Strategic Analysis
Synopsis:
Chapter 3 of the book ‘Business Analysis’ by Paul, Yeates and Cadle (2010) presents a detailed discussion on what strategy is, why it is needed and how strategic analysis of organizations helps in developing strategies that can help in optimizing the utilization of organizational resources. In today’s fast paced and dynamically changing business world organizations are facing many challenges, and to deal with them, organizations needs to develop strategies that can help in attacking the issues and achieving the objectives expected by the stakeholders. Organizations use ideas, experience and design lenses to analyze and develop the strategies, taking into account the political system of the organization. Strategic analysis takes into account the detailed study of external and internal environments, in which an organization operates. Tools used for external analysis may include PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal) analysis, Porter’s five forces model (bargaining power of suppliers, buyers, threat of new entrants, threats of substitutes and existing competitors). The tools used for internal analysis include MOST (mission, objectives, strategy, tactics) analysis, BCG (Boston Consulting Group) Matrix also called Boston Box and helps in identifying the current strengths and weaknesses of product portfolios in the context of market share and market growth. Once internal and external environment have been analyzed they can be put together in SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to generate ideas and develop the strategy that can help in achieving the