Strategic Management Process: Microsoft and Nokia Case Study Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic management process, using the acquisition and restructuring of Microsoft and Nokia as a case study. It begins with an introduction to strategic management, followed by an examination of the business strategies of both companies. The report delves into the acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft, exploring the different types of acquisitions and the strategic rationale behind the deal. It also discusses corporate restructuring, outlining its purpose and application within the context of the case study. Furthermore, the report explores various theories of strategy development, including planning and competitive theory, before detailing the steps involved in the strategic management process, such as vision and goal setting, environmental scanning, strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of strategic management in achieving business objectives and adapting to market changes.

Strategic management process

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Case study........................................................................................................................................3
Acquisition...................................................................................................................................4
Restructuring................................................................................................................................5
Theories of strategy development................................................................................................5
Steps of strategic management process........................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
The following report focuses on strategic management process. Strategic management process
refers to the continuous culture appraisal which is being adopted by business from their
competitors. In short it is a procedure through which business formulate overall position and
objective of the organisation (Velikorossov and et.al2019). In this report acquisition and
restructuring of Microsoft in Nokia has been discussed. Both the companies are dealing in similar
products. This report provides comprehensive application of strategic management procedure
formulation and implementation of various strategies really went to the case study of Microsoft
and Nokia. Apart from this various theories of strategy development is also being mentioned in
this report.
Case study
In the 1990 Nokia was a dominating mobile industry and doing well in the market. On the other
hand Microsoft has already gained worldwide goodwill and reputation for producing internet
enabled and various problems with array of different and multiple features (Bergh and et.al
2017). But the overall management of Nokia get failed and their strategy does not work within
the market and therefore Nokia had to lose their goodwill and reputation. As all the strategies
which is being made by the management of Nokia did not work with Di competitive environment
and as the new companies will daunting their smart phones so Nokia when not able to come up
and provide various high quality features to the consumers and in recent Nokia has to lose their
market share. On the other hand Microsoft was doing well in demanded and Microsoft decided to
acquire Nokia so late but companies can work well in the market. The overall profitability of
Microsoft was out of the bucket and with the acquisition and restructuring Microsoft will get the
assets and valuable resources of Nokia so that they can further produce more quality products to
the consumer and they can enhance the market share of both the companies. In result when both
the company’s announces acquisition and restructuring then the share prices of both the
companies get raised in the market and the investors get good return. The announcement of
Acquisition and restructuring throws the attention of new investors as well who have interest and
investing your money into these two companies and help them to further investment.

Acquisition
Acquisition is a part of corporate restructuring in which one company purchases all and most of
the shares and Assets of another company and control the over on stack in the acquiring
company. In acquisition Acquirer controls the overall management in the target company apart
from this they also increase their stake by purchasing majority of the stocks in the target
company. As per the case study Microsoft is acquiring Nokia so Nokia has to follow all the rules
and regulations which is being said by Microsoft apart from this the management of Microsoft
will handle all the Strategies and policies of Nokia and they will create new policies for both the
entity. In result what the company will use the consumer base of each other apart from this they
can use the overall resources and Assets of each other so that they can provide more quality and
affordable products to their consumers (Trigeorgis and et.al 2017). As Nokia is dealing in mobile
industry and it is very necessary for the merged entity that they must provide new and latest
version of Smartphone’s to their consumers so that they can again tap into the market and apart
from this competition in mobile industry is very high so they must provide quality products at
affordable and cheaper prices to the consumer. By providing products at low range They can
grab the attention of new consumers as well this will help both the companies to increase the
sales and revenue. Apart from this the selection and hiring of employees will also be taken care
by Microsoft so that company can hire more qualified and skilled employees so that these
employees will help the companies to attend their overall objective. Acquisition also falls under
different types and categories.
Horizontal acquisition
These equations take place between those companies who deals in similar business and also
operate in same industry (Durand and et.al 2017). The main motive of conducting horizontal
acquisition is that company wants to decrease the competition and also wants to increase the
revenue as both the companies’ deals in similar products that will become easy for those
companies to grab new consumers.
Vertical acquisition
This kind of acquisition takes place between those companies who are the suppliers or
distributors so that they join their hands together and deliver products of each other.
Conglomerate acquisition

In this acquisition both the companies are totally different in nature and products but one
company acquires the complete business of another company. So the acquisition between
Microsoft and Nokia is a conglomerate acquisition.
Restructuring
Restructuring is different from acquisition as in restructuring corporate and companies make
certain changes in their capital structure and also try to improve their operations. Restructuring
take place in those situations where entity is facing significant issues and not able to cope up with
financial problems. In such situation corporate go for restructuring. The main motive of
restructuring is to reorganize the ownership operation and overall working structure of the
company so that the end goal of the company can be achieved and Organisation can produce
better and quality products to their consumers (Misakov and et.al2018). So the needs and desires
of consumers can get satisfied. The popular example of restructuring is announcement of
dividend to the shareholders apart from this sometimes company can go for stock split and
reverse stock split so that they can grab the attention of new investors as well and when a
company announces evident than the existing consumers also try to increase their shareholding in
the company. As per this case Nokia restructuring as well to gain the market share. As the
strategy of Nokia was not working well so the management of Nokia decided to to go for reverse
stock split, because the shares of Nokia become too low and cheaper so that no one investor
having interest in purchase those shares that company restructure their shares and make them
little expensive so that new investors can easily invest in Nokia. But this strategy did not work
for the company. So at the end to survive in the market Nokia has to go for acquisition and
Microsoft has acquired company.
Theories of strategy development
Strategy development is one of the crucial parts of any business and company because due to
appropriate strategies company can attend growth and also increases the profitability. Strategies
create various advantages for the company so that company can survive the market for long.
Strategy development is a continuous and systematic procedure of attending the desired mission
vision and goal of the company by implementing proper planning and different methods. Show
the management of companies have to follow various methods of strategy development such as
Planning

Strategic planning assists the organisation to determine various directions and scope so that
organisation can perform on long-term basis and also fulfil the demands of their loyal customers.
Planning is very essential because if the planning is not proper then it will lead the organisation
towards loss and company can lose their stake in the market. Long term planning is also
necessary for the organisation which will guide the organisation what should be done and how to
reach at the next stage so that company can attain profit. Planning provides accurate details about
the current scenario of the company where they stand how much efforts they have to put more so
that they can compete with their competitors as well so all these things have been planned by the
management.
Competitive theory
This theory is one of the important factors of strategy development. As the name implies this
theory States about the situation of competitors in the market. With the help of proper
competitive theory companies can create different plants Strategies and policies for the
competitors so that in the long run company do not have to face any difficulties from their
competitors and their strategies (Turner and et.al 2017). According to this theory organisation
must keep an eye on the Strategies and working environment of their competitors then only the
can cope up with them. For example if any competitor announces discount on their Prime
products then this company shot stay ready with new strategy so that their loyal customers do not
get switch to other company. On the other hand company should always walk to step ahead to
their competitors then only they can stay competitive in the market.
Steps of strategic management process
Strategy management procedure is recognising and identification of all the strategies which has
been managed and prepared by the managers so that organisation can attain better performance
and gain competitive edge as well. But there are different steps involved in the strategic
management process.
Vision and goals
This is the first and foremost step of strategic management process which is being done by the
senior managers of the company. As they evaluate the overall performance of the company and
create various vision mission and goals. The region defines the overall value and aspirations of
the organisation and also provides integration to the senior management. On the other hand goals
are the desired of the organisation which they want to attain.

Environmental scanning
Environmental scanning is the procedure of collecting analysing scrutinizing and providing all
the information for the strategic purpose and also helps the organisation to analyse the internal
and external factors which can influence the overall profitability and working of the organisation.
When the entire process gets executed then management must evaluate it continuously so that
they can improve the overall performance of the organisation.
Formulation of strategy
Strategy formulation is the procedure of deciding and selecting best outcome for the organisation
and how to achieve the end goal of the organisation is being decided by making various
strategies (Ansoff and et.al 2018). This process come after the environment scanning procedure
and in these managers formulates various businesses corporate in functional Strategies for the
organisation.
Strategy implementation
This stage is the fourth stage of the entire process in which the strategy implementation is being
done by the organisation. What every strategy which has been made by the management all such
strategies came into action and as per those strategies all the resources of the company get
divided and distributed. Strategy implementation also states about the designing of structure and
developing various decision making process so that the human resources of the community can
managed effectively within the organisation.
Strategy evaluation
This is the final step of strategic management process which states about internal and external
factors and also it measures the performance of the organisation. This step helps the organisation
to take corrective actions so that complete do not have to face loss in the future and can surviving
the market. The main objective of this step is to help the organisation to attend all the objectives
and meet the specific needs as well (Sullivan and et.al 2018). The overall objective of this
process is to meet all the requirements of the business so that they can fulfil the demands of
market and apart from this it helps the organisation to attain ample of profit through which they
can distribute dividend to their shareholders as well. Nokia has adopted these strategies but the
strategies did not worked for the benefit of Nokia and therefore this company has to go for
restructuring and further they may go for acquisition.

Conclusion
After analysing the entire report it can be concluded that is report focuses on strategic
management procedure apart from this report provides detailed information about the acquisition
and the various types of equation as well. On the other hand restructuring has been defined in this
report and take a study of different companies is also being mentioned in this report. The entire
report provides various application of strategic management process for formulation and
implementation of strategies within the organisation. How company can form competitive
strategy so that they can survive in the market is also defined in this report.
References
Books and Journals
Ansoff and et.al 2018. Implanting strategic management. Springer.
Bergh and et.al 2017. Is there a credibility crisis in strategic management research? Evidence on
the reproducibility of study findings. Strategic Organization. 15(3). pp.423-436.
Durand, R., Grant, R.M. and Madsen, T.L., 2017. The expanding domain of strategic
management research and the quest for integration. Strategic Management
Journal. 38(1).pp.4-16.
Misakov and et.al2018. Strategic management of innovative agro-industrial projects. Amazonia
investiga. 7(14).pp.16-23.
Sullivan and et.al 2018. Using industrial ecology and strategic management concepts to pursue
the Sustainable Development Goals. Journal of Cleaner Production.174. pp.237-246.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J.J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
management journal.38(1).pp.42-63.
Turner and et.al 2017. Hotel property performance: The role of strategic management
accounting. International Journal of Hospitality Management.63.pp.33-43.

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