MBA Essay-战略决策中的利益相关者影响。本文是一篇MBA留学essay写作范文，主要内容是讲述制定战略应该是逻辑和外部分析的产物，但往往是利益相关者力量的产物。Essay范文使用最近的业务示例进行讨论。
Johnson和Scholes将战略定义为“一个组织长期的方向和范围，通过在不断变化的环境中配置资源，实现组织的优势，并满足利益相关者的期望。“因此，战略计划是面向未来的大规模活动，允许与竞争环境互动，以实现公司目标。因此，战略管理是制定、评估和持续改进战略的过程。战略规划从定义组织的愿景、使命和目标以及随后的环境扫描开始，以了解组织在宏观外部环境、行业、竞争对手、内部资源、能力和期望以及利益相关者的影响方面的战略地位。这一初始过程通过将确定的优势与机会相匹配，为战略选择奠定了基础。然后，通过计划、资源、技术和绩效管理结构，将战略选择转化为行动。本篇MBA Essay侧重于组织在环境、战略能力和利益相关者期望背景下的战略地位。
Devising a strategy should be a product of logical and external analysis, yet often appears to be a product of the power of stakeholders. Discuss using recent business examples.
Johnson and Scholes (2002) p10 define strategy as “the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.” A strategic plan is therefore large scale future oriented activities that allow interaction with the competitive environment in order to achieve company objectives. It follows that strategic management is the process whereby a strategy is formulated, evaluated, and continuously improved. Strategic planning flows from the definition of an organisation’s vision, mission and objectives and subsequent environmental scanning, to understand the organisation’s strategic position with respect to the macro external environment, its industry, competitors, internal resources, competencies and expectations and influence of stakeholders. (Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert, 1995) This initial process establishes a basis for strategic choice by means of a match of identified strengths to opportunities. The translation of strategic choice into action is then implemented across all levels of the organisation through programmes, resources, technologies, and performance management structures. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002 and Davis, 2005) This essay focuses on the strategic position of the organisation in the context of its environment, its strategic capability, and stakeholder expectations.
The purpose of an environmental scan is to develop a list of diverse variables from an uncertain and complex world to offer actionable responses and in so doing allow a structured framework for defensive or offensive actions. There are a variety of available analysis tools such as a PESTEL framework from a macro-environmental level, Porter’s Five Forces framework at an industry level, strategic groupings within an industry and individual market analysis. The results can then be applied in a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to determine strategic choice. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002)
环境扫描的目的是从一个不确定和复杂的世界中制定一系列不同的变量，以提供可行的应对措施，从而为防御或进攻行动提供一个结构化的框架。有多种可用的分析工具，如宏观环境层面的PESTEL框架、行业层面的波特五力框架、行业内的战略分组和个人市场分析。然后可以将结果应用于SWOT分析，以确定战略选择。
PESTEL is an acronym representing the key forces that exist or are emerging in the external environment and suggests how they will, or might impact on future strategy and resources. These comprise Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002) Changes in these forces and their interaction affect the types of products and services offered and impact on suppliers and distributors to the organisation. An example of political and legal forces in setting the climate for business, are the tax harmonisation processes in the European Union (EU) which have caused many multinational firms, including John Deere and Cargill, to relocate their head offices to Switzerland, a non EU member to avoid tax costs. Consequentially, the global competitive ratings for the Netherlands, Germany and other home countries of these firms plunged whilst the rating for Switzerland has surged. (Davis, 2005) The use of PESTEL in isolation and a mere listing of possible influences without an understanding of the combined impact of a number of these forces could lead to inaction with respect to countering threats or pursuing opportunities to the detriment of the business. The combined effect of the factors can be understood by identifying structural drivers of change that affect the structure of an industry sector or market. These include an increasing convergence of markets as customer needs and wants become similar (eg standardisation of strategy textbooks across international higher education institutions), maximising cost advantages achieved through economies of scale by centralised production in low cost, labour efficient countries such as India and China, or the differential impact of the factors dependant on industry type. (eg Pharmaceutical sales to an aging population in a first world country) (Johnson and Scholes, 2002) This reinforces the need to regard strategy formulation as an interactive multidisciplinary process requiring creative thinking.
PESTEL是一个首字母缩略词，代表外部环境中存在或正在出现的关键力量，并表明它们将如何或可能对未来战略和资源产生影响。这些因素包括政治、经济、社会文化、技术、环境和法律因素。这些力量的变化及其相互作用会影响所提供的产品和服务的类型以及对组织供应商和分销商的影响。政治和法律力量在营造商业环境方面的一个例子是欧盟的税收协调过程，这导致包括约翰迪尔在内的许多跨国公司将其总部迁至非欧盟成员国瑞士，以避免税收成本。因此，荷兰、德国和这些公司的其他母国的全球竞争评级大幅下降，而瑞士的评级则大幅上升。孤立地使用PESTEL，仅列出可能的影响，而不了解这些力量的综合影响，可能会导致在应对威胁或寻求机会方面无所作为，从而损害业务。通过识别影响行业部门或市场结构的结构性变革驱动因素，可以理解这些因素的综合影响。其中包括随着客户需求和需求变得相似，市场日益趋同（例如，国际高等教育机构的战略教科书标准化），通过在印度和中国等低成本、劳动效率高的国家集中生产实现规模经济，最大化成本优势，或取决于行业类型的因素的差异影响。（例如，向第一世界国家的老龄人口销售药物）这加强了将战略制定视为需要创造性思维的互动多学科过程的必要性。
Porter suggests that industry selection and analysis is a vital component of strategic planning. An industry is “a group of firms producing products that are close substitutes for one another.” (Johnson and Scholes, 2002, p110) Competitive forces within an industry can be analysed in the contexts of the sources of competition, the dynamics of that competition and strategic groupings. Although criticised as being too generic in nature, Porter’s Five Forces framework is useful in addressing key interacting forces affecting a strategic business unit with a distinct market for goods or services within an industry. Porter referred to these forces as the microenvironment so as to contrast it with the more general term, macro environment. They consist of those forces close to an organisation that affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A change in any of the forces normally requires a company to re-assess the marketplace. (Porter, 1996) An example is that of the mobile phone network industry where the barrier to entry by new competitors is the huge entry cost associated with 3G broadband licenses. The purchasing power of buyers is high with a significant range of choices between networks and the power of suppliers increasing through alliances such as that of Casio and Hitachi in 2003. (Davis, 2005) The threat of substitute products is increasing as Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) convergence with phones and voice-over-internet technology emerges with the potential to bypass the network operators. Competitive rivalry between firms with similar products is high with a broad range of products on offer to the consumer. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002)
波特认为，行业选择和分析是战略规划的重要组成部分。一个行业是“生产彼此接近替代品的产品的一组公司”。可以在竞争来源、竞争动态和战略集团的背景下分析一个行业内的竞争力量。尽管波特的“五种力量”框架被批评为过于笼统，但它在解决影响一个战略业务部门的关键互动力量方面非常有用，因为该战略业务部门在一个行业内拥有独特的商品或服务市场。波特将这些力称为微环境，以便与更一般的术语宏观环境形成对比。它们由那些与组织关系密切的力量组成，这些力量会影响其服务客户和盈利的能力。任何力量的变化通常需要公司重新评估市场。一个例子是移动电话网络行业，新竞争者进入该行业的障碍是与3G宽带许可证相关的巨大进入成本。买家的购买力很高，网络和供应商之间的选择范围很大，通过2003年卡西欧和日立的联盟，供应商的购买力也在增加。随着个人数字助理与电话和互联网语音技术的融合，替代产品的威胁正在增加，有可能绕过网络运营商。拥有类似产品的公司之间的竞争激烈，向消费者提供的产品种类繁多。
The concept of strategic grouping addresses the criticism of Porter’s model where an industry is considered to be too generic to provide a basis for understanding the competitive environment by applying the Five Forces framework. Johnson and Scholes, 2002, p122 define strategic groups as “organisations within an industry with similar strategic characteristics following similar strategies or competing on similar bases.” These firms are not homogeneous within the industry and follow strategies common to the group, but different to firms in other groups in the same industry. An example is a pharmaceutical manufacturer with a unique medication product protected by patent serving a common market using a similar strategy. (Davis, 2005)
战略分组的概念解决了对波特模型的批评，在波特模型中，一个行业被认为过于通用，无法通过应用五种力量框架为理解竞争环境提供基础。Johnson和Scholes将战略集团定义为“行业内具有相似战略特征的组织，遵循相似的战略或在相似的基础上进行竞争。”这些公司在行业内并非同质化，遵循集团共同的战略，但与同行业其他集团的公司不同。一个例子是一家药品制造商，其独特的药物产品受到专利保护，使用类似的策略服务于共同市场。
Understanding the competitive environment together with current and potential customer needs and wants will determine the success or failure of an organisation. Porter suggests that there are two generic strategies: cost or differentiation. Marketing segmentation identifies similarities and differences between individual and customer groups based on geographic, demographic lifestyle and benefit segmentation. An appreciation of customer values in a market segment and matching needs against the organisation’s capacity to meet those needs, is a critical aspect of determining strategic capability. (Pitt, 1997) The emergence of global firms suggests that traditional models are limited in application and that there is a need for the development of a broader integrative international strategic business model framework. (Ricart et al, 2004)
了解竞争环境以及当前和潜在的客户需求和需求将决定组织的成败。波特建议有两种通用策略：成本策略或差异化策略。营销细分根据地理、人口统计生活方式和利益细分确定个人和客户群体之间的相似性和差异。对某一细分市场中的客户价值进行评估，并将需求与组织满足这些需求的能力相匹配，这是决定战略能力的一个关键方面。全球公司的出现表明，传统模式在应用上受到限制，需要制定更广泛的综合性国际战略商业模式框架。
Strategic capability involves the identification and evaluation of an organisation’s strengths and weaknesses in the functional areas of the business in the context of the external environment analyses. It is typically recorded in a SWOT framework. It represents an understanding of customer’s perceptions of value, the critical success factors through which that value is realised and unique competencies, processes, and technology to achieve competitive advantage. (Hussey, 2002.)
战略能力包括在外部环境分析的背景下识别和评估组织在业务职能领域的优势和劣势。它通常记录在SWOT框架中。它代表了对客户价值观、实现价值的关键成功因素以及实现竞争优势的独特能力、流程和技术的理解。
The core competencies of the organisation are the unique capabilities that are critical success factors in achieving competitive advantage and hence key to the delivery of customer value. They form the foundation for differentiation and for increasing perceived customer benefits. Competencies must evolve as the needs and wants of customers change and a focus on developing critical competencies that affect market position, share and power is key. (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) A useful model to analyse an organisation’s core competencies that underpin its competitive advantage is Porter’s Value Chain Analysis. This attempts an understanding of how the organisation creates customer value by examining the contributions of various activities within the business to that value. An organisation’s value chain is normally part of a broader value system that represents a set of inter-organisational linkages and relationships to create the product or service. It separates primary and support activities through which that value is generated. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002) Porter argues that competitive strategy is about being different, and focussing on those activities that deliver a unique mix of value and doing them better than competitors. (Porter, 1996)
组织的核心能力是独特的能力，这些能力是实现竞争优势的关键成功因素，因此也是实现客户价值的关键。它们构成了差异化和增加客户感知利益的基础。能力必须随着客户需求和需求的变化而发展，重点是发展影响市场地位、份额和权力的关键能力。波特的价值链分析是分析一个组织的核心竞争力的一个有用模型。这试图通过检查企业内各种活动对客户价值的贡献来理解组织如何创造客户价值。一个组织的价值链通常是一个更广泛的价值体系的一部分，它代表了一组组织间的联系和关系，以创造产品或服务。它将产生价值的主要活动和支持活动分开。波特认为，竞争战略是与众不同的，专注于那些提供独特价值组合并比竞争对手做得更好的活动。
The structured and systematic process of analysing the external and internal environment described thus far is carried out by a consultative process with stakeholders and should present a sound basis for establishing the foundation for the organisation’s strategy formulation. However, the impact of stakeholders and the complex role that people play from a political and cultural perspective should be taken into account. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002) Davis, 2005, suggests that stakeholders are individuals or groups with an interest in the success of an organisation to deliver intended results and on whom the organisation itself depends.
迄今为止所描述的分析外部和内部环境的结构化和系统化过程是通过与利益相关者的协商过程进行的，应为建立组织战略制定的基础提供良好的基础。然而，应从政治和文化角度考虑利益攸关方的影响以及人们所扮演的复杂角色。Davis建议利益相关者是对组织成功交付预期结果感兴趣的个人或团体，组织本身依赖于他们。
Donaldson and Preston, 1995, p64, argue that this general statement is too wide should be qualified to “be those persons or groups with a legitimate interest in procedure and / or substantive aspects of corporate activity.” Walsh, 2005, suggests that too broad a definition creates a situation whereby managers function in order benefit a stakeholder group or act as a continuous conduit to stakeholders. Stakeholders may include employees, unions, customers, financial institutions, suppliers, shareholders etc depending on the accepted definition. The definition of stakeholder is therefore important to the organisation because it impacts on the strategic plan formulation.
唐纳森和普雷斯顿认为这一一般性陈述过于宽泛，应被认定为“在公司活动的程序和/或实质方面具有合法利益的个人或团体”。沃尔什建议过于宽泛的定义会造成一种情况，即管理者的职能是为了利益相关者群体或作为利益相关者的持续渠道。根据公认的定义，利益相关者可能包括员工、工会、客户、金融机构、供应商、股东等。因此，利益相关者的定义对组织很重要，因为它会影响战略计划的制定。
The relationship between stakeholders and the organisation encompasses the field of stakeholder management that ranges in complexity from stakeholder mapping through to stakeholder collaboration and social capital. The corporate governance structure of the organisation and the regulatory framework within which it operates should determine who the organisation serves and how the purpose and direction of the organisation is determined. This includes the management of the capacity of a stakeholder to influence the organisation as well as accountability issues in the formal structure. This is typically structured through a separation of ownership and management at main board level, balanced by non-executive directors and a non executive chairperson. Internal or organisational stakeholders may blur this line through the inappropriate use of power and politics. Society in turn creates expectations of the organisation in terms of ethics and within a cultural context that need to be congruent with that of the organisation. (Donald and Preston, 1995)
利益相关者与组织之间的关系包括利益相关者管理领域，其复杂性从利益相关者映射到利益相关者协作和社会资本。组织的公司治理结构及其运营的监管框架应决定组织为谁服务，以及如何确定组织的目的和方向。这包括管理利益相关者影响组织的能力以及正式结构中的问责问题。这通常是通过在主要董事会层面上分离所有权和管理层，由非执行董事和非执行主席进行平衡而形成的。内部或组织利益相关者可能会因权力和政治的不当使用而模糊这一界限。反过来，社会在道德和文化背景方面创造了对组织的期望，这种期望需要与组织的期望一致。
The organisational field approach suggests that networks of related organisations develop which share common assumptions, values, and processes that may incorporate common organisational views on stakeholders. Under this scenario, relationship with stakeholders are taken for granted leading to legitimised strategies shaped by expectations being accepted without a structured strategic planning process occurring. (Walsh, 2005)
组织领域方法表明，相关组织网络的发展共享共同的假设、价值观和流程，这些假设、价值和流程可能包含对利益相关者的共同组织观点。在这种情况下，与利益相关者的关系被认为是理所当然的，这导致在没有结构化的战略规划过程的情况下，由期望形成的合法化战略被接受。
A stakeholder map is a tool that inventories and categorises a company’s stakeholders, shows their inter-relationships, expectations, and power. It illustrates the approaches that the organisation can follow to achieve its business objectives while winning support from its stakeholders. It raises the dilemma of ethics in that stakeholder management through such a strategy can be subverted to the detriment of the organisation. (Johnson and Scholes, 2002) The Enron debacle is manifestation of both this dilemma and the organisational field phenomenon which allowed the failure of corporate governance structures when unethical conduct was accepted in the areas of finance and management by organisational stakeholders. The Enron case was one of the largest bankruptcy cases in US history. In 2001, it was the fifth largest company on the Fortune 500 with revenues of USD 100 billion, 19,000 employees, and rated the “most admired company” six years in a row by Fortune magazine. (Culpan and Trussell, 2005) The basic premise of Enron’s strategy was to create markets for goods and services traditionally transacted through complex distribution channels. It leveraged off its competitive advantage of delivering services efficiently and stretching it’s competency through added risk management features. The high growth phase of the organisation during the 1990’s and changed business strategy and corporate culture of Enron was driven by top management. In the process, Enron appeared innovative and profitable to the extent that the traditional agency relationship underpinning the firm as a nexus of contracts between the shareholders (principals) and the management as agents were left unchecked, which in turn impacted negatively on the broader spectrum of stakeholders. (Donald and Preston, 1995 and Culpan and Trussell, 2005) An ostensibly well structured, high profile corporation within the highly regulated environment of a security exchange, audited by a major audit firm was bought down by unethical conduct of its senior executive team with possible collusion by external stakeholders.
利益相关者地图是一种工具，可以对公司的利益相关者进行盘点和分类，显示他们之间的关系、期望和权力。它说明了组织在赢得利益相关者支持的同时实现其业务目标的方法。它引发了道德困境，即通过这样的战略，利益相关者管理可能会被颠覆，从而损害组织。安然公司的崩溃既体现了这种困境，也体现了组织领域的现象，当组织利益相关者在财务和管理领域接受不道德行为时，这种现象导致了公司治理结构的失败。安然案是美国历史上最大的破产案之一。2001年，它是财富500强的第五大公司，收入1000亿美元，员工1.9万人，连续六年被《财富》杂志评为“最受尊敬的公司”。安然战略的基本前提是为传统上通过复杂分销渠道交易的商品和服务创造市场。它利用了其高效提供服务的竞争优势，并通过增加的风险管理功能扩展了其能力。安然公司在20世纪90年代的高增长阶段以及改变的商业战略和企业文化是由高层管理层推动的。在这一过程中，安然公司似乎具有创新性和盈利能力，因为作为股东（委托人）和管理层（代理人）之间合同纽带的传统代理关系没有受到约束，这反过来对更广泛的利益相关者产生了负面影响。一家表面上结构良好、知名度高的公司，在高度监管的证券交易所环境中，由一家大型审计公司进行审计，但却被其高管团队的不道德行为收购，外部利益相关者可能相互勾结。
The ultimate test of how well a strategy has been thought out is at implementation level and the controls around that implementation. Unless a strategy can be executed effectively with appropriate checks and balances then it will almost certainly fall short in achieving objectives. This means that strategy has to be linked to the organisation’s objectives, mission, operations, and measurable outcomes within a corporate governance framework that meets the needs of the stakeholders. The evolution of the Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard to incorporate financial, customer, learning and growth, and internal process metrics evaluated against the vision and strategic objectives of the organisation provide one such strategic management control methodology across the organisation. (Kaplan and Norton, 1996 and Kaplan and Norton, 2001)
对一项战略的思考程度的最终检验是在实施层面以及围绕实施的控制。除非一项战略能够在适当的制衡下有效执行，否则它几乎肯定无法实现目标。这意味着，战略必须与组织的目标、使命、运营以及在满足利益相关者需求的公司治理框架内的可衡量成果相联系。卡普兰和诺顿平衡计分卡的发展，将财务、客户、学习和增长以及内部流程指标结合起来，根据组织的愿景和战略目标进行评估，为整个组织提供了一种这样的战略管理控制方法。
In conclusion, this essay has examined the formal process of strategy development and given examples of tools from the literature to systematically evaluate the external and internal environments of the organisation. It has sought to demonstrate that organisations are facing dynamic and rapidly evolving forces that influence its strategic direction. This is especially true with the emergence of globalisation and intensively competitive world markets. The eventual choice of a strategic direction for an organisation is a function of the values and expectations of a broad range of stakeholders which influence strategic decision making through political power over the organisation within a cultural and ethical context. It is the control through governance structures, and ongoing measurement of the strategic implementation process that will determine the successful outcome of the strategy and concomitant success of the organisation.
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本篇MBA Essay考察了战略制定的正式过程，并给出了文献中系统评估组织外部和内部环境的工具示例。它试图证明，组织正面临着影响其战略方向的动态和快速发展的力量。随着全球化和竞争激烈的世界市场的出现，情况尤其如此。组织战略方向的最终选择取决于广泛利益相关者的价值观和期望，这些利益相关者在文化和道德背景下通过对组织的政治权力影响战略决策。正是通过治理结构的控制，以及对战略实施过程的持续测量，将决定战略的成功结果和组织的伴随成功。本站提供各国MBA Essay代写或写作指导服务，如有需要可咨询本平台。