Generic Strategies and Strategic Intent

ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS SEPERATELY PLEASE
Module 3 DQ 1
Chapter 8 of the textbook suggests that there are only two generic strategies available to a firm: differentiation or cost leadership. Both strategies can be applied either into a focused market or a broad market. Do you agree that these are the only two strategies available? Are they mutually exclusive? Why or why not?
Module 3 DQ 2

What is the definition of "strategic intent?" What is the role of the general manager in building strategic intent?
TEXT BOOK
Daft, R. L. (2013). New era of management (11th ed). Boston, Massachusetts, Cengage learning.
Lecture notes
Planning and Strategic Management
Introduction
Strategic planning begins with a vision statement that paints a vivid picture of what the organization should look like in the future. It should remain constant, although updated over time, and serve as a goal for which to strive continuously. The vision should be an affirmation in the present of an ideal and inspirational future. A vision statement should be written in the future tense and be a maximum of 150 words. A mission statement indicates the purposes of the business, such as, to design, develop, manufacture and market specific product lines for sale on the basis of certain features to meet the identified needs of specified customer groups via certain distribution channels in particular geographic areas. Once the vision and the mission are established, the organization may then plan for success.
Vision Statement
To choose a direction, a leader must first have developed a mental image of a possible and desirable future state of the organization. This image, which we call a vision, may be as vague as a dream or as precise as a goal or mission statement. The critical point is that a vision articulates a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization, a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists (Bennis and Nanus, 1985).
A vision statement should:
- Set forth a description of a desirable future that would be better than the present or the past.
- Be achievable in a reasonable amount of time.
- Take advantage of opportunities the future will afford.
Mission Statement
People confuse mission statements with value statements. Value statements describe what the company believes, while a mission statement describes what the business intends to do. Every noun, adjective, and verb in the statement is important and must be justified. A mission statement should be around 150 words and should avoid industry jargon, acronyms, or shorthand common in the field but unfamiliar to anyone outside the organization or profession.
Another important consideration is the frequency of review by board or staff members. If it has been more than five years, the mission statement should be reviewed and, if necessary, modified or completely rewritten. All too often, an organization's mission statement, handed down over the years, loses relevance and ceases to speak to staff, board members, or supporters. An effective mission statement must resonate with the people working in and for the organization, as well as with the different constituencies that the organization hopes to affect. It must express the organization's purpose in a way that inspires commitment, innovation, and courage.
Some items a mission statement should include are:
- Reason for existence
- Competitive advantages
- Unique or distinctive features
- Important philosophical and social issues
- Image, quality, style, and standards
- Stakeholder concerns
A mission statement should:
- Express an organization's purpose in a way that inspires support and ongoing commitment.
- Motivate those who are connected to the organization.
- Be articulated in a way that is convincing and easy to grasp.
- Use proactive verbs to describe what the company does.
- Be free of jargon.
- Be short enough so that anyone connected to the organization can readily repeat it.
Planning, Managing, and Executing
The natural formation of organizations leads to people falling into one of three broad groups:
1. Planning: People involved in steering an organization towards long-term success; this group often consists of a small group of senior executives.
2. Project: Including systems and product development teams, this group executes finite term undertakings.
3. Operations: Groups like customer service and traffic are involved in functions directly related to the sale and production of the organization's product on a day-to-day basis.
The orientation of each group leads to different modes of operation. Planning employs a cyclical process that starts over regularly. Organizations are quick to audit themselves in order to develop a plan that is realistic given their internal constraints. This internal self-examination can find shortfalls, specifically in defining the implementation of a plan throughout the entire organization.
Project management (PM) is a linear management process with a starting point, milestones, and an ending point. PM is used by project groups to manage undertakings tasked by the planning group. These groups often do not have high visibility of, or fail to take into account, strategic objectives and their relation to operational considerations.
The operations function is a continuous process for selling, producing, and distributing the organizations' product using tools determined by project groups. Like project groups, they often do not have visibility of, or fail to take into account, strategic objectives. Their decision period is usually very short and has almost immediate impact on the relationship of the organization and its external environment.
When an organization does not, as a part of the strategic planning process, anticipate and resolve conflicts that arise between the cyclical, linear, and continuous processes in the organization, a difference between what was planned, what was developed, and how it is used results. The consequences of this oversight may include lost time, opportunities, and missed revenue targets.
Conclusion
Strategic planning, vision, and mission statements are crucial for organizational success. Indeed, they form the road map for leading the enterprise in a specific direction. At the same time, a strategic plan must be adaptable so that the organization can be agile and adjust quickly to changing marketing conditions. As a rule of thumb, this is more easily said than done. It is a test of institutional courage and personal leadership to decide when to stay the course and when to adjust operations to changing business conditions.
References
Bennis, W. G., and Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: Strategies for taking charge. New York, NY: Harper and Row.