if any, changes should be made to the Department’s organisational structure after Hurricane Katrina?
What was the ‘strategy’ of the Department of Homeland Security in the period immediately before Hurricane Katrina?
.5 Take a recent merger or acquisition (see Chapter 10), ideally one involving two organisations of roughly equal size, and analyse how the deal has changed the acquiring or merged company’s organisational structure. What do you conclude from the extent or lack of structural change for the new
.4 As a middle manager with responsibility for a small business unit, which ‘strategy style’ (section 13.3.5 would you prefer to work within? In what sort of circumstances or corporate organisation would this style not work so well for you?
.3QReferring to Figure 13.6, write a short executive brief explaining how strategy maps could be a useful management system to monitor and control the performance of organisational units. Be sure to analyse both advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
.2 Referring to section 13.2.2 on the multidivisional structure, consider the advantages and disadvantages of creating divisions along different lines – such as product, geography or technology – with respect to a large organisation you are familiar with or a case organisation such as CRH*,
.1 Go to the website of a large organisation you are familiar with and find its organisational chart(not all organisations provide these). Why is the organisation structured like this?
Hall and Saias suggest that organisational structures can influence the kinds of strategies that management teams will pursue. What kinds of organisations might be particularly susceptible to structural constraints on their strategies?
What threats are there to these systems?
In this account, what control systems are particularly important to Macquarie?
What kinds of actions and initiatives might be appropriate in terms of the cultural systems of children’s services?
List the advantages and disadvantages of the new structure and systems for children’s services.
What barriers and threats can be envisaged to the direction of the WHO’s structural and system reforms?
How is the strategy of the WHO changing and with what consequences for its structure and systems?
How does this case illustrate the claim that a matrix is ‘a state of mind’, not just a formal structure?
Compare the balance of power between categories and regions in the 1995 structure to that between Global Business Units and Market Development Organizations in the post-2000 structure. What implications would this shift have for strategy?
What pros and cons can you see in the new Volkswagen structure?
Which type of structure did the old decentralised structure resemble most and which type of structure is Volkswagen moving closer to?
Is the Google approach transferable to other organisations?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of their approach?
What influences strategy development in Google?
.6Q Assume you were asked to advise a chief executive of a long-established, historically successful multinational business with highly experienced managers that is experiencing declining profits and falling market share. What might you expect to be the causes of the problems? What processes of
.5 Suggest why different approaches to strategy development might be appropriate in different organisations such as a university, a fashion retailer, a diversified multinational corporation and a high-technology company.
.4Q Incremental patterns of strategy development are common in organisations, and managers see advantages in this. However, there are also risks of strategic drift. Using the different explanations in sections 12.2 and 12.3, suggest how such drift might be avoided.
.3Q Planning systems exist in many different organisations. What role should planning play in a public-sector organisation such as local government or the National Health Service and a multinational corporation such as SABMiller*?
.2 Using the different explanations in sections 12.2 and 12.3, characterise how strategies have developed in different organisations (for example, Google, Cordia* or RACC*).
.1 Read the annual report of a company with which you are familiar as a customer (for example, a retailer or transport company). Identify the main characteristics of the intended strategy as explained in the annual report, and the characteristics of the realised strategy as you perceive it as a
Do you think Honda would have been more or less successful if it had adopted a more formalised strategic planning approach to the launch?
Which of the different explanations of strategy development explained in the chapter do you discern in the Honda story?
Are the different accounts mutually exclusive?
What role should top management play in relation to resource allocation processes in organisations?
What other examples can you think of where resource allocation processes strongly influence strategy development?
The influence of Sir Stelios resides in his being the founder of easyJet and a major shareholder. What bases of political influence would executives draw on in disagreementsa) with shareholders and b)between themselves?
Do you consider the reported events at easyJet exceptional? Can you identify other examples?
Is incremental strategy development bound to result in strategic drift (see section 5.2)?How might this be avoided?
With reference to these explanations of strategy development, what are the main advantages of developing strategies incrementally?
How do other processes of strategy development explained in this chapter relate to this planning cycle?
How might a planning process differ in other types of organisation; e.g. local government or a university?
What strategic issues are likely to be most significant at each stage and level of the planning process?
Do you agree with all the views of the CEOs?If not, why not?
Explain some of the challenges managers face in strategy development including: managing multiple strategy processes, strategy development in different contexts and managing intended and emergent strategy.
Identify processes that give rise to emergent strategy development such as: logical incrementalism, political processes, the influence of prior decisions and organisational systems.
Identify intended processes of strategy development in organisations including: the role of strategic leadership, strategic planning systems and externally imposed strategy.
Explain what is meant by intended and emergent strategy development.
What approaches to the evaluation of strategic options would you propose, and why?
If you were interested in investing in EasySolutions, which round of investment would you prefer to participate in? Why?
Imagine that you are a potential investor hearing a short pitch from the EasySolution team based on the 2009 business plan. Using the SAFe framework, what questions would you raise with the team under:(a) Suitability?(b) Acceptability?(c) Feasibility?
.7Q Explain how the SAFe criteria might differ between public- and private-sector organisations.Show how this relates to both the nature of the business environment (Chapter 2) and the expectations of stakeholders (Chapter 4).
.6Q Using examples from your answer to previous assignments, make a critical appraisal of the statement that ‘Strategic choice is, in the end, a highly subjective matter. It is dangerous to believe that, in reality, analytical techniques will ever change this situation.’ Refer to the commentary
.5 Suggest how managers could have better considered and managed the integration between the various resources required for a successful opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 (see Illustration 11.7).

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Exploring Strategy 9th Edition Gerry Johnson ,Richard Whittington ,Kevan Scholes - Solutions

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