Scenario The owner/directors of a coach hire company called A2B have been making policy and taking all the strategic decisions. This is a well-established family business which has been passed down through several generations. Despite existing in a highly regulated and competitive market, A2B has been growing rapidly over the past 18 months. Now new opportunities have emerged for further growth and development, as a result of new tenders being published by the local authority for school coaches. There is also an opportunity to acquire a larger repair and maintenance facility at little extra cost. At a recent family meeting it was evident, from their approach to these developments, that the owners/directors did not understand the main elements of strategic management. You have been appointed to work alongside the owners/directors in an interim capacity, as you have studied strategic management as part of your qualification. Your role is to help develop their knowledge and understanding of how they can successfully apply strategic management to maintain growth and gain from these developments.

Section 1:

Following the Board meeting the Directors have asked you to produce a reference guide, using the headings listed below • Explain the concept of strategy • Identify the elements of the strategic management process • Critically analyse the role of values, vision and mission statements in the strategic management of organisations • Identify and evaluate different approaches to formulating strategy • Demonstrate the influence the external environment has on strategy formulation

Section 2

Having gained the support of the Directors the next step is to conduct some strategic analysis relating to other organisations. The Directors will then be able to use this information to inform their thinking about developments in A2B. You have been asked to write a report which: • differentiates between organisations’ general competitive and internal environments • critically appraises the tools available for the analysis of the general, competitive and internal environments

Formulation of organisational strategy

The next section of the report should demonstrate how to formulate organisational strategy to achieve competitive advantage. You must: • compare and contrast different approaches to formulating organisational strategy and analyse how markets influence strategy formulation • assess the role of organisational strategy in achieving competitive advantage.

The Directors have expressly asked you to show how the tools you identified earlier in the report can be used in practice. In an appendix to your report you must:

• apply appropriate tools to analyse actual organisational environments

Section 3

The Directors of A2B need to understand the implementation of organisational strategy and the role of administrative managers in the process. You are required to attend a Board meeting, where these topics are on the agenda. In preparation for this meeting you decide to produce detailed notes and a hand-out for distribution at the meeting. These notes and the hand-out must provide: • a critical analysis that explains how organisational processes can support implementation of organisational strategy • an evaluation of different approaches to strategic change. • an evaluation of the place of strategic control and reward systems in supporting the implementation of organisational strategy. • a critical analysis the role of administrative managers in designing and implementing organisational strategy • an assessment of how administrative management can be used to facilitate implementation of strategy across the functional areas of organisations.