1.
Military strategy
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Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word strategos, the strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the art of the general. Military strategy deals with the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and disposition of forces, the father of Western modern strategic studies, Carl von Clausewitz, defined military strategy as the employment of battles to gain the end of war. B. H. Liddell Harts definition put less emphasis on battles, hence, both gave the pre-eminence to political aims over military goals. Sun Tzu is often considered as the father of Eastern military strategy and greatly influenced Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese historical, the Art of War by Sun Tzu grew in popularity and saw practical use in Western society as well. It continues to influence many competitive endeavors in Asia, Europe, and America including culture, politics, the Eastern military strategy differs from the Western by focusing more on asymmetric warfare and deception. Military strategy is the planning and execution of the contest between groups of armed adversaries, Strategy, which is a subdiscipline of warfare and of foreign policy, is a principal tool to secure national interests. NATOs definition of strategy is presenting the manner in which military power should be developed and applied to achieve national objectives or those of a group of nations. Strategy may be divided into Grand Strategy, geopolitical in scope and military strategy that converts the geopolitical policy objectives into militarily achievable goals and campaigns. Field-Marshal Montgomery summed it up thus Strategy is the art of distributing and applying military means, such as armed forces and supplies, tactics means the dispositions for, and control of, military forces and techniques in actual fighting. Put more shortly, strategy is the art of the conduct of war, carnot, during the French Revolutionary Wars thought it simply involved concentration of troops. Strategy and tactics are closely related and exist on the same continuum, originally strategy was understood to govern the prelude to a battle while tactics controlled its execution. However, in the wars of the 20th century, the distinction between maneuver and battle, strategy and tactics, expanded with the capacity of technology and transit. Tactics that were once the province of a company of cavalry would be applied to a panzer army and it is often said that the art of strategies defines the goals to achieve in a military campaign, while tactics defines the methods to achieve these goals. Strategic goals could be We want to conquer area X, or We want to stop country Ys expansion in trade in commodity Z. Were going to do this by an invasion of the North of country X, Were going to blockade the ports of country Y. In its purest form, strategy dealt solely with military issues, in earlier societies, a king or political leader was often the same person as the military leader. If not, the distance of communication between the political and the leader was small
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A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower
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A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower is the United States newest maritime strategy. It was presented by the U. S, the new maritime strategy explains the comprehensive role of the sea services in an era marked by globalization and uncertainty. The development of a new strategy began in June 2006 at the direction of former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. The last maritime strategy was published at the height of the Cold War in 1986 and this was the first maritime strategy to be signed by the leaders of all three U. S. sea services, the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower is not infused with typical military-focused language, the strategy makes a case for the value of seapower in preserving the American way of life by maintaining safe, global commerce operations across the seas. With such an interconnection of economies, shocks to the system caused by regional conflicts, terrorist attacks, natural disasters. The strategy states that U. S. International from beginning to end, during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on December 13,2007, General James T. Conway, Commandant of the U. S. That premise flows from the belief that preventing wars is as important as winning wars, the strategy delineates the following six expanded core capabilities for U. S. S. Maritime forces and were essential elements to the United States and its allies, the last two, Maritime Security and Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response, were elevated to core elements by the new maritime strategy. The new maritime strategy reaffirms the need for regionally concentrated, forward deployed combat power, but also places emphasis on globally distributed, mission-tailored maritime forces. The maritime strategy states that the U. S. does not seek adversaries, nor single out any one nation, Maritime nations have always shared common interests on the sea and even land-locked nations rely on the safety of those seas to maintain and enhance their way of life. Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman hailed its tenets but pointed out it was lacking information on the hardware needed to carry out the policy. In the November 2007 issue of Proceedings magazine, he explained, we a clear and he concedes however, that the most important attribute of the updated strategy is, that it exists at all … and that its development was taken so seriously. The new maritime strategy included many voices during its development, planners considered a range of maritime strategy options, primacy, cooperative security, selective engagement and offshore balance. These paradigms commonly are used by planners to measure the quality of strategic components against hypothetical challenges. A series of war games conducted by the Naval War College helped determine which options were the best to focus upon, from six hypothetical paradigms, planners drafted five possible maritime strategies, which were later whittled down to three. With three strategies in hand, teams of senior leaders and military planners from the U. S. Three themes dominated these discussions, our people want us to remain strong, they want us to them and our homeland
3.
Strategic planning
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Strategic planning is an organizations process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. It may also extend to control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the strategy, Strategic planning became prominent in corporations during the 1960s and remains an important aspect of strategic management. It is executed by strategic planners or strategists, who involve many parties and research sources in their analysis of the organization, Strategy has many definitions, but generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends will be achieved by the means, the senior leadership of an organization is generally tasked with determining strategy. Strategy can be planned or can be observed as a pattern of activity as the organization adapts to its environment or competes, Strategy includes processes of formulation and implementation, strategic planning helps coordinate both. However, strategic planning is analytical in nature, strategy formation itself involves synthesis via strategic thinking, as such, strategic planning occurs around the strategy formation activity. Strategic planning is a process and thus has inputs, activities, outputs and this process, like all processes, has constraints. It may be formal or informal and is typically iterative, with feedback loops throughout the process, some elements of the process may be continuous and others may be executed as discrete projects with a definitive start and end during a period. Strategic planning provides inputs for strategic thinking, which guides the actual strategy formation, the first two elements relate to factors internal to the company, while the latter two relate to factors external to the company. These elements are considered throughout the planning process. Data is gathered from a variety of sources, such as interviews with key executives, review of available documents on the competition or market, primary research, industry studies. This may be part of an intelligence program. Inputs are gathered to support an understanding of the competitive environment and its opportunities. Other inputs include an understanding of the values of key stakeholders, such as the board, shareholders and these values may be captured in an organizations vision and mission statements. A variety of strategic planning tools may be completed as part of planning activities. The organizations leaders may have a series of questions they want answered in formulating the strategy and gathering inputs, such as, what is considered value to the customer or constituency. Which products and services should be included or excluded from the portfolio of offerings, what is the geographic scope of the organization. What differentiates the organization from its competitors in the eyes of customers, which skills and resources should be developed within the organization
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Game theory
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Game theory is the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. Game theory is used in economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic, computer science. Originally, it addressed zero-sum games, in one persons gains result in losses for the other participants. Today, game theory applies to a range of behavioral relations, and is now an umbrella term for the science of logical decision making in humans, animals. Modern game theory began with the idea regarding the existence of equilibria in two-person zero-sum games. Von Neumanns original proof used Brouwer fixed-point theorem on continuous mappings into compact convex sets and his paper was followed by the 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, co-written with Oskar Morgenstern, which considered cooperative games of several players. The second edition of this provided an axiomatic theory of expected utility. This theory was developed extensively in the 1950s by many scholars, Game theory was later explicitly applied to biology in the 1970s, although similar developments go back at least as far as the 1930s. Game theory has been recognized as an important tool in many fields. With the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences going to game theorist Jean Tirole in 2014, John Maynard Smith was awarded the Crafoord Prize for his application of game theory to biology. Early discussions of examples of two-person games occurred long before the rise of modern, the first known discussion of game theory occurred in a letter written by Charles Waldegrave, an active Jacobite, and uncle to James Waldegrave, a British diplomat, in 1713. In this letter, Waldegrave provides a mixed strategy solution to a two-person version of the card game le Her. James Madison made what we now recognize as an analysis of the ways states can be expected to behave under different systems of taxation. In 1913 Ernst Zermelo published Über eine Anwendung der Mengenlehre auf die Theorie des Schachspiels and it proved that the optimal chess strategy is strictly determined. This paved the way for more general theorems, the Danish mathematician Zeuthen proved that the mathematical model had a winning strategy by using Brouwers fixed point theorem. In his 1938 book Applications aux Jeux de Hasard and earlier notes, Borel conjectured that non-existence of mixed-strategy equilibria in two-person zero-sum games would occur, a conjecture that was proved false. Game theory did not really exist as a field until John von Neumann published a paper in 1928. Von Neumanns original proof used Brouwers fixed-point theorem on continuous mappings into compact convex sets and his paper was followed by his 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior co-authored with Oskar Morgenstern
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Michael Porter
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Michael Eugene Porter is an American academic known for his theories on economics, business strategy, and social causes. He is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School and he received an MBA with high distinction in 1971 from Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a PhD in business economics from Harvard University in 1973. Porter said in an interview that he first became interested in competition through sports and he was on the NCAA championship golf squad at Princeton and also played football, baseball and basketball growing up. Porter reached the top of the class by the year at Harvard Business School. At Harvard, Porter took classes in industrial economics, which attempts to model the effect of competitive forces on industries. This study inspired the Porter five forces analysis framework for analyzing industries, Michael Porter is the author of 18 books and numerous articles including Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Competitive Advantage of Nations, and On Competition. A six-time winner of the McKinsey Award for the best Harvard Business Review article of the year, Professor Porter is the most cited author in business, Porter wrote The Competitive Advantage of Nations in 1990. Information, incentives, and infrastructure were key to that productivity. During April 2014, Porter discussed how the United States ranks relative to countries on a comprehensive scorecard called The Social Progress Index. This scorecard rated the U. S. on a set of metrics, overall. Porter has devoted considerable attention to understanding and addressing the problems in health care delivery in the United States. The book received the James A. Hamilton award of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2007 for book of the year. His New England Journal of Medicine research article, A Strategy for Health Care Reform—Toward a Value-Based System, in addition to his research, writing, and teaching, Porter serves as an advisor to business, government, and the social sector. He has served as advisor to numerous leading U. S. and international companies, including Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Royal Dutch Shell. Professor Porter serves on two boards of directors, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Parametric Technology Corporation. Professor Porter also plays an role in U. S. economic policy with the Executive Branch and Congress. He is currently working with the presidents of Rwanda and South Korea, Michael Porter is one of the founders of The Monitor Group strategy consulting firm. It was sold to Deloitte Consulting in 2013 through a bankruptcy proceeding
6.
Rita Gunther McGrath
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Rita Gunther McGrath is an American strategic management scholar and professor of management at the Columbia Business School. She is known for her work on strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, McGrath graduated Magna Cum Laude from Barnard College in 1981, and earned a Masters of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in 1982. McGrath started her working in government and the political arena. In 2009 she was elected fellow of the Strategic Management Society, in 2013 she also received the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Strategy. She was named one of the top 20 thinkers in 2011, McGrath, Rita Gunther, and Ian C. The entrepreneurial mindset, Strategies for continuously creating opportunity in an age of uncertainty, McGrath, Rita Gunther, and Ian C. MarketBusters,40 Strategic moves that drive exceptional business growth, McGrath, Rita Gunther, and Ian C. Discovery Driven Growth, A breakthrough process to reduce risk and seize opportunity, McGrath, Rita Gunther The End of Competitive Advantage. How to keep your strategy moving as fast as your business, defining and developing competence, a strategic process paradigm. A real options logic for initiating technology positioning investments, Academy of Management Review 22.4, 974-996. Falling forward, Real options reasoning and entrepreneurial failure, Academy of Management review 24.1, 13-30. Exploratory learning, innovative capacity, and managerial oversight, Academy of Management Journal 44.1, 118-131
7.
Bruce Henderson
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Bruce Doolin Henderson was an American entrepreneur, the founder of the Boston Consulting Group. Henderson founded BCG in 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts and he headed the firm as President and CEO until 1980 and stayed on as Chairman until 1985. Henderson was born on a farm in Nashville on April 30,1915 and he entered the Peabody Demonstration School in fourth grade, in 1925, where he remained until high school graduation in 1932. He gave good accounts of his there, stating later that As a school PDS was almost too good. During high school Henderson played football with the team, and on one occasion broke a tooth. Hendersons first date, with Catherine Porter, was also at PDS. Henderson began his career as a salesman for the Southwestern Company. He went on to attend the University of Virginia and later earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1937 before attending Harvard Business School. He left HBS ninety days before graduation to work for the Westinghouse Corporation, after leaving HBS, Henderson worked 18 years at the Westinghouse Corporation, where he became a vice president at the age of 37, one of the youngest vice presidents in the companys history. In 1959, Henderson left the Westinghouse Corporation to join consulting firm Arthur D. Little as a vice president for management services. He left the firm in 1963 over disagreements with the firms leadership and this consulting arm started operations in 1963. Initially it advised clients of the bank, the billings for the first month of BCG were only US$500. Nevertheless, Henderson hired his second consultant, Arthur P. Contas in December 1963, Henderson provided a very specific imprint to the firm, that of strategy consultants. As to how that choice was made, the account from Robert Mainer is the source for providing an answer. Many suggestions were offered, but in case we were able to identify several other firms that already had strong credentials in that particular area. Then Bruce asked a question, What about business strategy. Most executives wont know what were talking about, Bruce replied, Thats the beauty of it. He himself wrote extensively using such format until 1980, in 1973 Bill Bain left BCG, with Patrick Graham and five other colleagues, to found Bain & Company. I felt more betrayed and robbed and desecrated than ever before in my life, the bitterness eventually went away with Henderson stating that Bill is an imaginative man
8.
Gary Hamel
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Dr. Gary P. Hamel is an American management expert. He is a founder of Strategos, a management consulting firm based in Chicago. He is a visiting Professor of Strategic Management at London Business School, Hamel is divorced and currently lives in Salt Lake City. Gary Hamel is the originator of the concept of core competencies and he is also the director of the Woodside Institute, a nonprofit research foundation based in Woodside, California. He was a founder of the consulting firm Strategos, serving as Chairman until 2003, the UTEK Corporation acquired Strategos in 2008 in an all-stock transaction as reported by the SEC. In 2012 Strategos became an independent strategy and innovation consultancy once again through a management buy-out, the Wall Street Journal ranked Gary Hamel as one of the worlds most influential business thinkers, and Forbes magazine has called him the worlds leading expert on business strategy. In 2013, his name was not present on a version of the Wall Street Journal list. He is also a member of the Reliance Innovation Council formed by Reliance Industries Limited, India
9.
C. K. Prahalad
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Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad was the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business in the University of Michigan, USA. He was the co-author of Core Competence of the Corporation and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, on 16 April 2010, Prahalad died at the age of 68 of a previously undiagnosed lung illness in San Diego, California. Prahalad was born in Coimbatore in 1941 and his father was a Tamil scholar and judge in Madras. At 19 had finished his BSc degree in physics from Loyola College, Chennai, part of the University of Madras, and joined Union Carbide, four years later he did postgraduate work in management at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. At Harvard Business School, Prahalad wrote a thesis on multinational management in two and a half years, graduating with a DBA degree in 1975. He eventually became a full professor, earning the universitys highest distinction, Distinguished University Professor. In the early 1990 Prahalad advised Philips Jan Timmer on the restructuring of this electronic corporation, a process which was named Operation Centurion was set up, and was successful after two or three years. He authored or co-authored, Competing for the Future, The Future of Competition and his last book, co-authored by M. S. Krishnan and published in April 2008, is The New Age of Innovation. He co-authored, Innovations Holy Grail with R, the company had goals of providing unrestricted access to information for people at the bottom of the pyramid and providing a test bed for various management ideas. It eventually laid off a third of its workforce, and was sold to TIBCO, at the time of his death he was on the board of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs. Prahalad was a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission of the United Nations on Private Sector and he was the first recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for contributions to Management and Public Administration presented by the President of India in 1999. In 2009, he was awarded Pravasi Bharatiya Sammaan, in 2009, he was named Padma Bhushan third in the hierarchy of civilian awards by the Government of India. In 2009, he was named the worlds most influential thinker on the Thinkers50. com list. In 2009, he was awarded the Herbert Simon Award by the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies, in 2010, he was posthumously awarded the Viipuri International Prize in Strategic Management and Business Economics by Lappeenranta University of Technology
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B. H. Liddell Hart
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Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was an English soldier, military historian and military theorist. Following World War II, he was a proponent of the West German rearmament, as part of these two interconnected initiatives, Liddell Hart significantly contributed to the creation of the Rommel myth. Born in Paris, the son of an English Methodist minister, Liddell Hart received his academic education at St Pauls School in London. His mothers side of the family, the Liddells, came from Liddesdale, on the Scottish side of the border with England, the Harts were farmers from Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. As a child Hart was fascinated by aviation and he was promoted to the rank of captain. He returned to the front for a time in 1916. He was hit three times without serious injury before being gassed and sent out of the line on 19 July 1916. His battalion was wiped out on the first day of the offensive on 1 July. The experiences he suffered on the Western Front profoundly affected him for the rest of his life, transferred to be Adjutant to Volunteer units in Stroud and Cambridge, he was in charge of training new units. During this time he wrote several booklets on infantry drill and training, after the war he transferred to the Royal Army Educational Corps, where he prepared a new edition of the Infantry Training Manual. In this manual Liddell Hart strove to instill the lessons of 1918, and carried on a correspondence with Maxse, an officer during the Battle of Hamel. In April 1918 Liddell Hart married Jessie Stone, the daughter of J. J. Stone – who had been his assistant adjutant at Stroud –, Liddell Hart was placed on half-pay from 1924. He later retired from the Army in 1927, Two mild heart attacks in 1921 and 1922, probably the long-term effects of his gassing, precluded his further advancement in the downsized post-war army. He spent the rest of his career as a theorist and writer and he worked as the Military Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph from 1925 to 1935, and of The Times from 1935 to 1939. He argued that the tremendous losses Britain suffered in the Great War were due to her commanding officers not appreciating this fact of history and he believed the British decision in 1914 to directly intervene on the Continent with a great army was a mistake. In his early writings on mechanized warfare Liddell Hart had proposed that infantry be carried along with the armoured formations. He described them as tank marines like the soldiers the Royal Navy carried with their ships and he proposed they be carried along in their own tracked vehicles and dismount to help take better-defended positions that otherwise would hold up the armoured units. This contrasted with Fullers ideas of an army, which put heavy emphasis on massed armoured formations
11.
Carl von Clausewitz
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Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the moral and political aspects of war. His most notable work, Vom Kriege, was unfinished at his death, Clausewitz was a realist in many different senses and, while in some respects a romantic, also drew heavily on the rationalist ideas of the European Enlightenment. He stressed the dialectical interaction of factors, noting how unexpected developments unfolding under the fog of war call for rapid decisions by alert commanders. He saw history as a check on erudite abstractions that did not accord with experience. In contrast to the work of Antoine-Henri Jomini, he argued that war could not be quantified or reduced to mapwork, geometry. Clausewitz had many aphorisms, of which the most famous is War is the continuation of politics by other means, Clausewitzs Christian names are sometimes given in non-German sources as Karl, Carl Philipp Gottlieb, or Carl Maria. He spelled his own name with a C in order to identify with the classical Western tradition. Carl Philipp Gottfried appears on Clausewitzs tombstone, Clausewitzs family claimed descent from the Barons of Clausewitz in Upper Silesia, though scholars question the connection. His grandfather, the son of a Lutheran pastor, had been a professor of theology, Clausewitzs father, once a lieutenant in the Prussian army of Frederick II of Prussia, held a minor post in the Prussian internal-revenue service. Clausewitz entered the Prussian military service at the age of twelve as a Lance-Corporal, Clausewitz served in the Rhine Campaigns including the Siege of Mainz, when the Prussian army invaded France during the French Revolution, and fought in the Napoleonic Wars from 1806 to 1815. Clausewitz, Hermann von Boyen and Karl von Grolman were among Scharnhorsts primary allies in his efforts to reform the Prussian army between 1807 and 1814, Clausewitz served during the Jena Campaign as aide-de-camp to Prince August. Clausewitz was held prisoner with his prince in France from 1807 to 1808, returning to Prussia, he assisted in the reform of the Prussian army and state. On December 10,1810 he married the socially prominent Countess Marie von Brühl and she was a member of the noble German von Brühl family originating in Thuringia. The couple moved in the highest circles, socializing with Berlins political, literary, Marie was well-educated and politically well-connected—she played an important role in her husbands career progress and intellectual evolution. She also edited, published, and introduced his collected works, like many Prussian officers serving in Russia, he joined the Russian-German Legion in 1813. In 1815 the Russian-German Legion became integrated into the Prussian Army and he was soon appointed chief-of-staff of Johann von Thielmanns III Corps. In that capacity he served at the Battle of Ligny and the Battle of Wavre during the Waterloo Campaign in 1815, Clausewitzs unit fought at Wavre, preventing large reinforcements from reaching Napoleon at Waterloo. After the war Clausewitz served as the director of the Kriegsakademie, in that year he returned to duty with the army
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Sun Tzu
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Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived in the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, aside from his legacy as the author of The Art of War, Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and the Culture of Asia as a legendary historical figure. His birth name was Sun Wu, and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing, the name Sun Tzu by which he is best known in the West is an honorific which means Master Sun. Sima Qian and other traditional historians placed him as a minister to King Helü of Wu, modern scholars accepting his historicity nonetheless place the existing text of The Art of War in the later Warring States period based upon its style of composition and its descriptions of warfare. Traditional accounts state that the generals descendant Sun Bin also wrote a treatise on military tactics, since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as Sun Tzu in classical Chinese texts, some historians believed them identical prior to the rediscovery of Sun Bins treatise in 1972. Sun Tzus work has been praised and employed throughout East Asia since its composition, during the twentieth century, The Art of War grew in popularity and saw practical use in Western society as well. It continues to influence many competitive endeavors in Asia, Europe, and America including culture, politics, business, the oldest available sources disagree as to where Sun Tzu was born. The Spring and Autumn Annals states that Sun Tzu was born in Qi and it is also worth noting that Sun Tzes surname Sun originated only in the Central Plains and no where else. Sun Tzus victories then inspired him to write The Art of War, Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as the company commanders. When Sun Tzu first ordered the concubines to face right, they giggled, in response, Sun Tzu said that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for ensuring that soldiers understood the commands given to them. Then, he reiterated the command, and again the concubines giggled, Sun Tzu then ordered the execution of the kings two favored concubines, to the kings protests. He explained that if the generals soldiers understood their commands but did not obey, Sun Tzu also said that, once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even if the king protested. After both concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them, afterwards, both companies, now well aware of the costs of further frivolity, performed their maneuvers flawlessly. Skeptics cite possible historical inaccuracies and anachronisms in the text, the name Sun Wu does appear in later sources such as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Wu Yue chunqiu. The only historical battle attributed to Sun Tzu, the Battle of Boju, has no record of him fighting in that battle, the appearance of features from The Art of War in other historical texts is considered to be proof of his historicity and authorship. Certain strategic concepts, such as classification, are attributed to Sun Tzu. Their use in other such as The Methods of the Sima is considered proof of Sun Tzus historical priority. According to Ralph Sawyer, it is very likely Sun Tzu did exist and not only served as a general but also wrote the core of the book that bears his name
13.
Alfred Thayer Mahan
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Alfred Thayer Mahan was a United States naval officer and historian, whom John Keegan called the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century. Mahan was born on September 27,1840, at West Point, New York, to Dennis Hart Mahan and Mary Helena Okill Mahan, daughter of John Okill, Mahans middle name honors the father of West Point, Sylvanus Thayer. Mahan attended Saint James School, an Episcopal college preparatory academy in western Maryland and he then studied at Columbia for two years, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society debating club. Against the better judgment of his father, Mahan then entered the Naval Academy, in 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant commander, and then to commander, and captain. As commander of the USS Wachusett he was stationed at Callao, Peru, while in actual command of a ship, his skills were not exemplary, and a number of vessels under his command were involved in collisions, with both moving and stationary objects. He had an affection for old square-rigged vessels rather than the smoky, noisy steamships of his time, in 1885, he was appointed as a lecturer in naval history and tactics at the Naval War College. Before entering on his duties, College President Rear Admiral Stephen B, Luce pointed Mahan in the direction of writing his future studies on the influence of sea power. During his first year on the faculty, he remained at his home in New York City researching and writing his lectures. Though he was prepared to become a professor in 1886, Luce was given command of the North Atlantic Squadron, there, in 1888, he met and befriended future president Theodore Roosevelt, then a visiting lecturer. Mahan stressed the importance of the individual in shaping history and extolled the values of loyalty, courage. Mahan sought to resurrect Horatio Nelson as a hero in Britain and used his biography as a platform for expressing his views on naval strategy. Mahan was criticized for so strongly condemning Nelsons love affair with Lady Emma Hamilton, Mahan struck up a friendship with pioneering British naval historian Sir John Knox Laughton, the pair maintaining the relationship through correspondence and visits when Mahan was in London. Mahan was later described as a disciple of Laughton, but the two were at pains to distinguish each others line of work. Laughton saw Mahan as a theorist while Mahan called Laughton the historian, Mahans views were shaped by 17th-century conflicts between the Dutch Republic, England, France and Spain, and by the nineteenth-century naval wars between France and Great Britain. British naval superiority eventually defeated France, consistently preventing invasion and an effective blockade, Mahan emphasized that naval operations were chiefly to be won by decisive battles and blockades. In the 19th-century United States, emphasis on controlling seaborne commerce was radical, Mahans emphasis on sea power as the crucial fact behind Britains ascension neglected the well-documented roles of diplomacy and armies. Furthermore, Mahans theories did not explain the success of terrestrial empires, Mahans framework derived from Antoine-Henri Jomini, and emphasized strategic locations, as well as quantifiable levels of fighting power in a fleet. Control of the sea could be achieved not by destruction of commerce, Mahan contended that with a command of the sea, even if local and temporary, naval operations in support of land forces could be of decisive importance
14.
Adrian Slywotzky
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Adrian J. Slywotzky is an American consultant of Ukrainian origin and the author of several books on economic theory and management. Slywotzky was born in the family of Ukrainian immigrants from the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine, after getting his undergraduate degree at Harvard, Slywotzky also received a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked as a consultant since 1979 and is currently a partner at Oliver Wyman, Slywotzky wrote several books on profitability and growth, namely the bestselling The Profit Zone. He is one of the most renowned consultants of the United States and was elected as one of the 25 best consultants in 2000 and 2008, in 2001 he received an honorary professorship from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
15.
Sharon Oster
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Sharon Oster is the Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management. She is widely known as an economist focusing on strategy and non-profit organization management. She received the first Yale School of Management Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1988 and she received her undergraduate degree from Hofstra University in 1970 and her PhD from Harvard in 1974. She served as dean of the Yale School of Management from 2008 to 2011, following Joel M. Podolnys departure for Apple, Inc. and she was the 2011 winner of the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association. Oster lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her husband Ray Fair and their children are economist Emily Oster, Stephen Fair, and John Oster. Oster, Sharon M. Strategic management for organizations, Theory. Intra-industry structure and the ease of strategic change, the Review of Economics and Statistics, 376–383. Job discrimination, market forces, and the invisibility hypothesis, Oster, Sharon M. Hamermesh, Daniel S. Interview with Sharon Oster, Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management The Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures The Program on Social Enterprise
16.
Henry Mintzberg
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Henry Mintzberg, OC OQ FRSC is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mintzberg completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of McGill University. He completed his Masters degree in Management and PhD from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1965 and 1968 respectively, henry Mintzberg writes prolifically on the topics of management and business strategy, with more than 150 articles and fifteen books to his name. His seminal book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, in 2004 he published a book entitled Managers Not MBAs which outlines what he believes to be wrong with management education today. Mintzberg advocates more emphasis on post graduate programs that educate practicing managers by relying upon action learning and insights from their own problems and experiences. Ironically, although Professor Mintzberg is quite critical about the strategy consulting business, also, he is credited with co-creating the organigraph, which is taught in business schools. From 1991 to 1999, he was a professor at INSEAD. In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, in 1998 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He is now a member of the Strategic Management Society, with Phil LeNir, he owns Coaching Ourselves International, a private company using his alternative approach for management development directly in the workplace. He has been critical of the stream of strategy literature which focuses predominantly on deliberate strategy. Mintzberg is cited in Chamberlains Theory of Strategy as providing one of the four main foundations on which the theory is based
17.
Clayton M. Christensen
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He is best known for his first book, The Innovators Dilemma, which introduced his theory of disruptive innovation into the field of business. Christensen is also a co-founder of Rose Park Advisors, a venture firm, and Innosight. Clayton M. Christensen was born on April 6,1952, in Salt Lake City, Utah and he grew up in the Rose Park neighborhood of Salt Lake City and attended the nearby West High School, where he was student body president. Christensen and his siblings were raised as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after graduating from high school in 1970, Christensen matriculated at Brigham Young University. While at BYU, he took a leave of absence from 1971 to 1973 to serve as a volunteer full-time missionary for the LDS Church. He was assigned to serve in South Korea and became a fluent speaker of Korean, after completing his missionary service, Christensen returned to BYU, graduating in 1975 with an Honors B. A. summa cum laude in economics. Upon graduating, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and spent two years studying applied econometrics at Oxford University, receiving an M. Phil. in 1977. Christensen then returned to the United States and moved to Harvard University to pursue an MBA at the Harvard Business School, after receiving his MBA in 1979, Christensen left Harvard and began working for the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant and project manager. He took a leave of absence from 1982 to 1983 to work in Washington, D. C. as an assistant to the U. S. Secretary of Transportation, serving under Drew Lewis and then Elizabeth Dole. In 1984, he and several professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded a ceramics company called Ceramics Process Systems Corporation. Christensen served as its president and CEO through the late 1980s, then decided to leave the company and he returned to Harvard for doctoral study in business, receiving a Doctor of Business Administration degree in 1992. After completing his doctorate, Christensen joined the Harvard Business School faculty, in 2000, he founded Innosight LLC, a consulting and training firm. In 2005, together with his colleagues at Innosight, he launched Innosight Ventures, a firm focused on investing in South Asia, Southeast Asia. In 2007, he co-founded Rose Park Advisors LLC, an investment company which applies his research as an investment strategy and he serves on the board of directors of Tata Consultancy Services, Franklin Covey, and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Christensen was awarded a professorship with tenure in 1998, and currently holds eight honorary doctorates. Christensen is the author of ten books, including his seminal work The Innovators Dilemma. One of the main concepts depicted in this book is also his most disseminated and famous one, the concept has been growing in interest over time since 2004, according to Google Trends data. However, due to constant misinterpretation, Christensen still often writes articles trying to explain the concept even further, some of his other books are focused on specific industries and discuss social issues such as education and health care
18.
Business model
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A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value, in economic, social, cultural or other contexts. The process of model construction is part of business strategy. The literature has provided very diverse interpretations and definitions of a business model, a systematic review and analysis of manager responses to a survey defines business models as the design of organizational structures to enact a commercial opportunity. Further extensions to this design logic emphasize the use of narrative or coherence in business model descriptions as mechanisms by which entrepreneurs create extraordinarily successful growth firms, well-known business models can operate as recipes for creative managers. Business models are referred to in some instances within the context of accounting for purposes of public reporting. Over the years, business models have much more sophisticated. The bait and hook business model was introduced in the early 20th century and this involves offering a basic product at a very low cost, often at a loss, then charging compensatory recurring amounts for refills or associated products or services. Examples include, razor and blades, cell phones and air time, computer printers and ink cartridge refills, a variant of this model is Adobe, a software developer that gives away its document reader free of charge but charges several hundred dollars for its document writer. In the 1950s, new models came from McDonalds Restaurants. In the 1960s, the innovators were Wal-Mart and Hypermarkets, today, the type of business models might depend on how technology is used. For example, entrepreneurs on the internet have also created new models that depend entirely on existing or emergent technology. Using technology, businesses can reach a number of customers with minimal costs. Design logic views the model as an outcome of creating new organizational structures or changing existing structures to pursue a new opportunity. Gerry George and Adam Bock conducted a literature review and surveyed managers to understand how they perceived the components of a business model. In that analysis these authors show that there is a logic behind how entrepreneurs and managers perceive. They also show that when the narrative is incoherent or the components of the story are misaligned and they recommend ways in which the entrepreneur or CEO can create strong narratives for change. The University of Tennessee conducted research into highly collaborative business relationships, researchers codified their research into a sourcing business model known as Vested. From about 2012, some research and experimentation has theorized about a so-called liquid business model, sangeet Paul Choudary distinguishes between two broad families of business models in an article in Wired magazine
19.
Experience curve effects
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Learning curves were first observed by the 19th century German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus investigating the difficulty of memorizing varying numbers of verbal stimuli. Subsequent learning about the processes of learning are discussed in the Learning curve article. Experience shows that the times a task has been performed. The Learning Curve model posits that for each doubling of the quantity of items produced. However, it has found to be useful in many contexts with b ranging from 0.75 to 0.9 in different industries. Generally the production of any good or service shows the experience curve effect, each time cumulative volume doubles, value added costs fall by a constant percentage. The Experience Curve was developed by Bruce D. Henderson and the Boston Consulting Group while analyzing overall cost behavior in the 1960s, in 1968, Henderson and BCG began to emphasize the implications of the experience curve for strategy. Research by BCG in the 1960s and 70s observed experience curve effects for various industries that ranged from 10 to 25 percent and these effects are often expressed graphically. The curve is plotted with the units produced on the horizontal axis. A curve showing a 15% cost reduction for every doubling of output is called an “85% experience curve”, as discussed in the main article, learning generally begins with making successively larger finds and then successively smaller ones. The equations for these come from the usefulness of mathematical models for certain somewhat predictable aspects of those generally non-deterministic processes. They include, Labour efficiency - Workers become physically more dexterous and they become mentally more confident and spend less time hesitating, learning, experimenting, or making mistakes. Over time they learn short-cuts and improvements and this applies to all employees and managers, not just those directly involved in production. Standardization, specialization, and methods improvements - As processes, parts, when employees specialize in a limited set of tasks, they gain more experience with these tasks and operate at a faster rate. Better use of equipment - as total production has increased, manufacturing equipment will have more fully exploited. In addition, purchase of more productive equipment can be justifiable, changes in the resource mix - As a company acquires experience, it can alter its mix of inputs and thereby become more efficient. Product redesign - As the manufacturers and consumers have more experience with the product and this filters through to the manufacturing process. A good example of this is Cadillacs testing of various bells, the ones that did not break became mass-produced in other General Motors products, the ones that didnt stand the test of user beatings were discontinued, saving the car company money
20.
Modern portfolio theory
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Its key insight is that an assets risk and return should not be assessed by itself, but by how it contributes to a portfolios overall risk and return. Economist Harry Markowitz introduced MPT in a 1952 essay, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics. MPT assumes that investors are risk averse, meaning that given two portfolios that offer the same expected return, investors will prefer the less risky one, thus, an investor will take on increased risk only if compensated by higher expected returns. Conversely, an investor who wants higher expected returns must accept more risk, the exact trade-off will be the same for all investors, but different investors will evaluate the trade-off differently based on individual risk aversion characteristics. Under the model, Portfolio return is the combination of the constituent assets returns. Portfolio volatility is a function of the correlations ρij of the component assets, for all asset pairs. In general, Expected return, E = ∑ i w i E where R p is the return on the portfolio, R i is the return on asset i and w i is the weighting of component asset i. Portfolio return volatility, σ p = σ p 2 For a two asset portfolio, Portfolio return, E = w A E + w B E = w A E + E . In other words, investors can reduce their exposure to individual asset risk by holding a portfolio of assets. Diversification may allow for the same expected return with reduced risk. This is the maximum volatility the portfolio of assets would reach. This graph shows expected return versus standard deviation and this is called the risk-expected return space. Every possible combination of assets, can be plotted in this risk-expected return space. The left boundary of this region is a hyperbola, and the edge of this region is the efficient frontier in the absence of a risk-free asset. Combinations along this upper edge represent portfolios for which there is lowest risk for a level of expected return. Equivalently, a portfolio lying on the efficient frontier represents the combination offering the best possible expected return for risk level. The tangent to the hyperbola at the tangency point indicates the best possible capital allocation line, matrices are preferred for calculations of the efficient frontier. W T Σ w is the variance of portfolio return, R T w is the expected return on the portfolio
21.
Sharing economy
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Sharing economy is an umbrella term with a range of meanings, often used to describe economic and social activity involving online transactions. For this reason, the sharing economy has been criticised as misleading. However, many commentators assert that the term is valid as a means of describing a generally more democratized marketplace. Also known as shareconomy, collaborative consumption or peer economy, an academic definition of the term refers to a hybrid market model of peer-to-peer exchange. Such transactions are often facilitated via community-based online services, uberization is also an alternative name for the phenomenon. A common premise is that information about goods is shared. Collaborative consumption as a phenomenon is a class of economic arrangements in which participants mutualize access to products or services, the phenomenon stems from an increasing consumer desire to be in control of their consumption instead of passive victims of hyperconsumption. The consumer peer-to-peer rental market is valued at $26bn, with new services, the Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times and many others have argued that sharing economy is a misnomer. Harvard Business Review suggested the word for the sharing economy in the broad sense of the term is access economy. The authors say, When sharing is market-mediated—when a company is an intermediary between consumers who dont know each other—it is no longer sharing at all, rather, consumers are paying to access someone elses goods or services. According to sharing economy expert Alex Stephany, it is a mystery as to who first used the term sharing economy, the people who share is one of the broadest definitions, which encompasses the on-demand economy, the gig economy, social media, and a great deal else. They can include some organisations that operate without online transactions, such as bike kitchens, the true sharing economy does include some large internationally available web sites however, such as Freecycle. The term sharing economy has been used since about 2010, yet according to a Pew survey taken in winter 2015. Survey respondents who had heard of the term had divergent views on what it meant, in 2010 and 2011, many people involved with the sharing economy did indeed consider it to be about sharing in the traditional sense. A commonly used example at the time was the idea of sharing a power drill —a tool that many consumers might use for only a few minutes in their lifetime. Advocates said it made sense for regular consumers not to buy their own power drill, but to borrow from others instead, several startups companies were launched to help people share drills and similar goods along these lines. While some successful platforms such as Airbnb can be described as involving the sharing of a resource, the scope of the sharing economy has been a subject of academic debate. Depending on the used, some platforms would be included within the sharing economy
22.
SWOT analysis
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A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a company, product, place, industry, or person. It involves specifying the objective of the venture or project. Some authors credit SWOT to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies, however, Humphrey himself did not claim the creation of SWOT, and the origins remain obscure. The degree to which the environment of the firm matches with the external environment is expressed by the concept of strategic fit. First, decision-makers should consider whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs, if the objective is not attainable, they must select a different objective and repeat the process. Users of SWOT analysis must ask and answer questions that generate meaningful information for each category to make the analysis useful, SWOT analysis aims to identify the key internal and external factors seen as important to achieving an objective. What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses for another objective, the factors may include all of the 4Ps as well as personnel, finance, manufacturing capabilities, and so on. The external factors may include macroeconomic matters, technological change, legislation, the results are often presented in the form of a matrix. SWOT analysis is just one method of categorization and has its own weaknesses, for example, it may tend to persuade its users to compile lists rather than to think about actual important factors in achieving objectives. It also presents the resulting lists uncritically and without clear prioritization so that, for example and it is prudent not to eliminate any candidate SWOT entry too quickly. The importance of individual SWOTs will be revealed by the value of the strategies they generate, a SWOT item that produces valuable strategies is important. A SWOT item that generates no strategies is not important, the usefulness of SWOT analysis is not limited to profit-seeking organizations. SWOT analysis may be used in any decision-making situation when a desired end-state is defined, examples include non-profit organizations, governmental units, and individuals. SWOT analysis may also be used in planning and preventive crisis management. SWOT analysis may also be used in creating a recommendation during a viability study/survey, SWOT analysis can be used effectively to build organizational or personal strategy. For instance, strong relations between strengths and opportunities can suggest good conditions in the company and allow using an aggressive strategy, on the other hand, strong interactions between weaknesses and threats could be analyzed as a potential warning and advice for using a defensive strategy. One way of utilizing SWOT is matching and converting, matching is used to find competitive advantage by matching the strengths to opportunities. Another tactic is to convert weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities, an example of a conversion strategy is to find new markets
23.
Porter's five forces analysis
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Porters five forces analysis is a framework for analyzing the level of competition within an industry and business strategy development. It draws upon industrial organization economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity, attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An unattractive industry is one in which the combination of five forces acts to drive down overall profitability. A very unattractive industry would be one approaching pure competition, in which available profits for all firms are driven to normal profit and this analysis is associated with its principal innovator Michael E. Porter of Harvard University. Porter refers to forces as the micro environment, to contrast it with the more general term macro environment. They consist of those close to a company that affect its ability to serve its customers. A change in any of the forces normally requires a unit to re-assess the marketplace given the overall change in industry information. The overall industry attractiveness does not imply that every firm in the industry will return the same profitability, firms are able to apply their core competencies, business model or network to achieve a profit above the industry average. A clear example of this is the airline industry, as an industry, profitability is low and yet individual companies, by applying unique business models, have been able to make a return in excess of the industry average. It has been applied to a range of problems, from helping businesses become more profitable to helping governments stabilize industries. Other Porter strategic frameworks include the chain and the generic strategies. Profitable markets that yield high returns will attract new firms and this results in many new entrants, which eventually will decrease profitability for all firms in the industry. Unless the entry of new firms can be blocked by incumbents, the following factors can have an effect on how much of a threat new entrants may pose, The existence of barriers to entry. The most attractive segment is one in which entry barriers are high, few new firms can enter and non-performing firms can exit easily. For example, tap water might be considered a substitute for Coke, another example is the substitute of a landline phone with a cellular phone. Firms can take measures to reduce power, such as implementing a loyalty program. The buyer power is if the buyer has many alternatives. The buyer power is low if they act independently e. g, if a large number of customers will act with each other and ask to make prices low the company will have no other choice because of large number of customers pressure
24.
Intelligence assessment
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Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership in order to inform decision making. Assessment may be carried out on behalf of a state, military or commercial organisation with a range of sources of information available to each. An intelligence assessment reviews both available information and previous assessments for relevance and currency, where additional information is required, some collection may be directed by the analyst. Intelligence studies is the field concerned with intelligence assessment, especially relating to international relations. Intelligence assessment is based on a requirement or need, which may be a standing requirement or tailored to a specific circumstance or a Request for Information. The requirement is passed to the agency and worked through the intelligence cycle. The RFI may indicate in what format the requester prefers to consume the product, the RFI is reviewed by a Requirements Manager, who will then direct appropriate tasks to respond to the request. This will involve a review of existing material, the tasking of new product or the collection of new information to inform an analysis. New information may be collected through one or more of the various disciplines, human source, electronic and communications intercept. The nature of the RFI and the placed on it may indicate that some collection types are unsuitable due to the time taken to collect or validate the information gathered. Intelligence gathering disciplines and the sources and methods used are highly classified and compartmentalised. The analyst uses multiple sources to mutually corroborate, or exclude, where sufficient current information already exists, the analysis may be tasked directly without reference to further collection. The analysis will be written to a classification level with alternative versions potentially available at a number of classification levels for further dissemination. The subject for action, or target, is identified and efforts are made to find the target for further development. This activity will identify where intervention against the target will have the most beneficial effects, during the finish stage, the intervention is executed, potentially an arrest or detention or the placement of other collection methods. Following the intervention, exploitation of the target is carried out, the output from the exploit stage will also be passed into other intelligence assessment activities. Intelligence cycle List of intelligence gathering disciplines Military intelligence Surveillance Futures studies Surveys Andrew, Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century essays by scholars Dulles, Allen W. Lee and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security,1100 pages,850 articles, strongest on technology Odom, Gen. William E. Fixing Intelligence, For a More Secure America, Second Edition OToole, George
25.
Competition
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It arises whenever at least two parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared, where ones gain is the others loss. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment, for example, animals compete over water supplies, food, mates, and other biological resources. Humans usually compete for food and mates, though when these needs are met deep rivalries often arise over the pursuit of wealth, power, prestige, and fame. Competition is often considered to be the opposite of cooperation, however in the real world, optimal strategies to achieve goals are studied in the branch of mathematics known as games theory. Also competition inside a company is usually stimulated with the purpose of meeting and reaching higher quality of services or improved products that the company may produce or develop. Competition can have both beneficial and detrimental effects, many evolutionary biologists view inter-species and intra-species competition as the driving force of adaptation, and ultimately of evolution. However, some disagree, citing competition as a driving force only on a small scale. Some social Darwinists claim that competition also serves as a mechanism for determining the best-suited group, positively, competition may serve as a form of recreation or a challenge provided that it is non-hostile. On the negative side, competition can cause injury and loss to the organisms involved, competition within, between, and among species is one of the most important forces in biology, especially in the field of ecology. Third parties within a species often favour highly competitive strategies leading to extinction when environmental conditions are harsh. Competition is also present between species, when resources are limited, several species may depend on these resources. Thus, each of the species competes with the others to access to the resources. As a result, species less suited to compete for the resources may die out unless they adapt by character dislocation, according to evolutionary theory, this competition within and between species for resources plays a significant role in natural selection. This is illustrated by living plant communities where asymmetric competition and competitive dominance frequently occur, game theory is the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. Game theory is used in economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic, computer science, biology. Originally, it mainly addressed zero-sum games, in one persons gains result in losses for the other participants. Game theory is a method used in mathematical economics and business for modeling competing behaviors of interacting agents. This research usually focuses on particular sets of strategies known as solution concepts or equilibria, a common assumption is that players act rationally
26.
Management
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Management is the administration of an organization, whether it be a business, a not-for-profit organization, or government body. The term management may also refer to the people who manage an organization, management is also an academic discipline, a social science whose objective is to study social organization and organizational leadership. Individuals who aim at becoming management researchers or professors may complete the Doctor of Business Administration or the PhD in business administration or management, in larger organizations, there are generally three levels of managers, which are typically organized in a hierarchical, pyramid structure. Senior managers provide direction to the managers who report to them. Middle managers, examples of which would include branch managers, regional managers and section managers, middle managers communicate the strategic goals of senior management to the front-line managers. Lower managers, such as supervisors and front-line team leaders, oversee the work of regular employees, in smaller organizations, the roles of managers have much wider scopes. A manager can perform several roles or even all of the commonly observed in a large organization. There are many smaller organizations than larger ones. Views on the definition and scope of management include, According to Henri Fayol, to manage is to forecast and to plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate, fredmund Malik defines it as the transformation of resources into utility. Management included as one of the factors of production - along with machines, materials, peter Drucker saw the basic task of management as twofold, marketing and innovation. Nevertheless, innovation is also linked to marketing, peter Drucker identifies marketing as a key essence for business success, but management and marketing are generally understood as two different branches of business administration knowledge. Management involves identifying the mission, objective, procedures, rules and this implies effective communication, an enterprise environment implies human motivation and implies some sort of successful progress or system outcome. As such, management is not the manipulation of a mechanism, not the herding of animals, management does not need to be seen from enterprise point of view alone, because management is an essential function to improve ones life and relationships. Management is therefore everywhere and it has a range of application. Based on this, management must have humans, communication, plans, measurements, motivational psychological tools, goals, and economic measures may or may not be necessary components for there to be management. At first, one views management functionally, such as measuring quantity, adjusting plans and this applies even in situations where planning does not take place. Critics, however, find this definition useful but far too narrow, one habit of thought regards management as equivalent to business administration and thus excludes management in places outside commerce, as for example in charities and in the public sector. More broadly, every organization must manage its work, people, processes, technology, nonetheless, many people refer to university departments that teach management as business schools
27.
Decision-making
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This article deals with decision-making as analyzed in psychology. In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several alternative possibilities. Every decision-making process produces a final choice, it may or may not prompt action, decision-making is the process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision-maker. Decision-making can be regarded as a problem-solving activity terminated by a solution deemed to be satisfactory and it is therefore a process which can be more or less rational or irrational and can be based on explicit or tacit knowledge. Cognitive, the decision-making process regarded as a continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment, normative, the analysis of individual decisions concerned with the logic of decision-making, or communicative rationality, and the invariant choice it leads to. A major part of decision-making involves the analysis of a set of alternatives described in terms of evaluative criteria. Then the task might be to rank these alternatives in terms of how attractive they are to the decision-maker when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Another task might be to find the best alternative or to determine the relative priority of each alternative when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Solving such problems is the focus of multiple-criteria decision analysis and this leads to the formulation of a decision-making paradox. Logical decision-making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge in an area to make informed decisions. For example, medical decision-making often involves a diagnosis and the selection of appropriate treatment and they may follow a recognition primed decision that fits their experience and arrive at a course of action without weighing alternatives. The decision-makers environment can play a part in the decision-making process, for example, environmental complexity is a factor that influences cognitive function. A complex environment is an environment with a number of different possible states which come. Studies done at the University of Colorado have shown that more complex environments correlate with cognitive function. One experiment measured complexity in a room by the number of objects and appliances present. Cognitive function was greatly affected by the measure of environmental complexity making it easier to think about the situation. Research about decision-making is also published under the label problem solving and it is important to differentiate between problem analysis and decision-making. Traditionally, it is argued that problem analysis must be done first, information overload is a gap between the volume of information and the tools we have to assimilate it
28.
Competition (companies)
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Empirical observation confirms that resources and talent tend to concentrate geographically. The process of “clusterization, ” the creation of “value chains, within capitalist economic systems, the drive of enterprises is to maintain and improve their own competitiveness, this practically pertains to business sectors. Economic Competitiveness is a concept that emerged in trade and policy discussions in the last decades of the 20th century. In this way, even without protectionism, their goods are able to compete successfully against foreign products both in domestic markets and in foreign markets. Trade Policy can be used to establish unilaterally and multilaterally negotiated rule of law agreements protecting fair and open global markets. These incentives include export promotion efforts and export financing—including financing programs that allow small and they further argue that protectionism is often a temporary fix to larger, underlying problems, the declining efficiency and quality of domestic manufacturing. They advocated policies for the adjustment of American industries and workers impacted by globalization, specialization, lower wages, and lower energy costs allowed developing nations entering the global market to export high quantities of low cost goods to the United States. Simultaneously, domestic anti-inflationary measures led to a 65% increase in the value of the US dollar in the early 1980s. The stronger dollar acted in effect as an equal percent tax on American exports, American producers, particularly manufacturers, struggled to compete both overseas and in the US marketplace, prompting calls for new legislation to protect domestic industries. In addition, the recession of 1979-82 did not exhibit the traits of a typical cycle of imports. Due to the dollar exchange rate, importers still found a favorable market in the United States despite the recession. As a result, imports continued to increase in the period and further increased in the recovery period, leading to an all-time high trade deficit. The manufacturing sector was most heavily impacted by the dollar value. In 1984, the sector faced import penetration rates of 25%. The “super dollar” resulted in unusually high imports of manufactured goods at suppressed prices, added to these pressures was the import injury inflicted by low cost, sometimes more efficient foreign producers, whose prices were further suppressed in the American market by the high dollar. The 1984 Trade Act developed new provisions for adjustment assistance, or assistance for industries that are damaged by a combination of imports and a changing industry environment. It maintained that as a requirement for receiving relief, the industry would be required to implement measures to overcome other factors. The act built on the provisions of the Trade Act of 1974 and worked to expand, rather than limit, the Act also made significant updates to the remedies and processes for settling domestic trade disputes
29.
Industrial espionage
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Industrial espionage, economic espionage, corporate spying or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security. The compilation of these elements is sometimes termed CIS or CRS. The difference between competitive intelligence and economic or industrial espionage is not clear, one needs to understand the basics to recognize how to draw the line between the two. Economic or industrial espionage takes place in two main forms, in short, the purpose of espionage is to gather knowledge about organization. It may include the acquisition of property, such as information on industrial manufacture, ideas, techniques and processes, recipes. It may describe activities such as theft of trade secrets, bribery, blackmail, silicon Valley is known to be one of the worlds most targeted areas for espionage, though any industry with information of use to competitors may be a target. Information can make the difference between success and failure, if a secret is stolen, the competitive playing field is leveled or even tipped in favor of a competitor. Although a lot of information-gathering is accomplished legally through competitive intelligence, economic or industrial espionage is a threat to any business whose livelihood depends on information. In recent years, economic or industrial espionage has taken on an expanded definition, for instance, attempts to sabotage a corporation may be considered industrial espionage, in this sense, the term takes on the wider connotations of its parent word. That espionage and sabotage have become more associated with each other is also demonstrated by a number of profiling studies, some government. In practice, particularly by trusted insiders, they are considered functionally identical for the purpose of informing countermeasures. Economic or industrial espionage commonly occurs in one of two ways, firstly, a dissatisfied employee appropriates information to advance interests or to damage the company. Secondly, a competitor or foreign government seeks information to advance its own technological or financial interest, moles, or trusted insiders, are generally considered the best sources for economic or industrial espionage. Historically known as a patsy, an insider can be induced, willingly or under duress, a patsy may be initially asked to hand over inconsequential information and, once compromised by committing a crime, bribed into handing over more sensitive material. Individuals may leave one company to take up employment with another, such apparent behavior has been the focus of numerous industrial espionage cases that have resulted in legal battles. Some countries hire individuals to do spying rather than use of their own intelligence agencies, academics, business delegates, and students are often thought to be used by governments in gathering information. Some countries, such as Japan, have reported to expect students be debriefed on returning home. A spy may follow a tour of a factory and then get lost
30.
Risk management
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Risk management’s objective is to assure uncertainty does not deflect the endeavor from the business goals. There are two types of events i. e. negative events can be classified as risks while positive events are classified as opportunities. Several risk management standards have developed including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, actuarial societies. Certain aspects of many of the risk management standards have come under criticism for having no measurable improvement on risk, whereas the confidence in estimates and decisions seem to increase. For example, it has shown that one in six IT projects experience cost overruns of 200% on average. A widely used vocabulary for risk management is defined by ISO Guide 73,2009, intangible risk management identifies a new type of a risk that has a 100% probability of occurring but is ignored by the organization due to a lack of identification ability. For example, when deficient knowledge is applied to a situation, relationship risk appears when ineffective collaboration occurs. Process-engagement risk may be an issue when ineffective operational procedures are applied and these risks directly reduce the productivity of knowledge workers, decrease cost-effectiveness, profitability, service, quality, reputation, brand value, and earnings quality. Intangible risk management allows management to create immediate value from the identification and reduction of risks that reduce productivity. Risk management also faces difficulties in allocating resources and this is the idea of opportunity cost. Resources spent on risk management could have spent on more profitable activities. Again, ideal risk management minimizes spending and also minimizes the effects of risks. According to the definition to the risk, the risk is the possibility that an event will occur, therefore, risk itself has the uncertainty. Risk management such as COSO ERM, can help managers have a control for their risk. Each company may have different internal components, which leads to different outcomes. For the most part, these methods consist of the elements, performed, more or less. After establishing the context, the step in the process of managing risk is to identify potential risks. Risks are about events that, when triggered, cause problems or benefits, hence, risk identification can start with the source of our problems and those of our competitors, or with the problem itself
31.
Opportunity management
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Opportunity management has been defined as a process to identify business and community development opportunities that could be implemented to sustain or improve the local economy. Opportunity management is an approach for economic and business development. The process focuses on tangible outcomes, opportunity management may result in interesting and motivating projects that help improve teamwork. Its three components are generating ideas, recognizing opportunities, and driving opportunities, risk management can be described as the process of proactively working with stakeholders to minimise the risks and maximise the opportunity associated with project decisions. Risks are about the possibility of an adverse consequence, good risk management does not have to be expensive or time consuming but relies on adaptability in response to change. Risk management ensures that an organization identifies and understands the risks to which it is exposed, organisations continuously face environments in which uncertainty is constantly challenging the existing ways of doing business and the way that risk needs to be managed. However, the upside to risk, that is overlooked, is that the feared uncertain event could have a desired outcome. TAP Universitys blog notes that this is a risk or opportunity. Having a clear understanding of all risks allows an organization to measure and prioritize them, where risk management seeks to understand what might go badly in a project, opportunity management looks for what might go better. An opportunity management process has required elements that need to be evaluated before advancing and allocating resources to any project. All organisations have limited resources and it is important that they are used sensibly, the first step that an organisation should take in order to improve decision making and reduce risk is identifying potential opportunities. It is advised that a takes the necessary time and considers numerous ways of identifying opportunities for initiatives. Organisations could implement processes like organizational catch ball which would help them to develop plans, as Conti notes, the interactive catch ball process from management level to the next is necessary for correct planning and alignment of goals. They could also implement brainstorming activities, hold meetings, hold focus group interviews. This would help the organisation generate ideas to include in the initiative funnel, the firm should proceed to evaluate and prioritize initiatives to enable more effective courses of action to be taken in the future. This would involve ranking criteria in order of importance to ensure the alignment of targets for the projects. It is vital that the firm includes many opportunities in the decision making funnel to be effective and this will allow for a more comprehensive scope of ideas to be included in the decision making funnel. An opportunity management funnel is a framework that allows management to evaluate, an opportunity management funnel is a process whereby many opportunities are put in up front and fewer investment decisions coming out at the end of the funnel
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Financial statement
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Financial statements is a formal record of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity. Relevant financial information is presented in a manner and in a form easy to understand. A profit and loss statement provides information on the operation of the enterprise and these include sales and the various expenses incurred during the stated period. A Statement of changes in equity, also known as equity statement or statement of retained earnings, a cash flow statement reports on a companys cash flow activities, particularly its operating, investing and financing activities. For large corporations, these statements may be complex and may include a set of footnotes to the financial statements and management discussion. The notes typically describe each item on the sheet, income statement. Notes to financial statements are considered a part of the financial statements. Financial statements should be understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable, reported assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses are directly related to an organizations financial position. Financial statements may be used by users for different purposes, Owners and managers require financial statements to make important business decisions that affect its continued operations, Financial analysis is then performed on these statements to provide management with a more detailed understanding of the figures. These statements are used as part of managements annual report to the stockholders. Prospective investors make use of statements to assess the viability of investing in a business. Financial analyses are used by investors and are prepared by professionals. Financial institutions use them to decide whether to grant a company with fresh working capital or extend debt securities to finance expansion, the rules for the recording, measurement and presentation of government financial statements may be different from those required for business and even for non-profit organizations. They may use either of two accounting methods, accrual accounting, or cost accounting, or a combination of the two, a complete set of chart of accounts is also used that is substantially different from the chart of a profit-oriented business. Personal financial statements may be required from persons applying for a loan or financial aid. Typically, a financial statement consists of a single form for reporting personally held assets and liabilities, or personal sources of income and expenses. The form to be filled out is determined by the organization supplying the loan or aid, although laws differ from country to country, an audit of the financial statements of a public company is usually required for investment, financing, and tax purposes. These are usually performed by independent accountants or auditing firms, results of the audit are summarized in an audit report that either provide an unqualified opinion on the financial statements or qualifications as to its fairness and accuracy
