Case Study of Just Toyz Assignment

MANAGING STRATEGY

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
COMPARING DIFFERENT STRATGEY SCHOOLS........................................................................1
STRATEGIC PLAN..............................................................................................................................3
Executive summary...........................................................................................................................3
Mission statement..............................................................................................................................3
Vision statement................................................................................................................................3
Goals and objectives..........................................................................................................................3
Internal analysis.................................................................................................................................4
External analysis................................................................................................................................4
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE STRATGEY FOR STRENGTHENING THE MARKET SHARE IN
UK AND JAPAN..................................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATION.........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is referred as the process through which continuous planning,
monitoring as well as evaluation of all the important components of business is being done.
Further, it is being planned for meeting out the desired goals as well as objectives. It is the
best way by which the firm can get the overall direction (Kazmi, 2008). The current research
report also deals with strategic management plan and its related concepts. It is based on the
case study of ‘Just Toyz’ which is a Thai online wholesaler supplying both to UK and Japan.
As a business consultant to the firm, the main aim is to develop a strategic plan of the firm.
With this, the firm will be able to plan, monitor and analyse the progress and can alter their
priorities. The research report will throw on mission, vision and values of the firm and will
also conduct internal analysis of Just Toyz. Different strategy schools and competitive
advantage strategy will be discussed. The final part of the report will include conclusion and
recommendation to the firm related to its short as well as long term goals.
COMPARING DIFFERENT STRATGEY SCHOOLS
Talking in relation with the strategy, it is being referred as a pattern of decisions
related to the policies as well as practices linked with the organizational system. This system
involves all the functional areas and to comprehend these areas, formulation of strategies at
each level of the firm is required. According to Mintzberg, there are ten schools of strategy
which is categorized into prescriptive as well as descriptive schools (Cole, 2013). The former
one includes design, planning and the positioning schools. The later one encompasses seven
types of schools i.e. entrepreneurial, cognitive, learning, configuration, environmental, power
and cultural schools. All of these schools of thoughts impacts the studies related to
organizational behaviour directly and indirectly at the outset.
 Design school – This is being defined as thought process of strategy formulation in
which main attention is being given on conception of ideas. The firm perform SWOT
analysis and carries out operation in stable environment where there is not disturbance
of the competitors. But, the internal analysis is based on the company’s own
knowledge.
 Planning school – It focuses on planning of the entire strategy in a rigorous way to
achieve growth. Plans are being documented and referred as the time of making
decisions. Here, in this school of thought, management gets the direction to move
forward. However, if anything happens beyond planning, the whole plan gets affected
(Alkhafaji, 2011).
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 Positioning school – In this kind of school thought, the management of the firm makes
decision regarding the promotion of the product in the top intellects and then decisions
are made accordingly. Identification of competition prevailing in the market needs to be
done. Tools such as value chain, porter’s five force are being used. Similar to the
design school, this school of thought also assumes the market as it is and does not take
into account alterations in the business environment (Taylor and et.al, 2012).
 The entrepreneurial school – The main emphasis is being given on the chief executing
officer of the firm. Trust is placed on the leaders and whatever decisions he takes, is
followed by the company. CEO needs to have strong leadership skills and must be
visionary. The problem with this type of school is how to search for such leader. For
instance, if marketing strategy needs to be developed than the leader might prove to be
wrong and thus, dynamic personality which is very strong in the business front is
needed.
 The cognitive school – It helps in studying the perception of the people and their
information. The example of this school is Johari window. Further, this thought of
school involves psychological and mental process to know what’s going in the mind of
consumers. However, cognitive school of thought is not practical after certain level.
 Learning school – Under this, the management of the firm overview the things that has
happened in the past and based on that formulates future strategy. It just guides the
business based on the previous road which has gone well for the firm. It certainly not a
right decision because the road can alter anytime (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).
 Power school – People who have the power takes the decisions and they can be anyone
like customer, supplier, stakeholder etc. It is also being regarded as the realistic thought
process as in firms there exist numerous people and power should be given to few of
them. However, if these powerful people does not consider the feedbacks and measures
for improvement, problems soon starts.
 The cultural school – This school of thought of strategy formulation states that a
positive culture within the company can provide effective direction. Such type of
school of thoughts is useful in case of acquisitions and mergers. But, there are chances
of resistance to this thought as people might not unite and line the idea of change.
 Environmental school – In this type of school, emphasis is being given on the
environment. Situational analysis is being regarded as the most important tool.
Nevertheless, it is based totally on situation and therefore, can be used when it is totally
based on environmental factors (Halbert and Ingulli, 2014).
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