Strategic Business Management
Strategic Business Management tests how organisations analyse their environment, choose strategy, implement change and measure performance. It rewards applied reasoning, not lists.
Core frameworks
- Position: PESTEL, Porter’s five forces and value-chain analysis explain opportunities and threats. Resource-based view and VRIO test internal strengths.
- Choice: Ansoff’s matrix links products and markets; BCG matrix guides portfolio resource allocation; Porter’s generic strategies force a choice between cost leadership and differentiation, with focus as scope.
- Implementation: structure, culture (Johnson’s cultural web), stakeholders (Mendelow), and change models such as Kotter’s eight steps.
- Performance: Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard translates strategy into financial, customer, internal-process and learning-and-growth measures.
Worked example
A Sri Lankan apparel exporter faces rising labour costs and buyer concentration. Five forces show high buyer power and moderate threat of substitutes; PESTEL highlights exchange-rate and trade-rule exposure. Ansoff suggests market development into a new export market is less risky than unrelated diversification. The balanced scorecard should add measures such as on-time delivery, worker retention, energy per garment and customer concentration, not only gross margin. The recommendation is to pursue differentiation through reliability and compliance, supported by supplier partnerships and workforce upskilling.
Traps
Presenting SWOT without prioritisation; confusing effectiveness with efficiency; recommending diversification without synergy; ignoring stakeholder resistance; and setting KPIs that do not link to the chosen strategy.