3 Stages of Strategy

Section 1:

Strategy involves 3 stages: Analysis, Formulation and Implementation. Each stage may include a number of tasks and steps to complete.

There are a number of guides to developing a strategy. Business' may use a Goals, Action, Monitoring and Evaluation (GAME) plan. This involves analysing the goals of the business, formulating and implementing a strategy, monitoring that strategy and evaluating its effectiveness.

Analysis. Analysis in relation to strategy means analysing your own goals and the environment surrounding how you will achieve these goals. Analysing your own goals is an internal process and may used as the first step of a Goals, Action, Monitoring and Evaluation (GAME) plan. A GAME plan may be used as a strategy guide to formulate and achieve your Goals.

One cruicial area of analysis is stakeholder analysis. Stakeholders are any person/party with an interest in your business (someone who will be affected by the decisions the business takes). Analysing who the stakeholders are, what influence they have on the future decisions of the business and how they may react to a strategy may be an important of estimating/measuring the effectiveness of strategy options. The use of a stakeholder grid may help achieve this understanding.

An understanding of the environment your business operates within may be assisted by the use of a PEST analysis and a SWOT analysis. PEST is an analysis of the political, economic, social and technological environments surrounding the business. A PEST analysis may help in ascertaining how these environments will affect the business decisions and consequently the strategy options. SWOT is an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the business. A SWOT analysis may help in understanding how the internal and external environments may specifically affect the