1. Chelmsford 11th March 2017 Cambridge 18th March 2017
B301 Tutorial Four
Chelmsford 11th March 2017
Cambridge 18th March 2017

2. Agenda Review of TMA03 and 04 Block 5 and implementation TMA05
Block 6 and the future of strategy
TMA06

3. TMA03 (remember that one?)
Very much like the exam questions (might even be one)
Average score of 56 (spread 31-92)
Needed a careful focus on the question – the actual wording of the Part 1 question was:
Discuss arguments for and against the suitability of an integrated cost and differentiation competitive strategy. Illustrate your answer with suitable examples from B301 and/or your own experience.
Lots of people gave me a reference of:
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D. and Hoskisson, R. E. (2003) Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalisation, Mason, OH, Thompson-South Western.
But how many of you had actually read it?

4. Key points on TMA03
Very few writers disagree with Porter’s basic hypothesis regarding “caught in the middle” and the risks of trying do everything at the same time
Even Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson explicitly accept the validity of the “caught in the middle” argument in their book (which many people claimed to have read)
Integrated or mixed strategies are best seen as a fifth variant – a fifth deliberately chosen approach
But integrated strategies don’t “disprove” Porter’s view.
Thornhill and White’s article gives you recent empirical evidence that “pure” strategies tend to succeed more
And there are numerous “real life” examples

5. TMA04 (how could you forget that one?)
Still being marked
Remember that “critical thinking” doesn’t simply mean negative thinking. The aims of the course include:
thinking strategically in the context of a case study (learning outcome 7)
critical thinking, analysis and synthesis; including identifying and questioning assumptions, weighing evidence appropriately, identifying and challenging false logic or reasoning, and generalising in a way which recognises the limits of knowledge in strategy (learning outcome 8)
evaluation and comparison of competing perspectives from a variety of sources, including some informed by current issues or research developments (learning outcome 9)
the ability to argue relevantly and justify a point of view (learning outcome 10).

6. Block 5 explores ‘Implementation’
Analysis
Choice
Johnson and Scholes’ (2006)
Implementation

7. Block 5: Strategic Implementation
Barriers to implementation
Strategists as People
Structure and Strategy
Managing Strategic Change

8. Alexander’s five key obstacles to successful implementation
Key tasks are not defined in enough detail
Problems requiring intervention by top management were not communicated to them fast enough
Changes in roles and responsibilities were not clearly defined
The key formulators of the strategic decision did not play an active enough role in implementation
Major problems surfaced during implementation, which had not been identified beforehand
B301 Block 5, Unit 1

9. Critically assess Alexander’s proposition
Two groups to prepare an argument:
In support of Alexander’s propositions
To critically appraise Alexander’s propositions
And to present it to the other group on flipcharts. After the two presentations each group will make a brief closing statement on the conclusions they have drawn.

10. Facilitating Implementation – Gantt Chart
However:
“Unfortunately, no GANTT chart survives contact with reality. No plan can anticipate every event that might help or hinder a company trying to achieve its strategic objectives”
Sull et al. (HBR March 2015 p.61)

11. Control Loop
Set objectives and establish standards of performance
Plan tasks, identify performance measures, carry out tasks
Monitor progress and compare performance to standards
Act on results of monitoring and take corrective action if necessary
Possible action:
Adjust task/resources
Possible action:
Do nothing
But – vertical alignment (top down) tends to overlook horizontal alignment – across functions. “Past performance is two or three times more likely than a track record of collaboration to be rewarded with promotion” (Sull et al. HBR March 2015 p.64)

12. Temporal Separation
Organisations change back and forth between different corporate structures
Decentralisation is used to ignite innovation and change: centralisation to increase coordination and efficiency
Exploitation and exploration are emphasized sequentially rather than simultaneously

13. Structural Separation
Organisations are divided into two (or more) separate units with different structures at the same time
Flexible ‘innovative units’ explore new areas for growth, while more formal ‘operational units ensure efficient organisations in the existing businesses
Exploitation and exploration are addressed by different employees and organisational units
Remember that this is how Xerox set up the Palo Alto Research Centre (the PARC) and failed to take advantage of its innovations.

14. Parallel Structures This is what 3M and HP do (allegedly)
Organisations create supplemental network structures to compliment the formal primary structure
Employees switch between the two types of structures depending on their respective tasks
Exploitation and exploration are addressed by the same employees, but in different structural environments
This is what 3M and HP do (allegedly)

15. Think about the process

16. TMA 05
Due in on 6th April 2017 Selecting concepts from Block 5 as appropriate to your discussion, explain some common barriers to successful strategy implementation and how they may be overcome with regard to the BRF 2015 strategy for Brasil Foods (evaluated in TMA 04). You should write your answer as a report from the perspective of an independent strategy consultant to the board of directors – but with appropriate academic referencing. Ensure that you make relevant and critical use of your selected concepts words

17. TMA 05 Guidance
This question requires you to make it clear what aspects of the BRF 2015 strategy you think are likely to be problematic in implementation and what recommendations you would make to overcome such implementation problems. You also need to demonstrate how both problems and solutions relate to material in Block 5. The concepts you choose (both to clarify problems and suggest solutions) can be from anywhere in the Block but part of the challenge of the assignment is to demonstrate your ability to select them appropriately and apply them with critical understanding, and practicality.

18. BREAK

19. Block 6: Contemporary directions in Strategy
Strategy and the future
Forecasting
Quantitative forecasting
Qualitative forecasting
Scenario planning
New understandings of Strategy
Complexity Theory
Strategy as discourse
Critical management studies

20. Scenarios are based around a focal question

21. Scenario Planning
In groups, critically assess the utility of scenarios such as those provided in the Rockefeller Foundation report

22. Bedrock Principles of Complexity
Equilibrium is a precursor to death for complex adaptive systems (so no growth is not an option)
Complex adaptive systems have the capacity to organise themselves and generate more complexity (remember Merton’s law of unintended consequences)
Complex adaptive systems tend to move towards the edge of chaos
You can’t direct a living system, only disturb it.
Richard Pascale (1999) ‘Surfing the edge of chaos’.

23. The Cane Toad “solution”
In 1935 the Queensland Department of Agriculture imported 102 cane toads to control a plague of beetles that was ravaging local sugar cane plantations
Today there are over 100 million cane toads in Australia and any animal which eats one (including eggs and tadpoles) dies of instant heart failure

24. The Libyan “solution”

25. Other Block 6 Considerations
Strategy as discourse
Discourse see strategy as existing in talk – so strategy is a fiction about the future
Strategy and critical management studies
Critical theorists see strategy as a way in which a small group expresses and legitimises its power over others
CSR as a source of competitive advantage

26. TMA 06
Due in 11th May 2017
To what extent might applying complexity theory enhance the formation and implementation of strategy in an organisation? Use examples drawn from your experience and/or reading to support your argument. (2000 words)

27. TMA 06 Guidance
This question is an opportunity to demonstrate your critical understanding of complexity theory as it applies to strategy. The first part of Block 6 Unit 2, including Reading 18, gives an extensive account of the nature of complex adaptive systems, and the implications for strategists of seeing their organisations as such systems.
As in any critical argument, make sure you offer a balance of points for and against a point of view – in this case the extent to which complexity theory might enhance strategy formation and strategy implementation. While connected, these are two different issues so make sure you offer a reasoned opinion on both.

28. See you again on 13th May 2017