Week 3: Learning Journal

Q. Why is strategy making like a  science and why is it also like an art or craft?

> Strategy is like a science because as like in science while making strategies, several experimental works are done. Similarly as in science, strategy has different tools and or set of rules. Same as in science strategies are also formulated at first and then implemented.

> Strategy is like an art and craft because as like art and craft, it is a very creative process. Likewise, strategy is an emerging factor. As like in art and craft, group activities and discussions take place while making up a strategy which also involves conflicts and compromises.

Q. In your own words using referenced quotes describe the difference between intended strategy and emergent strategy.

> The kind of strategy which one seriously intended to create generally refers to intended strategy as the name suggests. whereas, emergent strategy refers to the one which emerged just like that without any serious work out. Intended strategies are more formal ones whereas emergent strategies are the informal ones. The strategies made by planning, structuring and exploring before implementation represents intended strategy whereas the strategies that are made without any specific plans or structure represents emergent strategy. Emergent strategy basically is a kind of experiment done so as to figure out the best one from many whereas intended strategy never experiments it analyses on facts and then does serious research on several factors as to present that in act.

Q. Choose 2 of the 10 school of strategy thoughts and describe them in your own words.Try and provide a real world example for each. eg. an organisation or a situation.

 1.  The Learning School:

 In this school, strategy basically emerges after several experimentation. Here, one does a thorough learning and then act. The Learning School is all about learning, experimenting, adapting and then acting. In this school, one never stop learning from situations and circumstances. Let me take an example of an electronic company 'Samsung' (being more specific Samsung mobiles), The Samsung company has been emerging highly in the market today. The company specifically has introduced several mobile designs in the market which has functions similar to iphones and have anroid applications but rather in a cheaper price. I generally want to express that Samsung is basically learning the minds of every people's desire, keeping in mind the desire of a middle class people and a lower class people who cannot afford expensive mobiles and have acted by producing the kind of mobiles which are affordable also having functions as in expensive mobiles.

 2. The Cultural School:    

In this school, strategy is simply formulated based on shared beliefs and values. Here, the culture and traditions practiced is the main factor that matters while making up a strategy to succeed. This school believes, Change in cultures needs to me taken in mind while changing strategies. For example: Mc Donald's introduced itself in India for the first time, rather introducing the most popular of Mc Donald's beef recipies, it   learned the culture of India and changed their strategy. They got to know, people in India do not eat beef so focused on creating recipies that are suitable for indian people thus Mc donald's introduced chicken and aloo (potato) burgers in India which basically increased the Mc Donald's market in India.

Q. Write about your experience with today's case study. What answers did you give to the questions?

> I found today's case a very interesting one. The heading with how long will Google magic last? was on itself an impressive one. Likewise, getting to know more about the internet search engine that I use all the time was informative. This case discussed on a rather hot topic of present time and was a fruitful and interesting one.

REFERENCES:

Business Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2013, from www.businessdictionary.com: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/emergent-strategy.html

 Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (2009) ‘Strategy Safari’ Edition 2, FT Prentice Hall, Chapter 11