STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
AND THE STRATEGIC
MINDSET
Chapter 1
Prepared for
HCM-4001-0LA
Mounir Marhaba, Professor
Brabalini Logeswaran
N01176038
Due Date: September, 2019
1. Is a champion for an idea more important than the strategy itself?
The champion of an idea is greater than the strategy because they are the strategy developers.
Champions provide direction to the team on how they want their idea to be implemented by
specifying the role that each member has to play in the realization of the intended results. Many
studies have cited the inability of ordinary employees to articulate their role in the fulfillment of
company objectives as the leading cause of strategy failure. Typical employees are not interested
in what their firm is pursuing; they are more concerned with what they are supposed to do and
will stick to doing what has been given to them as their job description. This is precisely what
the strategy champion does - s/he breaks down the broad strategic plan into smaller chunks and
tasks that each one can comfortably take upon themselves and help the firm achieve the targeted
goals. But secondly and most importantly, champions provide the energy and force that a
strategy needs to be actualized. They speak well of it and are willing to tout it to anyone at any
point because they are convinced that it will work. As (Hillestad and Berkowitz, 2020) rightly
captures, champions for ideas are always on the lookout for new ways that will enhance their
ideas and never doubt what they are crusading. This force is crucial in pushing an idea in setups
where change is a rare phenomenon and without it, even brilliant strategies are likely to fail. In a
nutshell, champions for ideas are critical individuals that should never be ignored in strategy
implementation processes. As (Hillestad and Berkowitz, 2020) rightly assert, great leadership
will, in all probability bring excellent results and if an organisation is either unwilling or unable
to find one then they should just shelve the strategy because the chances of its failure are high.
2. New ideas do not have a history. What is the best way to introduce a new idea into the
marketplace?
The best way to introduce new ideas into the marketplace is disrupting the existing
competitive equilibrium and working to re-establish it on a more favorable basis. Typically, all
organizations endeavor to grow and hope to outdo their competitors in the process. But given
that such competitions can sometimes get so stiff with little or no reference point of what may be
done to gain a competitive edge, reliance on the existing strategies with just a little adjustment
becomes almost inevitable. This option is more productive and more likely to succeed as
compared to bringing an entirely new one because it involves minimal changes to what has been
going on. A firm that has been using a mixture of both price leadership and product
differentiation, for example, but decides to trade-off one for another, for example, may use only
slight efforts as compared to another that has been using a totally different strategy but now
wants to choose one of the two mentioned. Narrowing in on a single strategy ensures
concentration of efforts and resources and leads to the speedy actualization of the strategy.
Furthermore, it allows the organization to enhance its strength in what it does best which keeps it
at the top with only minimal efforts.
3. Can organizations grow rapidly and maintain financial margins at the same time? (Yes)
It is almost impossible for organisations to grow and maintain financial margins at the same
time. Growth is a priceless affair that substantially dents into the financial resources of an
organization. The growing entity has to acquire capital in the form of machinery, building and
human assets and this requires financial resources. This accumulated capital will also need
maintenance costs and these still eat into the finances of the firm. Hired human capital, on the
other hand, will need to be remunerated and paid to work. The financial burden grows as more
capital is acquired for expansion purposes. In the end, it becomes almost impossible to keep the
profitability levels as high as they were prior to the implementation of the growth strategy
because the acquired capital always takes time before it begins to pay off. Individuals that are
relatively aged and approaching retirement are, therefore, likely to oppose growth strategies
because of their inability to yield profits in the short run. As (Hillestad and Berkowitz, 2020)
rightly put it, dramatic growth costs money (see figure below) and firms pursuing profitability in
the short run should never veer into growth strategies as this will contradict their development
plans.
Rapid growth of new facilities
Rapid depletion of capital and
profit
Fig. 1: Strategies Force Trade-Offs
Source: Hillestad and Berkowitz, 2020
Reference
Hillestad, S. G., & Berkowitz, E. N. (2020). Health care market strategy: from planning to
action. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.