Week 27

in your own words and using referenced quotes explain why strategy theories developed in the last 10 years tend to be quite different from those developed in the 1960‟s 

fig:- evolution of strategy

Strategy theories are as old as mankind itself and have evolved with time. The need to win wars forced the clan leaders to come up with military strategies. Over course of history those military strategies have been modified with the changing scenario of the world. The purely military strategies evolved into economics strategies, industrial organization and business strategies in the turn of the century.

As of last 10 years there has been another major shift in formulating strategies in the business world that we know of. This is particularly different from the strategies that was developed in the 1960s

The difference between strategies of 1960s and last 10years are as follows

Difference	1960s	Last 10 years
Emphasis	More emphasis on efficiency , doing thing that will be  more productive	More emphasis on effectiveness, doing things that will gain competitive advantage
Driver	The diver for strategy was more based on development of theory	The driver for strategy is more based on practical needs of business
Stability	There was less competition and the market was more stable and it gave birth to long term plan	There are more competition and the markets are unpredictable which gave birth to optional and adaptive strategy

You attend a job interview for an entry level managerial position and mention that you completed a 30 week strategy module. Your interviewer seems interested and explains that this job role would enable you to become involved in the strategy making process. In 200 to 300 words explain to your interviewer how the module has helped to prepare you for a strategy role.

First and foremost I learned that one cannot just haphazardly implement a strategy. I learned that in order to implement a strategy I need to

·         first analyze the situation

·         develop a strategy for it

·         and finally implement the developed strategy.

This module helped me to have a border view on how strategy planning could be conducted. Earlier I had this idea that all strategy are made beforehand. However after studying and analyzing the case on Google I learned that there are organization who uses combination of intended and emergent strategy, in which the strategy are incorporated and made along the way.

I also learned to use analytic tools such as and how to relate them into real life situation.

1.       PESTEL,

2.       SWOT,

3.       Key Success Factor

4.       Porter’s 5 forces model

I had the opportunity to use those tools and do a critical analysis of Big Mart in Nepal and the state of competition in Nepal .

I also learned that sometimes a firm in order to grow or just to survive needs to do it by  the means of merger, strategic alliance , acquisition. On the later part of my module I managed to learn more tools in strategic planning namely the change kaleidoscope  and force field analysis.

All in all I would say that I have gained much more knowledge than I could ever imagine from the module. The case papers were especially useful and gave me various ideas on what should be done for particular situation in future in real life .

References  
Dr Gurutej . 2012. Strategies Choices and Impacts. [ONLINE] Available at: http://fserver.islingtoncollege.edu.np/ [ Accessed may 25 2013]