Strategic Management: Prescriptive and Emergent Approaches, Core Competencies, and Innovation

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Section 1...........................................................................................................................................3
Compare and contrast the application of prescriptive and emergent approaches to strategy.3
Section 2...........................................................................................................................................6
Role of Core Competencies in developing Sustainable Competitive advantage...................6
Benefits, Cost and risks using innovation to drive long term organisation development......8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is an activity of setting up goals, objectives and procedures through
which company can succeed in market and gain competitive advantage. Through strategic
management company gets a direction to achieve the business goals and objectives. There are
five stages of strategic management process they are goal setting, conducting analysis,
formation, implementation and monitoring (Pfarrer and et. al., 2019). The main motive of
strategic management is to help companies so that they can compete in market and gain
competitive edge. The strategic management are of three types they are business strategy,
operational strategy and transformational strategy. Strategic management helps in developing
objective oriented approach by using three components they are environmental scanning,
strategy implementation and strategy evaluation (Ketchen Jr, and Craighead, 2020). It mainly
focuses on providing continuous enhancement due to which consumers can achieve high quality
products. The Essay is based on strategic management in which the comparison of prescriptive
and emergent approaches to strategy is determined by highlighting its role in delivering the aim.
It also covers the role of core competencies in developing sustainable competitive advantage and
the benefits, costs and risk of using innovation to drive long term organisational development.
Section 1
Compare and contrast the application of prescriptive and emergent approaches to strategy
Strategy helps in providing the long term direction though which company can achieve the
changing business environment and gain competitive advantage amidst resource constraints.
Strategic planning is a procedure through which the internal and external environment of
Company can be analysed. The prescriptive approach to strategy means when three core areas of
strategic management are connected to each other in sequential way whereas emergent approach
to strategy means when strategy is implemented by conducting the tests and trial. The
Organisation develops clear strategies in order to make business successful and sustain in market
for long run. After creating a strategy it is necessary to communicate these strategies to their
employees and also set the tone according to which employees have to interpret and utilise the
strategy (Vitolla, Rubino and Garzoni, 2017). Through prescriptive approach, the role of staff in
accomplishing the strategy is clearly defined due to which they can able to perform well in
Organisation. There are various benefits of implementing prescriptive approach to strategy such

as staff members can understand the foals and processes of organisation in efficient and effective
manner, hierarchy of Organisation is clear to employees, the objectives are clearly stated due to
which the success can easily be measured and also the company can easily allocate the resources
in order to make the efficient decision without creating any wastage (Lazareva, Anopchenko and
Lozovitskaya, 2016). But there are also drawbacks of prescriptive approach to strategy as it is
not flawless. The approach is based on prescribed plan of action which makes it very inflexible,
even the company has to face various challenges and issues by implementing prescriptive
approach to strategy and managers can find themselves lost and overwhelmed. The
disadvantages of prescriptive approach to strategic management include the mistake which is
incurred by Owners that can also reduce the progress of company even employees can also feel
that their contribution is not valued. It is a rigid strategy which can lead to unproductive
outcomes and excessive bureaucracy. The prescriptive approach can also difficult to adapt the
changing environments and also create an impact on the business opportunities of Organisation.
Prescriptive approach to strategic management generally means to create a map in order to
achieve the specific goals. The Strategy must be cleared to employees so that they can take
initiative to achieve the business goals. Through this approach the managers can easily determine
the current situation on the map at any time. In prescriptive approach to strategy planning the
vision, mission, approach and core values are defined clearly before strategy implementation is
started. The prescriptive approach follows the authoritative management style and hierarchical
structure. The top management of Organisation usually create a plan and formulate a deliberately
strategy according to the intention and priorities. The approach focuses on long term plan as the
objectives is clearly defined due to which the manager encourage their decision, inactions and
actions related to the long term performance of company. As the strategy of business is clearly
stated it becomes easy for the manager to coordinate the efforts with employees so that they can
give productive outcomes (Gavel'O, 2017). For example, If McDonald’s implements prescriptive
approach to strategic management they have clearly define their objectives to their staff due to
which they can perform well in Organisation and also achieve the business goals and processes.
Emergent approach is another approach to strategic planning in which manager make
strategic decision and operational decision from time to time according to the certain pattern.
The Strategy which is developed by the Organisation is interactive, unplanned and incremental
process through which company can easily adapt when business environment changes. By