Conducting a Strategic Audit

Conducting a Strategic Audit

http://www.albany.edu/~pm157/audit.html

http://faculty.uwstout.edu/adekolaa/STRAMGT/powerpoints/Wal-Mart%20-%202000.ppt#256,1,Wal-Mart - 2000

One purpose of this course is to train you to assess an organization's strategy. Part of your skill development is utilizing knowledge to address the real problems of a business organization. At the same time, technology is increasing your ability to obtain information rapidly from multiple sources. Being able to gather and use such information will become a competitive necessity for anyone in business and management. To prepare you for this, we used information technologies to analyze, discuss, and present business issues throughout the semester.

To achieve these, you will form a group. While some information may be obtained from library research, field work, or direct interviews, it is expected that you will extensively use the Internet to integrate the diverse information from a top-management perspective. Each team will present its findings and recommendations to the class during the final sessions. They may then make changes for their final written report. Please consider these eight dimensions in formulating a unified, comprehensive, and integrated set of decisions that attains organization purpose.

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Step 1: Situation Assessment

* What is our purpose? What is our "strategic intent"?

* How do we rank in our business and why?

* What is our fiscal condition and why?

* What is the relationship between the business strategy, organization environment, and overall performance?

* What is our sustainable competitive advantage? What core competencies do we posess?

* What are our strengths? Do we use these fully?

* What are our weaknesses? How can we solve or mitigate these?

* What are our opportunities? How can we exploit these?

* What are the threats to us? What can we do about them?

Step 2: Strategic Managers

* What is our strategic vision?

* Do the executives possess the right leadership skills and abilities?

* Are the top managers entrepreneurial and creative?

* Are they willing to take risks?

* Are they analytical?

* Do they possess necessary organization talents?

* Do they possess necessary interpersonal skills?

* Are they willing to change?

* What are their values? What is our social responsibilities and business ethics?

Step 3: Environmental Scanning

* How do we evaluate the scope of our operations and primary competitors?

* What industry forces work for and against us? What strategic group are we in, and what are the mobility barriers?

* Whom do we serve and who has a stake in our actions? What are their needs and requirements?

* What major products and services do we provide these stakeholders?

* How do we provide these products and services?

* How can we improve these products and services?

* Based on the above, do you think stakeholder support will remain about the same?

* Based on the above, what is the scenario for the future?

Step 4: Strategy Evaluation

* What business(es) should we be in to add shareholder value? What is our generic business strategy? How about our international strategy?

* How do you evaluate this current strategy?

* What really makes the