Business Management Assignment: Strategic Planning and Analysis

This business management assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of key strategic planning tools and concepts. It begins with an examination of the BCG matrix, exploring its application, benefits, and limitations in evaluating business portfolios and making resource allocation decisions. The assignment then delves into Management by Objectives (MBO), outlining the steps involved in implementing this performance management approach and its expected outcomes. Furthermore, it explores the strategic planning process, differentiating between corporate, business, and functional strategies, and emphasizing the importance of stakeholder involvement for effective strategy implementation. The assignment also includes a SWOT analysis, detailing how organizations can identify their internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. Additionally, the assignment covers important financial aspects of company performance, important attributes of a website, and concludes with a series of multiple-choice questions to test understanding of the covered concepts.

Running head: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Business Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Question 1........................................................................................................................................2
Question 2........................................................................................................................................4
Part 1................................................................................................................................................4
Part 2................................................................................................................................................5
Part A- MCQ Questions...................................................................................................................5
Part B...............................................................................................................................................7
Question 2........................................................................................................................................7
Question 3..................................................................................................................................10
Question 4..................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................17

2BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Question 1
BCG matrix is the corporate kind of tool of planning which is being utilized in portraying
the portfolio of the brand on quadrant along with the relative kind of market share which is
shown in horizontal axis along with speed of the growth of the market in the vertical axis. This
helps in analyzing the business potentiality along with other involvement of the different
investment strategies (Barney 2017).
Furthermore, BCG is being designed which helps in long term strategic planning which
will help the business in considering the different growth strategies. The four major quadrants
are as follows:
 Dogs – Low growth share
 Question Marks – High market growth and low market share
 Stars – High market growth and market share
 Cash Cows – low growth markets and high market share
These are the four main quadrants in BCG matrix which helps the company in analyzing
their market share along with their market growth in an efficient manner. Furthermore, this has
been noticed that in order to understand the BCG matrix, this is essential to understand how the
share in market and growth in market in interrelated. The businesses can analyze the different
aspects through BCG matrix which are as follows:
 Profile of the product or businesses
 Cash demand of the products
 Development cycle of the products

3BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
 Resource allocation decisions
Personal Interpretation on Results
From the BCG matrix, this can be seen and analyzed that there are different kinds of
benefits which are as follows:
 The BCG matrix is simple along with easy to understand and this helps in quickly screen
the different opportunities and helps in making most of them.
 Moreover, this is used to identify how the corporate cash resources can be best used as to
maximize the future growth along with profitability of the firm.
However, there are different limitations of using BCG matrix in the organization as well
which is inclusive of the following:
 High market share do not mean profit all the time
 Business with low share in market can be profitable too
 Problems of receiving data on share and growth of market
From the BCG matrix usage in the business, this can be analyzed that this method is
simple and useful portfolio matrix which have been used by the different large organizations
having multiple products and this helps in making the right decisions easily as well. Lastly, with
the help of the BCG matrix, this will be helpful in analyzing the different other opportunities
which will help in improving the future growth and opportunity of the company in an efficient
manner.

4BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Question 2
Part 1
Management by Objectives is the performance management approach which helps in
creating a balance between the objectives of different employees along with the objectives of the
employer or organization. This helps in determining the joint objectives and this helps in
providing feedback on the different results. By increasing the level of commitment, the managers
of the organization are provided with the opportunity as this will assist them in focusing on the
new ideas which will contribute towards the development and objectives of the organization.
There are few steps which are required to be followed in order to put MBO into practice:
 Determining the organizational objectives
 Translating the different organizational objectives to employees
 Stimulating the entire participation of the different employees in determining the
different objectives
 Monitoring the overall progress
 Evaluating and rewarding the different achievements
With the joint effort for team leader along with members, the different objectives will be
achieved and the actions can be taken into consideration. From the diagram, this can be analyzed
that in the MBO, this can be analyzed that the plan is required to be done by both leader and
subordinate. Furthermore, the act is required to be done individually and lastly the control is
required to be done jointly as well in order to improve the overall efficiency.

5BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Part 2
Strategic planning process is essential to the organization as this helps in providing sense
of direction and this will measure the desirable outcomes. The strategic planning is the tool
which is useful in guiding the different day to day operations and this helps in progress of the
company. As per the diagram, in a corporation there are various strategic business units
which is inclusive of HR, finance, manufacturing along with marketing activities as this will help
in proper formulation of the strategy in a positive manner.
Corporate strategy is the direction which is taken by the organization in achieving the
business success in the long run.
Business strategy is the aspect which helps in the long term business planning which will
assist the organization in becoming successful.
Functional strategy is the aspect which is being adopted by the organization which is
inclusive of marketing, HR and finance resources.
The different corporate, business and functional strategies are required to be analyzed by
the organization which will help in making the business successful in nature. There are different
stakeholders such as employees, government along with the different suppliers who will be
involved in the proper implementation of the strategy which will assist the company in becoming
stronger in all the aspects in an efficient manner.
Part A- MCQ Questions
1. A) Growth strategies Seek an increase in size and the expansion of current operations
2. B) There are two types of growth strategies: Concentration and Diversification

6BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
3. D) Globalization, Multidomestic and Local
4. C) Failure of planning and failure of training
5) B) Tactical and strategic planning
6) A) Broad guidelines for making decisions and taking action in specific circumstances
7) B) Making assumptions about what will happen in the future
8) E) Identifying alternative courses of action that can be implemented to meet the needs of
changing circumstances
9) D) Allows increase of efficiency
10) C) The ability to use resources efficiently and operate at minimum cost
11) B) Determination of the point at which sales revenues are sufficient to cover debts
12) B) Break-Even Point = Fixed Costs / (Price – Variable Costs)
13) A) The cognitive processes by which consumer interpret and integrate information from the
environment
14) E) Learned predispositions to respond favorably or unfavorably to a product or brand and
where the response is the behavior
15) B) Family influences play important roles in the socialization of people but don’t affect
individual purchase decisions

7BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Part B
Question 2
a) SWOT analysis is the strategic kind of technique of planning which is utilized by various
organizations in identifying their positive and negative internal and external factors which is
being related to the planning for the project (Helfat and Peteraf 2015).
The main four aspects are as follows:
 External Factors comprises of threats and opportunities
 Internal Factors comprises of strengths and weaknesses
 Positive aspects is inclusive of strengths and opportunities
 Negative aspects is inclusive of weaknesses and threat
Strengths are inclusive of the different advantages of the organization which have different
questions such as:
 What is the competitive advantage of the company in comparison to the other
competitors?
 Discuss the strong points in comparison to the other competitors in the market?
Weaknesses are inclusive of the different issues which are being faced by the company which is
inclusive of the different questions such as:
 What are the different factors which are hindering the growth of company?
 What are the different worst areas in comparison to the other competitors?
Opportunities are the different strengths which can be utilized by the company which is as
follows:

8BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
 Whether the different promising markets are being covered in the potential segment of
the market?
Threats are inclusive of the different competition from the other competitors which are as
follows:
 Is there any tough competition in the market which is affecting profitability of the firm?
Figure 1: SWOT Matrix
(Source: Niesten and Jolink 2017)
b) The BCG matrix approach helps in the formulation of the corporate strategy as this is a
framework created by Boston Consulting Group which helps in evaluating the strategic position
of the entire business along with the portfolio along with potentiality. With the help of the BCG
matrix, this helps in performing the various steps:
 Choosing the unit along with defining the market
 Calculation of the relative share of the market
 Finding the growth rate of the market
 Drawing circles on the matrix

9BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
For instance-
Brand Revenues % of
corporate
revenues
Largest
market
share of
rivals
Brand’s
market
share
Relative
market
share
Market
growth rate
Brand 1 $50000 55% 15% 60% 1 4%
Brand 2 $34000 31% 30% 5% 0.17 -15%
Brand 3 $45000 10% 45% 30% 0.67 -4%
Brand 4 $20000 5% 10% 1% 0.1 8%

10BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Figure 2: BCG Matrix in Corporate Growth Strategy
(Source: Created by author)
Question 3
a) SWOT analysis is defined as the strategic planning technique which is being used by the
different organizations as this helps them in identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
along with threats related to the project planning or the business competition as well (Cohen and
Olsen 2015).
The four categories of the SWOT analysis are inclusive of the following:
 External Factors – Opportunities and Threats
 Internal Factors – Strengths and Weaknesses
 Positive Factors – Strengths and Opportunities are beneficial to the business
 Negative Factors- Weaknesses and Threats are exerting bad influence on the business

11BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Strengths
The other term which can be used in this regards is advantage which can be defined by
the question-
 What makes the organization perform well?
 What is the strong point in comparison to the different competitors in the market?
Weaknesses
This is the opposite of the different strengths which will be hindering the growth of the
company in a negative manner.
 What are the different factors which are hindering the growth of the company?
 What are the areas which are performing worst in comparison to the other competitors?
Opportunities
This is inclusive of the different opportunities which are being gained by the company
which is inclusive of the following:
 Whether there are any kinds of potential markets which have not been covered?
 What potential customers have not been found out effectively?
Threats
 Is there any kind of huge and successful competition from the other competitors in the
entire market?
 What are the different kinds of markets which can damage the position of the respective
company?