Strategy formation effects on managerial action: Strategy in the back of your head

This paper examines the interplay between top and middle level managers as strategy-making settles and in subsequent managerial action. It reports on an exploratory case study at a car service company that has an aggressive expansion strategy. The study examines the context and characteristics of the strategy-making process and the specific evolution of fourteen strategic initiatives. Of particular interest was that the interplay between top managers and middle managers was resolved through a legitimizing mechanism. This interplay took place through deliberation and agreement, with extensive participation, and developed into shared views of strategy which provided legitimation. Once settled, strategic initiatives were subsequently developed in harmony with the strategic intent. This agreement provided guidance to carry out strategic initiatives and was a source of resilient strategic conversation. From analysis of the case, a model presenting how strategic intent interacts with the creation of strategic initiatives is presented. This model aims at overcoming the mutually exclusive bottom-up and top-down sources of influence, integrating both in a process model.Strategy-making; middle management; top management; managerial action;

Macro Intentions, Micro Realities

The current understanding of Regional Integration is largely macro-economic and political in orientation and has tended to neglect, even ex post, the significance of the Single European Market (SEM) for the spatial restructuring of individual firms. The problem stems largely from a lopsided understanding of Regional Integration. This paper introduces a two-level approach in which integration and its outcomes are studied based on the strategic intent and strategic realities of two types of key actors: governments and core companies. In this contribution it is argued that in advocating the SEM, these actors did not necessarily share the same strategic intent. A new firm-level data set shows also that the expectations of European policymakers did not accurately match actual strategies developed by European core companies.Regional Integration;business-government relations;core companies;spatial organization of activities;strategic intent/reality

The Use of Strategic Metaphors in Intercultural Business Communication

This paper contends that the use of strategic metaphors can help deliver the effective intercultural business communication necessary for global success. Using the Renault-Nissan Alliance as an example, the authors argue that an appropriate metaphor can help provide the global glue which captures the essence of the organisation’s activities, encapsulates its strategic intent, incorporates the national and global cultures, and portrays its ethical and business stance. Indeed, as is the case in the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the appropriate use of metaphor allowed the firm to bind a diverse group of stakeholders to a common goal by using the inherent ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning of the metaphor to overcome Asian and Western intercultural differences and at the same time maximise goal congruence.intercultural business communication, strategic metaphors, alliance relationships

Managing M&A-From Strategic Intent to Integration: IOCs Acquisition of IBP and After

<div align=justify>This paper, in the nature of a case study, discusses the entire range of managerial issues addressed by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) in the acquisition, subsequent merger and post-merger integration of IBP Co. Limited (IBP) following IBP's disinvestment by the Government of India. The three stages of IBP transactions spanned a 5-6 year period from 2002 to 2007. The paper discusses from IOC's perspective, the strategic case for the IBP acquisition, rationale for what turned out to be an extremely aggressive bid price for IBP, the raison for subsequent merger, and the critical choices made by IOC management in post-merger integration of IBP. The paper also examines the controversies the IBP transactions generated in their wake and the corporate governance issues involved. We conclude that IOC appears to have handled the entire value chain of activities in the IBP transactions from acquisition planning and strategic evaluation through deal execution, post-acquisition merger, and to post-merger integration with a high level of professionalism, a balanced sense of priorities and a high degree of sensitivity, rarely seen in the Indian public sector milieu. We also believe that as Indian companies, particularly the larger state-owned enterprises, find themselves in the inevitable need to pursue M&A-based growth strategies, IOC's IBP experience should provide useful guidance in their endeavours. </div>

The Study of Methodology of Formation of the Complex Mechanism of Strategic Management of Building Enterprise

Strategic objectives and principles that support them should automatically transform into a company concept, detail its status, express intent of the owner and management of the company, when working with customers and the public. Therefore, the implementation of strategic objectives and principles should be formed by the model of complex mechanism of strategic management. Mechanisms of strategic management can be represented as a set of factors; organizational, economic, motivational, technical and technological, legal and policy interventions that convert strategic management to the new, desired state. In practice, these mechanisms are so closely interrelated with each other that it is difficult to separate any natural factor, which is not included in the different mechanism of strategic management but rather belongs to factors of a different nature. Therefore, the selection of strategic management mechanisms on the principle of uniformity is made only by the presence of the main features: economic, organizational, motivational, technical, technological or legal. The fundamental difference between the proposed complex mechanism of strategic management of building enterprise management mechanism, is that the mechanism of strategic management has a modulated condition for achieving the future goals of the company and the future survival under fierce competition. Simulated version of our integrated strategic management mechanism of building company is able to achieve the strategic goals under different business operations. The actual mechanism of strategic management is always specific, and is always aimed at achieving specific goals through the implementation of specific strategies. It is formed whenever administrative decision has taken place by the coordination of all the elements of management mechanism. Some properties have long-term mechanism of action, other properties - a short-term. Strategic management deals with long-term goals, because it is essential in the formation of long-term mechanism of action. Thus, the formation mechanism of strategic management is carried out repeatedly in accordance to the objectives and strategies of the company to promote a certain goal. The result of these influences will bring the facility into compliance with management objectives. If you unable to mobilize the right amount of resources, you have to review or management techniques or readjust management objectives

Macro Intentions, Micro Realities

The current understanding of Regional Integration is largely macro-economic and political in orientation and has tended to neglect, even ex post, the significance of the Single European Market (SEM) for the spatial restructuring of individual firms. The problem stems largely from a lopsided understanding of Regional Integration. This paper introduces a two-level approach in which integration and its outcomes are studied based on the strategic intent and strategic realities of two types of key actors: governments and core companies. In this contribution it is argued that in advocating the SEM, these actors did not necessarily share the same strategic intent. A new firm-level data set shows also that the expectations of European policymakers did not accurately match actual strategies developed by European core companies

Somalia and the Pirates. ESF Working Paper No. 33, 18 December 2009

Piracy is defined by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies as an "act of boarding or attempting to board any ship with the apparent intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the apparent intent or capability to use force in furtherance of that act." And it is estimated that from 1995 to 2009, around 730 persons were killed or are presumed dead, approximately 3,850 seafarers were held hostage, around 230 were kidnapped and ransomed, nearly 800 were seriously injured and hundreds more were threatened with guns and knives. (See paper by Rob de Wijk). In November 2009, CEPS held a European Security Forum seminar, in collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Studies, the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, to focus on the issue of Somalia and the Pirates, chaired by Francois Heisbourg. Four eminent specialists in this field: David Anderson, Rob de Wijk, Steven Haines and Jonathon Stevenson looked at the links with Somalia, and the historical, legal, political and security dimensions of the troubling success of piracy in today’s world. Their conclusions and recommendations for future action are brought together in this ESF 33 Working Paper

Взаємозв’язок стратегічних намірів і ризиків

У статті визначено взаємозв’язок між стратегічними намірами та ризиками підприємства. Запропоновано технологію досягнення стратегічних намірів на основі формування стратегічних наборів підприємства та обгрунтування стратегії з урахуванням рівня ризику.The article defines the relationship between the strategic intentions and enterprise risks. The technology of achievement of the strategic intent by building sets of strategic enterprises and study strategies with regard to the level of risk are proposed in the work

MEASURING STRATEGIC INTENT IN THE SOUTH TEXAS FOOD MARKETING INDUSTRY

Binomial and multinomial logit analysis is applied to data collected from questionnaires to measure strategic intent in the food marketing industry. Questions were framed based on data from the U.S. Department of Commerce's "County Business Patterns" reports and from best-practice studies. Question topics were placed into a competitive strategy framework following the 1998 work of Porter. Results indicate a strategic focus on outbound logistics and market pricing at the direct value level. Indirect activities focus on human capacity and firm infrastructure, particularly expanding internationally. Firms are adopting information technologies as a competitive strategy, and are doing so as part of a combined strategy to develop human assets.food marketing, industrial organization, information technology, strategy, Marketing,