Strategies for Local Businesses

Learning Activity #4: Strategy Exercise

Read chapter eight of your textbook, Management, and perform the exercise described below.

"Choose four (4) major businesses and/or organizations from your immediate vicinity. Identify deliberate and emergent strategies those companies have used. Compile your findings, and then summarize the distinction between strategy formulation and strategy implementation." The four Business and organizations I choose for this assignment are;

Lincoln Lanes

The Dress Code

Job and Family Services

Community Action

Strategy- is a comprehensive plan for accomplishing an organizations goal.

Strategic Management-is a way of approaching business opportunities and challenges and this is a comprehensive and ongoing management process aimed at formulating implementing effective strategies.

Formulation stage- determines what the strategy is and the implementation stage focuses on how the strategy is achieved.

Emergent strategy –a pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of mission and goals or despite mission and goals.

1. Lincoln Lanes- would be considered a emergent strategy, because it is a pattern of action that developed over a time period, in the absence of mission or goals or despite mission or goals (Griffin, 2011). Lincoln Lanes has been around Lancaster vicinity for more than 50 years, now owned and operated by Scott Robinson. The business plan has always been a bowling alley, but over time has adapted with times and now serves food and drinks along with some adult drinks as well. This came with customer requests or just the need to expand its options to attract more business competing with Tiki Bowling Alley also in Lancaster Ohio. The Defender Strategy concentrates on protecting its current markets and maintaining stable growth and serving current customers, generally by lowering its costs and imporving the improving the performance of its existing products. The Defender Strategy is where I think Lincoln Lanes falls under. I have worked for Lincoln Lanes Bowling Alley for almost three years, and after talking with Scott I came to understand that there really was no mission or goals set for the Bowling Alley, he just wants to try to stay open for as long as possible to carry out his father's business. He sees a growing demand for local residents to have an activity close to home where they can bring their families or just a group of friends and have a good time. Though Lincoln Lanes does not bring in a lot of Business, it tries to adapt to the growing demands of the growing times.