Business Management and Strategy
Scope
Business Management and Strategy tests how organisations set direction, analyse their environment, choose competitive positions and implement change. Expect frameworks applied to realistic scenarios, not definitions alone.
Core rules
- Strategic position. PESTLE scans the macro-environment; Porter’s five forces assesses industry attractiveness; SWOT summarises internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats.
- Choice. Ansoff’s matrix classifies growth as market penetration, market development, product development or diversification. Porter’s generic strategies are cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
- Implementation. Structure, culture, resources and change management determine whether strategy works. A strategy that ignores capability is a plan, not a strategy.
- Governance link. Boards approve strategy and monitor risk; management executes. Strategy must align with stakeholder expectations and ethical standards.
Worked example
A Nigerian beverage company sells its existing malt drink in a new export market. Under Ansoff, this is market development, not diversification, because the product is existing and only the market is new. The company should assess distribution partners, regulatory barriers and currency risk before entry. If it also launched a new dairy product into its existing market, that would be product development; launching a new product in a new market would be diversification.
Traps
Do not present a SWOT list as a strategy; do not confuse mission with vision; do not use five forces to describe a single firm’s strengths; and do not recommend diversification without capability and risk analysis.
Key check
Match the framework to the question, state the evidence, then draw a decision.