STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

A Strategy can be defined in many perspectives. A manager can simply define it as a

strategic goal. In other way, it is a battle plan, a technique or a tactic in the art of war.
It is a method of facing competition. It is a set of integrated decision.

STRATEGY comes from the Greek word strategos, which means “the art of the general.”
A strategy is not realized all the time, 100% of its intentions. The conditions in the
environment may affect an intended goal or objective to strategy. Employees may lay
the needed commitment to make the strategy work. The entire organization may resist
the change at the last minute. The list goes on and on.

LEVELS OF STRATEGY
A strategy falls into three different levels. They are the following: corporate,
business and functional strategies.

Corporate Strategy. It comprises of decisions that give the organization what industry it
will be and not be in and how it will allocate specific resources.

What is crucial in strategic management is of course the corporate level strategies. It is

concerned with the proper selection of business which the company should compete in.
Here are the considerations to be followed in corporate level strategy:
Scope. It means identifying the overall goals of the corporation and they types of
business in which the companies should get in.
Access to Competition. It means identifying and defining where the company
should be accessible. For example, Rustan is clearly identified with the high-end
consumers while SM is for the middle income, mass market.
Management of Relationships. The strategies should be shared and coordinated
to all the employees.
Management Practices. A company should decide how the employees are to be
governed in the achievement of corporate objectives.

Implementing a strategy is a challenging task for many organizations. In many

aspects, while there are already strategies to be implemented, there are emotional
attachments involved. Of course, different employees have different views on how to
execute a strategy and how to execute a change.
 Before, it was rather easy to measure profits. If the investment is P2,000,000.00
and the cost is P1,000,000.00 then the profit is P1,000,000.00. Today, the
P1,000,000.00 net profit should be attributable to a lot of intangible assets such as
percentage of customer loyalty, customer retention, and the like.

With this kind of environment companies are facing right now, strategy
implementation should be accompanied by effective leadership and communication.
There should be a formulation of vision, mission and values. There should be the
enthusiasm in all levels. Commitment should emanate, that will spell sound results.
The organizational structure of the company should allow empowerment and there is
accountability on all strategic actions. Short-term goals should also be created at the
business level.

Business Strategy. It is a set of decisions that provides ways on how the

organizations competes in the industry it chooses to be in and eventually sustains a
competitive advantage. Business strategies are basically positioning strategies, making
the companies secure a foothold in the market. It also positions the brand and enables
brand awareness to the customers. It also installs loyalty on the brand. Jollibee has
sustained a competitive advantage against its rivals. The same is true for Coca-Cola.

Functional strategy. It comprises of decisions in the different functions of the

organization that support the business. These functions include marketing, production,
finance, research and development, and human resources.

Each function develops and implements a set of decisions. For example,

marketing has its own four (4) P’s: product, pricing, placement and promotion. The
human resource function has recruitment, training, compensation, and industrial
relations.

It depends on the company on how it can unite all the functions into one whole,
and make the strategy works.

Functional strategies

1. Marketing is always describes as the process of creating and satisfying consumer

needs and want trough product and services. Marketing encompasses a wide range of
basic functions, all of which provide customer satisfaction.
1.1 Customer analysis. To be able to define the target market, is the important to
analyze the personalities, economic status, gender, and others demographical
aspect to come up with strategies that would be essential in setting up overall
company goals, objectives as well as its mission and vision statement. The
 gathering of pertinent information seems tedious but a successful organization
always monitors the market and studies the buying patterns of people, both
existing and potentials customers.
1.2 Selling of products and services . In here, it is not just selling the product of
service. It also includes other task that will help in selling the product. Task like
advertising and promotion and crucial especially if there are new products.
They take in many forms like using the media (print, television, radio and film),
brochures, flyers, tarpaulins, among others. The internet has also become an
effective tool in making the message in the minds of the consumers. Personal
selling is a tool for product like industrial goods or those that need a more
personalizes and more detailed discussions of the features of the product like a
car.
Selling the product does not end in the actual purchase of the product or
availment of a service. After sales transactions involve the feedback from
customers and how the product or service can be improved through the
comments and suggestions of customers. Marketers maintain and retain
customer loyalty. They also attend to customer complaints.
1.3 Product or service planning. The most popular and most effective option is test
marketing. It predicts future sales of new products and services. Marketers
should be able to plan out carefully the segments and the locations of where
to conduct the market test. Test marketing eliminates the possibility of heavy
losses or possible product failure.
1.4 Marketing is that of Pricing. There are major considerations with regards to
pricing. The first one is the capacity of the consumers to buy. The question is:
Can the consumers afford to buy the products at a certain price? On the other
hand, the government controls certain prices like oil prices so suppliers cannot
charge exorbitant prices to the detriment of the consumers. Another
consideration is the price of raw materials in producing the product. It makes
sense when a manufacturer charges a reasonable price with consideration also
to the cost and the markup of the product offering. A manufacturer should
also consider its price and the markup of the distributor before the product
reaches the final consumer. Prices should be competitive with the other
brands as well.
1.5 Distribution. This location of retail sites, sales territories and channels,
transportation carriers, wholesaling and retailing. Some manufacturers or
producers would prefer intermediaries rather than distributing the product
directly to consumers. Small-scale manufacturers would opt for distribution
because the final constraints attached to distributing the product directly.
Medium-to large-scale producers, on the other hand, use intermediaries to
divert their resources in the improvement of their production processes.
 Marketing research is the systematic gathering and analysing of data that
relates to the marketing of goods and services. There are various ways in doing
marketing research. Large companies employ market research firms to
conduct surveys, tests and the like to monitor further the strength of their
products in the market.
1.6 OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS. It is equivalent to cost benefit analysis. Companies
obviously determine whether benefits outweigh the costs.

2. FINANCE
There are three important decisions: investment decision, financing decision and
the dividend decision.
2.1 The investment decision is also called capital budgeting. It involves the
allocation of resources including capital to projects, productions or services, and
assets. This is an efficient placement of capital to various means.
2.2 Financing decisions examines and finds the best capital structure for the
organization. It determines how the firm can raise capital such as selling of assets,
issuing stock or obtaining a debt facility.
2.3 The dividend decision concerns the right period or, time frame by which the
organization will issue a percentage of income to stockholders through dividends. It
also determines the issuance of stocks and the earnings retained to the firm.

3. PRODUCTION
The production or operations function includes those activities that transform
inputs to products or services.
3.1 Process – This includes various activities such as the use of facilities,
production flow analysis and physical distribution system
3.2 Capacity – Capacity decisions concern with the determination of optimal
output levels for the firm without going over or under production. To achieve this, the
company makes a forecast and schedule production operations.
3.3 Inventory – There is a need to manage the level of raw materials, work in
process and finished goods inventory. This also summarizes the size, quantity and
period or orders. On the other hand, workforce decisions include the management of
skilled, unskilled, clerical and management employees. There should be appropriate
motivation techniques, job design, and job enrichment, among others.
3.4 Quality – It denotes the quality goods and services. This includes testing,
quality, quality assurance and cost control.

IMPLEMENTING STRATEGIES AND E-COMMERCE

 E-commerce has essentially changed the way business is conducted. There is a
constant restructuring of business processes to enable companies to attract more
customers via the worldwide web.
1. Internet – has actually eased up entry barriers for new companies because
they do not need high capital to invest in sales forces. The internet has become a
tool in making business and transacting with companies.
The internet enables consumers to compare prices, products and services of
suppliers. On the part of the suppliers, there is an intensive price war. To overcome it,
some suppliers request buyers to enter a code before they can collect prices.
Two strategies are available:
1.1 Price ceiling – refers to the practice of offering the same product at price
points depending on consumer needs.
1.2 Smart Pricing – refers to the practice of changing various prices from one
market to another depending on the conditions of the market. Another
strategy is by achieving cost leadership in a particular market or industry.
2. The Introduction of niche products – Through the direct access available in the
internet, companies can identify target consumers and this introduces products and
service that will cater to their needs.
3. The expansion into related product lines. This expansion helps companies to
share activities such as promotion and distribution. This sharing can lower costs which
is advantageous to consumers.