6.10 Key Terms

BHAG is an acronym that stands for a big, hairy, audacious goal – bold enough to ignite energy and enthusiasm but still achievable.

Business strategy focuses on how a given business needs to compete to be effective.

Controlling involves ensuring that organizations operate efficiently and effectively.

Corporate strategy answers strategy questions related to “What business or businesses should we be in?” and “How does being in one business help us compete in our other business(es), and vice versa?”

Creativity is the power or ability to invent.

Deliberate strategy is a rational, analytical process of deliberate planning.

Diversification is where an organization participates in multiple businesses that are in some way distinct from each other.

Emergent strategy is the decisions that emerge from the complex process whereby leaders interpret the intended strategy while accommodating new ideas and changing circumstances.

engagement is determined by how involved and satisfied an employee is; engaged employees perform to their peak ability and are happy to do so.

Intended strategy is conceived by the top management team through a process of negotiation, bargaining, and compromise, involving many individuals and groups within the organization – this strategy is not always implemented.

Mission statement communicates the organization’s reason for being, and how it aims to serve its key stakeholders.

Opportunities are external factors that can benefit an organization.

Organizational culture is the workplace environment formulated from the interaction of the employees in the workplace, and is defined by all of their life experiences, strengths, weaknesses, education, upbringing, and other attributes.

Organizational design is a formal, guided process for integrating the people, information, and technology of an organization.

Organizing is the function of management that involves developing an organizational structure and allocating human resources to ensure the accomplishment of objectives.

Passion refers to an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.

PESTEL is a strategic management tool used to analyze an organization’s political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental, and legal environments.

Realized strategy is the strategy that is actually implemented, generally significantly different from the initial intended strategy.

Social networks are often referred to as the “invisible organization.” They consist of individuals or organizations connected by one or more specific types of interdependency.

Stakeholders are individuals or groups who have an interest in an organization’s ability to deliver intended results and maintain the viability of its products and services.

Stakeholder analysis refers to the range of techniques or tools used to identify and understand the needs and expectations of major interests inside and outside the organization environment.

Strategic human resources management (SHRM) reflects the aim of integrating the organization’s human capital—its people—into the mission and vision.

Strategic management reflects what a firm is doing to achieve its mission and vision, as seen by its achievement of specific goals and objectives.

Strategic management process is the process whereby an organization accomplishes goals and objectives to accomplish their mission and vision.

Strategy formulation is also called business planning or strategic planning, and helps determine what the firm should do to accomplish their mission and vision.

Strategy implementation the actions taken to accomplish the organization’s mission and vision.

Strengths are internal factors that are a competitive advantage to an organization.

Sustainable competitive advantage occurs when an organization’s strengths cannot be easily duplicated or imitated by other firms, nor made redundant or less valuable by changes in the external environment.

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique to help analyze an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Synergy exists when the interaction of two or more activities create a combined effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Threats are external factors beyond your control that could place the strategy, or the business, at risk.

Value chain includes the step by step process of all the activities or parts of an organization that combine to form the product or service offered.

Values are the core beliefs of an individual, group, or organization that help determine behaviors and priorities.

Values statement states the organization’s core beliefs and guiding principles.

Visionary leadership suggests that if many or most of an organization’s employees understand and identify with the mission and vision, efficiency will increase because the organization’s members “on the front lines” will be making decisions fully aligned with the organization’s goals.

Vision statement is a future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations.

VRIO is a framework that suggests that a capability or a resource, such as a patent or great location, is likely to yield a competitive advantage to an organization when it can be shown that it is valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and supported by the organization.

Weaknesses are internal factors that are disadvantageous to the organization.