Question 1: With the aid of a clear and understandable diagram, show that a strategy is a child of context.

According to Systemic Approach, strategy is a child of context meaning something situational, (contingential, and contextual), social, political, geographical, cultural, etc. This follows that; a strategy must be contingent on that context rather than absolute. For that reason, there are two major sources of factors that can influence strategy. The first source is the firm (goals and values, resources and capabilities, structure and systems). The second one is the industry environment (vendors, customers and competitors- VCC).

THE LINK BETWEEN Strategy, Firm and Environment

THE FIRM Goals and Values Resources & Cap. Structure and Systems

STRATESTGY

THE INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENT Vendors Customers Competitors

Vendor means a company which supplies parts or services to another company, it is also called supplier. It refers to a retail salesperson without an established place of business, such as a street vendor. From the above diagram, it can be realized that, vendors influence the strategy formulation. In formulating and crafting the companys strategy, reliable and lest cost vendors must be taken into consideration in the given strategy. The convincing power of vendors must be less than the organization in question. In short, the strategy is influenced with what is called supply chain management. The strategy should take into account the activities, costs, sets associated with purchasing for example, fuel, energy, raw materials, parts and components, merchandise, and consumable items from vendors, receiving, storing and disseminating inputs from suppliers, inspection and inventory management. Customers refer to individuals or businesses that purchase the goods or services produced by a business or company. The customer is the end goal of businesses, since it is the customer who pays for supply and creates demand.

The strategy is influenced by the customers in the sense that, businesses will often make the strategies that would be able to attract and please customers for profit maximization. The companies often compete through advertisements or sales in order to attract and please a larger customer base. The Companies should craft the strategy that will enable them closelymonitor the relationships that they have with their customers, eliciting feedback to see if new products should be created or adjustments be made to what is currently offered. The strategy is also influenced by brand preferences and customers loyalty. The company must crafted to the level that buyers are strongly are attached to established brands. In turn, this will make be intricate or costly for a customer to a switch to a new brand. Competition entails the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms. The two parties competing are called competitors, who also have some influence on strategy. Any strategy is influenced by the composite of competitive pressures operating in five areas of the overall market such as competitive pressures associated with the market maneuvering and jockeying for buyer patronage that goes on among rival sellers in the industry, new entrants in the market, substitute products, supplier and buyer bargaining power and supplier seller collaboration. A Strategy must consider strategic approaches to building competitive advantages including striving to be industrys low-cost provider, out competing rivals based o such differentiating features as high quality, wide product selection, reliable performance, excellent service, attractive styling, and technological superiority, or unusually good value for the money. It must be the strategy that makes the company more competitive than the rest of the competitors in the market. Furthermore, the strategy is a child of context by considering the firm especially its goals and values, resource and capabilities, and structure and systems. Starting with goal and values, the strategy always intends to achieve the firms goals at the same time sticking on the firms values. On the other hand, the strategy is made out of the firms long or short term goals. It is two ways track. Resources and capabilities of the firm determine the firms strategy. To come up with a strategy, resources and capabilities of the firm must be considered especially in implementation of the strategy. Is it possible or not possible to implement the strategy made using the available resources and capabilities in the firm? The strategy is made of the resources and capabilities available. The strategy influences the designing of the structure and systems of the firm. The management, administrative systems, departments, sections, units or organizational chart and hierarchy of the given firm developed basically from the strategy. The big aim of these structures and systems is to ensure that, the strategy put forward by the company is achieved successfully.

Question 2: It is phenomenal that enterprises, business and non-business have strategic plans. But, quite a good number of them do not perform well. What is the importance of corporate strategic plans? Corporate Strategy is a strategy that looks an organization at a very broad term commonly describing any thinking that looks at the bigger picture. It is a very broad term which commonly describes any thinking that looks at the bigger pictures (Business Dictionary.com (2010). Corporate Strategy refers to the overall scope and direction of a corporation and the way in which its various business operations work together to achieve particular goals. It can also means the overarching strategy of the diversified firm according to Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia. Corporate Strategy is one of the four distinct types or levels of strategy which consists of the kinds of initiatives the company uses to establish business positions in different industries, the approaches corporate executives pursue to boost the combined performance of the set of the businesses the company has diversified into, and the means of capturing crossbusiness synergies and turning them into competitive advantage (Thompson A.A, 2004; 24). It is true that, enterprises, business and non-business have good strategic plans but again a good number of them do not perform well. The following are the reasons on why they (strategic plans) do not perform well: Failure for the company or organization to execute by overcoming the four key organizational hurdles such as cognitive hurdle, motivational hurdle, resource hurdle and political hurdle Failure for the company or organization to understand the customer for example on why do they buy, whether there is a real need for the product from the customers, and inadequate or incorrect marketing research. Inability of the company or organization to predict environmental reaction such as what will competitors do, what the possible fighting brands, price wars and whether the government will intervene. Over-estimation and under-estimation of time requirements of resource competence such as if the staff, equipment, and processes can handle the new strategy; and failure to develop new employee and management skills. Poor communications including insufficient information sharing among stakeholders and exclusion of stakeholders and delegates contribute also for the failure of strategic plan performance. The other reasons are failure for the company or organization to coordinate, to obtain senior management and employees commitment, to follow the plan, and manage change. On the other hand, corporate strategy has various importances regardless of the above failures. Corporate strategy is supposed to be the means by which an organization achieves and sustains success. These importances are explained below regarding basically on the tasks associated to the corporate strategy:

Basically, the tasks/importance of corporate strategy include diversification achievement, boosting the combined performance of the set of business the company has diversified into, capturing cross-business synergies 1+1=3 effects, and establishment of investment priorities and steering for competitive advantage. Corporate Strategy generally is important in the process of making decision- as it gives the direction of the organization, motivations to mangers and employees to work hard meeting the organizational goals, in effective and efficient manner, and it provides systematic approaches towards uncertainties and risks. It is a bench mark of evaluation and controlling of the organizational performance through frequent review; guides the implementation of the planned objectives and firms towards profit maximization. It enables the organisation to compete successfully over its rivals through high quality, wide product selection, reliable performance, excellent service, among many. Most managers believe that, a corporate strategy implies a strong focus on competition, since competition takes place almost exclusively at the offering level; most organisations concentrate their strategic efforts on constantly improving the goods and services they offer. It aligns the different elements of a business together and make sure that all of the people in your organization clearly understand where the company is going and what's required in order to get there as well as what role they will play in executing the company's overall successful strategy It helps companies accelerate its sales, by providing the Sales & Marketing talent it needs to grow its business. It leads the companys management to recruiting and consulting partner to mid-market and emerging growth companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare and business service sectors It facilitates the companys diversification implying the strategies of managing a group of businesses. Through this, the company is now able to improve the attractiveness and performance overall business lineup and making a rational business whole of its collection over individual business (Thompson, 2004; 191). In conclusion, the need of leaders with limited tenure to point to achievements, the tyranny of meeting the expectations of the financial markets and most management teams extensively rely on forecasting and planning may among the factors that may contribute to avoid failures of corporate strategy. Therefore, in order to avoid corporate strategy failure, there must be good leadership that should always be committed and lead the organization excellently hence experiencing the above explained importance of strategy. REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_management http://www.articlesbase.com/corporate-articles/ http://www.investorwords.com/5234/vendor.html