Strategy Formulation And Integration

CORPORATE STRATEGY: FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

Corporate strategy is concerned with broad decisions about an organization's scope and direction. It is defined as "the pattern of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purposes, or goals, produces the principle policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organization it is or intends to be, and the nature of the economic and non-economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers, and communities" (Ghoshal, Lampel, Mintzberg, & Quinn, 2004, pp. 72). This paper will discuss formulating strategy. It will also discuss implementation and its importance.

Formulation

Corporate strategy has two components; formulation and implementation. Formulation produces a clear set of recommendations that help revise the mission and objectives of an organization, and supplies the strategies for accomplishing them (Mitchell, Retrieved January 18, 2005). It helps develop a firm's goals and sets a specific strategic plan.

In, The Strategy Process, the author argues that when a company formulates strategy it should determine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can be done by performing a SWOT Analysis. A SWOT Analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situational analysis. It can serve as an interpretive filter to reduce the information to a manageable quantity of key issues. By understanding the four aspects, of a SWOT Analysis, a firm can better leverage its strengths, correct its weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and deter possible threats (SWOT Analysis, Retrieved January 26, 2006).

When formulating a strategy, it should be effective in solving the problem, practical, feasible, cost effective, and acceptable. It is also important for a firm to consider its available resources, competencies, and alternatives. Dr. Rex C. Mitchell, author of Strategy Formulation, states that there are four primary steps in the formulation process. These include;

* Reviewing the current key objectives and strategies of the organization,

* Identifying a range of strategic alternatives,

* Doing a balanced evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives relative to their feasibility and expected effects on the issues and contributions to the success of the organization, and

* Deciding on alternatives that should be implemented or recommended.

Implementation

Implementation is defined as achieving results. In organizations, strategy must be executed to achieve intended results. The best strategy in the world is useless if it is not implemented successfully. The implementation of strategy is one of the most important and one of the most difficult activities to accomplish.

Most companies have strategies. Yet, according to a recent study, between 70% and 90% of organizations, that have formulated strategies, fail to execute them (Strategy Implementation and Realization, Retrieved January 20, 2006). While organizations understand the importance of strategy and its effective implementation, the actual realization often falls short of the goals that the firm has set for itself.

There are several