BF Note CA CL.
BF Note CA CL.
BF Note CA CL.
Business strategy: A business strategy is a set of competitive moves and actions that
a business uses to attract customers, compete successfully, strengthening performance,
and achieve organisational goals
♦Mintzberg's 5 Ps of Strategy
1. Plan: A Strategic plan is a written document containing targets and instructions
for people to follow which is produced at the end of planning process
2. Ploy: A trick/task to win a victory over competitors.
3. Pattern: A stream of actions, a pattern of behaviour of a consistency in what
the business does, its culture.
4. Position: It’s environment, it’s SWAT, its position in market, how to fit in.
5. Perspective: Business’s unique way of looking at the world and interpreting it.
These five components allow an organisation to implement a more effective strategy
Levels of strategy:
i. Corporate strategy
ii. Business strategy
iii. Functional (operational) strategy
Corporate Level strategy is generally determined at main
board level of the business as a whole. The types of matter
dealt with include:
i. Determining the overall corporate mission and
objectives.
ii. Overall product/market decisions, for example; to expand, close down, enter a new
market, develop a new product, etc.
iii. Other major investment decisions, besides those for products/markets, such as
information systems, IT development.
iv. Overall financing decisions- obtaining sufficient funds at lowest cost to meet the needs
of the business.
v. Relations with external stakeholders, such as share holders, lenders, Government, etc.
Business Level strategy is formed in strategic business units (SBUs) and relate to how a
particular market is approached or how a particular SBU acts.
Competitive strategy is normally determined at this level covering such matters as:
i. How advantage over competitors can be achieved
ii. Marketing issues, such as the marketing mix.
Strategic business unit (SBU): A section, within a larger business, which is
responsible for planning, developing, producing & marketing its own products or services.
Functional / operational Level Strategy: These refers to main functions within each SBU,
such as production/ operations, finance, human resources and marketing, and how they
deliver effectively the strategies determined at the corporate and business level.
Planning: The establishment of objectives and the formulation, evaluation & selection of the
policies, strategies, tactics & action required to achieve them. Planning comprises long-
term/strategic planning & short-term/operational planning.
Strategic planning: A statement of long-term goals along with a definition of the strategies
and policies which will ensure achievement of these goals.
Formal/Rational/Planned Strategy: ►►
• The intended strategy
• Influenced by specific corporate objectives
• Based around a formal strategy planning process
• Supported by traditional planning tools and methods (e.g. SWOT Analysis, PESTLE
framework, Porter’s Five Forces)
• Described in formal business plan
A former or rational approach to strategic planning involves four key stages:
i. Strategic analysis
ii. Strategic choice
iii. Implementation of chosen strategies
iv. Review & control
1. ♦Positioning-based approach: ►►
• It is an Outside-in view of strategy, consider outside environment and market, then
the company’s ability to trade in these condition
• Believe that successful strategy involves the business adapting to its environment
• Focus on customers need
• Gain superior position against rivals
• Assess relations with stakeholders
• Seek to gain preferential access to resources
Fuad Amin BUSINESS FINANCE (CL) 30
2. Resource-based approach:
• It is an inside-out view of strategy, consider key resources first, then how to
exploit competitive advantage in available market
• Firms don’t look for strategies external to them
• They develop and acquire resources and competences
• Create new market and exploit them
• Company don’t merely “Satisfy” customer needs, they “create” them.
• Combination of resources and competences takes years to develop and can
be hard to copy.
♦Stages of Strategic planning process:
A) Strategic analysis stages:
1. External Analysis (Analysing the environment)
2. Internal analysis (analysing the business)
3. Corporate appraisal (Combination of step 1 and 2)(SWOT analysis)
4. Mission, goal and objectives
5. Gap analysis (Compares outcome of step 3 with 4)
*Market: Comprises the customers or potential customers who have needs which are
satisfied by a product or service
*Industry: Comprises those business which use a particular competence, technology,
product or service to satisfy customer needs and which therefore compete with each other.
Position Audit: Part of planning process which examines the current state of the entity in
respect of different aspects.
Value chain: The sequence of business activities by which, in the perspective of the end
user, value is added to the products or services by an entity.
Value Activities: The means by which a business creates value in its products
The Margin is the excess the customers is prepared to pay over the cost to the business of
obtaining resource inputs and providing value activities.
Market Share:
One entity’s sale of
a product or
service in a
specified market
expressed as a
percentage of total
sales by all entities
offering that
product or service.
Market
Growth Rate is a
measure of the
extent at which
the market a
company operates
in is growing. This
provides an insight
into the size of the
opportunity a
company might
have.
Mendelow's Matrix is
a tool that may be used
by an organisation to
consider the attitude of
their stakeholders at
the start of a project or
when they are setting
out strategic objectives.
The two basic types of competitive advantage combined with the scope of activities for
which a firm seeks to achieve them, lead to three generic strategies for achieving above
average performance in an industry: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.
1. Cost leadership: Cost leadership is one strategy where a company is the most
competitively priced product on the market, meaning it is the cheapest.
How to be accost leader:
i. Set up production facilities to obtain economies of scale
ii. Use the latest technology
iii. Concentrate on improving productivity
iv. Minimize overhead costs
v. Get favorable assess to sources of supply.
vi. Relocate operations to cheaper countries
Features of risk:
i. Variability: Events in the future can not be predicted with certainty.
ii. Expectation: We expect something to happened, or perhaps hope that it will
not happen.
iii. Outcome: This is what actually happens compared with what is intended or
expected to happen.
♦Uncertainty: The inability to predict the outcome from an activity due to a lack of
information. (unavoidable)
Symmetrical risk/two-way risk: The risk that something will go wrong is ‘Downside Risk’,
if it is likely to go right the term ‘Upside Risk’ is used.
Opportunity: The possibility that an event will occur and positively affect the achievement
of objectives.
Risk appetite: The extent to which a business is prepared to take on risks in order to
achieve its objectives.
Critical success factor (CSFs)- The areas of a business or project that are vital to
its success.
Risk adverse attitude is that an investment would be chosen if it has a more certain but
possibly lower return than an alternative less certain, potentially higher return investment.
Risk neutral attitude is that an investment would be chosen according to its expected
return, irrespective of the risk.
Risk seeker attitude is that an investment would be chosen on the basis of it offering
higher levels of risk; even if its expected return is lower than an alternative no risk
investment with a higher expected return.
♦♦Classification of risks:
i. ♦Business risk: arises from the nature of the business, its operations and
the conditions it operates in.
ii. Non-business risk: Any other type of risk, usually classified as:
a. financial risk
b. operational risk.
Financial risk: Lam, in Enterprise Risk Management, divides financial risk into:
i. Credit risk: The economic loss suffered due to the default of a borrower,
customer or supplier.
ii. Market risk: The exposure to potential loss that would result from changes in
market prices or rates.
Other financial risk includes:
i. Liquidity risk: an unexpected shortage of cash.
ii. Gearing risk: high borrowing in relation to the amount of shareholders’ capital
in the business, increasing the risk of volatility in earnings, and insolvency.
iii. Default risk: Debtors of the business failed to pay what they owe in full and on
time.
iv. Credit risk: The company’s credit rating is downgraded.
Operational risk: The risk of direct or indirect loss resulting from inadequate or failed
internal process, people & systems or from external events, including legal risks.
Operational risk includes:
i. Process risk: Business’s processes may be ineffective or inefficient.
ii. People risk: risk arising from staff constraints, incompetence, dishonesty.
iii. System risk: risk arising from information and communication system.
iv. Legal risk: Uncertainty in laws, regulations & legal actions.
v. Event risk: risk of loss due to Single even
a. Disaster risk
b. Regulatory risk
c. Reputation risk
d. Systemic risk
Another way of classifying event risks in terms of external environment:
a. Physical risks
b. Social risks
c. Political risks
d. Legal risks
e. Economic risks
f. Operating environment risks
4 Key concepts of risk: The scale of any risk for a business depends upon These.
i. Exposure (Public disclose)
ii. Volatility (change rapidly and unpredictably)
iii. Impact (Measure of the amount of loss if the undesired outcome occurs)
iv. Probability (How likely it is that a particular outcome will occur)
♦♦Risk management: The identification, analysis & economic control of risk which
threaten the assets or earning capacity of a business, so as to reduce the business’s
exposure by either reducing the probability or limiting the impact or both.
In response to risk taking variety of forms, organizations can take Physical controls,
Financial controls, System controls and Management controls
♦Report All identified risk management problems that could affect the organization’s ability
to achieve its objectives should be reported to those in a position to take necessary action.
i. The chief executive regarding serious problems.
ii. Senior managers regarding risk management problems that affect their units.
iii. Managers in increasing levels of detail as the process moves down the
organizational structure.