Management of Strategy Chap 11

Purposes of organizational controls:

• –Guide the use of strategy

• –Indicate how to compare actual results with expected results

• –Suggest corrective actions to take when the difference between actual and expected results is unacceptable

• All of that

Strategic control is

• Subjective criteria

• Objective criteria

• Both subjective and objective

• none of that

Financial controls :

• has subjective criteria

• has objective criteria

• has both subjective and objective criteria

• none of those

Subjective criteria examines:

• –the fit between:

  •what the firm might do (opportunities in its
  external environment).

  •what the firm can do (competitive advantages).

• –the fit between:

  •what the firm will not (threats in its
  external environment).

  •what the firm cannot do (weakness).

• –the fit between:

  •what the firm might do (opportunities in its
  external environment).

  •what the firm will not do (threats in the external environment).

• –the fit between:

  •what the firm might do (opportunities in its external environment).

  •what the firm cannot do (weakness).

Firms grow in predictable patterns;

• –first by volume

  –then by geography

  –then integration (vertical, horizontal)

  –and finally through product/business diversification.

• –first by volume

  –then integration (vertical, horizontal)-–then by geography

  –and finally through product/business diversification.

• –first by volume

  –then by product/business diversification.–then integration (vertical, horizontal)

  –and finally through geography

• –first by geography

  –then by volume

  –then integration (vertical, horizontal)

  –and finally through product/business diversification.

•Differences in orientation among organizational functions can:

• –impede communication and coordination.

• –increase the need for CEO to integrate decisions and actions of business functions.

• –facilitate career paths and professional development in specialized functional areas.

• All of that

Using the competitive form of the M-form structure, what are the benefits from the internal competition:

• –Flexibility—corporate headquarters can have divisions working on different technologies to identify those with greatest future potential.

• Challenges the status quo and inertia

• –Motivates effort

• All of that