ICAB PL Business Strategy key terms

A structured scan of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental forces outside an organisation, used to identify how changes in the wider environment may create opportunities or threats for strategy.

A framework assessing industry attractiveness through rivalry among existing firms, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers and bargaining power of suppliers.

The progression of an industry through introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages, each associated with different demand patterns, competitive intensity and appropriate strategic priorities.

A set of firms within an industry that follow similar strategies along key competitive dimensions, so that rivalry tends to be strongest between members of the same group.

A technique that positions stakeholders by their power to influence outcomes and their interest in the organisation, guiding how much engagement, consultation or management each group requires.

Any individual or group that affects, or is affected by, an organisation's decisions and activities, including owners, employees, customers, suppliers, lenders, regulators and local communities.

Corporate social responsibility: the voluntary commitment of a business to behave ethically and contribute to economic, social and environmental wellbeing beyond minimum legal obligations.

A performance framework that evaluates an organisation against three dimensions, namely economic profit, social equity and environmental quality, rather than financial results alone.

Meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, applied in strategy as balancing long-term environmental, social and economic viability of the business.

A summary framework that matches an organisation's internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats, providing a basis for generating and screening strategic options.

A bundle of skills and technologies that is hard for competitors to imitate, contributes significantly to customer value and can be leveraged across several products or markets.

The perspective that sustained superior performance stems from resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and not easily substituted by competitors.

A condition that allows a firm to deliver greater value to customers or comparable value at lower cost than rivals, producing above-average returns that are difficult to copy.

A generic strategy in which a firm seeks to become the lowest-cost producer in its industry, typically through scale, efficiency and tight cost control, while offering acceptable quality.

A generic strategy in which a firm offers products or services that customers perceive as distinctively valuable, justifying a premium price through brand, design, service or technology.

A generic strategy that targets a narrow market segment, pursuing either low cost or differentiation within that segment rather than competing industry-wide.

A grid combining products and markets to identify four growth options: market penetration, product development, market development and diversification, each with differing risk.

Entry into new products or markets outside a firm's existing business, which may be related or unrelated and generally carries higher risk than expansion within current boundaries.

The purchase of a controlling interest in another company, used to gain capabilities, market access or scale quickly, though it brings integration and valuation risks.

Expansion achieved by developing the firm's own resources, customers and capacity rather than by buying other businesses, typically slower but easier to control.

A model that breaks an organisation into primary and support activities, helping managers analyse where value is created and where cost or differentiation advantage can be built.

The web of relationships and activities linking an organisation with suppliers, partners, distributors and customers that together deliver a product or service to the end user.

Contracting an activity previously performed internally to an external provider, usually to reduce cost, access specialist skills or allow management to focus on core activities.

A performance measurement system that tracks financial, customer, internal process and learning-and-growth perspectives, linking day-to-day measures to strategic objectives.

A quantifiable measure selected because it signals progress toward a specific strategic or operational objective, and therefore guides attention and corrective action.

The process of monitoring whether a chosen strategy remains appropriate as conditions change, and of taking corrective action or revising the strategy when it does not.

The shared values, beliefs, norms and behavioural patterns that shape how members of an organisation interpret situations and act, often resisting or enabling strategic change.

The arrangement of roles, reporting lines and coordination mechanisms that determines how authority, tasks and information are distributed across an organisation.

A dual-reporting design in which employees answer both to a functional or specialist manager and to a project or product manager, balancing expertise with focus on outcomes.

The planned process of moving an organisation from its current state to a desired future state, addressing systems, behaviour and the human resistance that accompanies change.

A sequence for leading change: create urgency, form a coalition, build a vision, communicate it, remove obstacles, secure short-term wins, consolidate gains and embed changes in culture.

The system of rules, practices and processes by which an organisation is directed and controlled, defining accountability of the board to shareholders and other stakeholders.

A conflict arising when managers acting as agents pursue their own interests rather than those of principals such as shareholders, requiring monitoring and incentive mechanisms to control.

The body elected by shareholders to oversee strategy, appoint and monitor senior executives, ensure compliance and safeguard the interests of the company and its stakeholders.

The amount and type of risk an organisation is willing to accept in pursuit of its strategic objectives, which sets boundaries for decision-making and risk tolerances.

A structured record of identified risks, showing their likelihood, impact, owner and planned response, used to monitor and prioritise risk management activity.

A technique that constructs several plausible future environments and tests how strategies would perform in each, improving preparedness for uncertainty.