A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practices can be based on self-assessment or benchmarking . Best practice is a feature of accredited management standards such as ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 .
83-463: Some consulting firms specialize in the area of best practice and offer ready-made templates to standardize business process documentation. Sometimes a best practice is not applicable or is inappropriate for a particular organization's needs. A key strategic talent required when applying best practice to organizations is the ability to balance the unique qualities of an organization with the practices that it has in common with others. Good operating practice
166-404: A feedback loop to monitor execution and to inform the next round of planning. Michael Porter identifies three principles underlying strategy: Corporate strategy involves answering a key question from a portfolio perspective: "What business should we be in?" Business strategy involves answering the question: "How shall we compete in this business?" Alternatively, corporate strategy
249-568: A 1954 book The Practice of Management writing: "... the first responsibility of top management is to ask the question 'what is our business?' and to make sure it is carefully studied and correctly answered." He wrote that the answer was determined by the customer. He recommended eight areas where objectives should be set, such as market standing, innovation, productivity, physical and financial resources, worker performance and attitude, profitability, manager performance and development, and public responsibility. In 1957, Philip Selznick initially used
332-416: A company must only choose one of the three or risk that the business would waste precious resources. Porter's generic strategies detail the interaction between cost minimization strategies, product differentiation strategies, and market focus strategies. Porter described an industry as having multiple segments that can be targeted by a firm. The breadth of its targeting refers to the competitive scope of
415-794: A fixed set of rules or guidelines. This approach to best practice focuses on fostering improvements in quality and promoting continuous learning. STEM Program explanation is taken from Angela Baber's report to the NGA. The NGA has identified science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as important skills that need to be developed in community colleges in order to create a strong workforce. Many states are creating or have created STEM Programs to address this issue. In order for these programs to work governors should: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) makes evidence-based recommendations on clinical preventive services. The Task Force recommendations are based on systematic reviews and assessment of
498-402: A framework for analyzing the profitability of industries and how those profits are divided among the participants in 1980. In five forces analysis he identified the forces that shape the industry structure or environment. The framework involves the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, the threat of new entrants, the availability of substitute products, and the competitive rivalry of firms in
581-460: A general working definition used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in referring to a promising practice is defined as one with at least preliminary evidence of effectiveness in small-scale interventions or for which there is potential for generating data that will be useful for making decisions about taking the intervention to scale and generalizing the results to diverse populations and settings. Since evidence of effectiveness,
664-622: A level of acceptance by the community." Financing Clean Air Programs, and example taken from NGA This is a quick guide put together by the NGA Center for Best Practices. It explores what clean air programs currently exist and how they are being financed. Rather than stating one best practice to tackling clean air, this report creates a table of the different programs, how they are being financed, and in what state. Governors and their staffs can then look for characteristics and solutions that are most realistic and applicable to their situation. The key
747-436: A long-term coordinated strategy was necessary to give a company structure, direction and focus. He says it concisely, "structure follows strategy." Chandler wrote that: " Strategy is the determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals ." Igor Ansoff built on Chandler's work by adding concepts and inventing
830-508: A minimum level of energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial buildings. California Energy Code Title 24 is one "best practice" that is highlighted in this guide. The following points for energy code implementation is to educate and train key audiences, supply the right resources, and to provide budget and staff for the program. Eugene Bardach has a list of smart practice candidates in his book A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis , Eightfold Path (policy analysis) . One example
913-479: A practice has worked exceptionally well and why. Instead of it being "the best", a practice might simply be a smart practice, a good practice, or a promising practice. This allows for a mix and match approach for making recommendations that might encompass pieces of many good practices. Eugene Bardach provides the following theoretical framework ( eightfold path for best practices) in his book A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis , in 2011: Excessive optimism about
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#1732781069103996-413: A recommended practice that is best in all cases. Instead, he offers an alternative view, "contextual practice", in which the notion of what is "best" will vary with the context. Similarly, Cem Kaner and James Bach provide two scenarios to illustrate the contextual nature of "best practice" in their article. In essence, such critiques are consistent with the contingency theory , which was developed during
1079-611: A search for sources of competitive advantage. By the 1960s, the capstone business policy course at the Harvard Business School included the concept of matching the distinctive competence of a company (its internal strengths and weaknesses) with its environment (external opportunities and threats) in the context of its objectives. This framework came to be known by the acronym SWOT and was "a major step forward in bringing explicitly competitive thinking to bear on questions of strategy". Kenneth R. Andrews helped popularize
1162-448: A series of strategic decisions about how the organization will compete. Formulation ends with a series of goals or objectives and measures for the organization to pursue. Environmental analysis includes the: Strategic decisions are based on insight from the environmental assessment and are responses to strategic questions about how the organization will compete, such as: The answers to these and many other strategic questions result in
1245-490: A shift from the production focus to market focus. The prevailing concept in strategy up to the 1950s was to create a product of high technical quality. If you created a product that worked well and was durable, it was assumed you would have no difficulty profiting. This was called the production orientation . Henry Ford famously said of the Model T car: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it
1328-472: A valuable product or service for the market. These include functions such as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service, supported by systems and technology infrastructure. By aligning the various activities in its value chain with the organization's strategy in a coherent way, a firm can achieve a competitive advantage. Porter also wrote that strategy is an internally consistent configuration of activities that differentiates
1411-445: A variety of factors, such as the learning curve , substitution of labor for capital (automation), and technological sophistication. Author Walter Kiechel wrote that it reflected several insights, including: Kiechel wrote in 2010: "The experience curve was, simply, the most important concept in launching the strategy revolution...with the experience curve, the strategy revolution began to insinuate an acute awareness of competition into
1494-536: A vocabulary. He developed a grid that compared strategies for market penetration, product development, market development and horizontal and vertical integration and diversification. He felt that management could use the grid to systematically prepare for the future. In his 1965 classic Corporate Strategy , he developed gap analysis to clarify the gap between the current reality and the goals and to develop what he called "gap reducing actions". Ansoff wrote that strategic management had three parts: strategic planning ;
1577-399: Is a strategic management term. More specific uses of the term include good agricultural practices , good manufacturing practice , good laboratory practice , good clinical practice , and good distribution practice. Best practice is a form of program evaluation in public policy. It is the process of reviewing policy alternatives that have been effective in addressing similar issues in
1660-536: Is a searchable online registry of interventions supporting substance abuse prevention and mental health treatment that has been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers. NREPP accepts submissions for interventions that meet minimum requirements to be considered for review. Minimum requirements include (1) demonstration of one or more positive outcomes among individuals, communities, or populations; (2) evidence of these outcomes has been demonstrated in at least one study using an experimental or quasi-experimental design; (3)
1743-525: Is also used in relation to marketing , where the variable "importance" is related to buyers' perception of important attributes of a product: for attributes which might be considered important to buyers, both their perceived importance and their performance are assessed. The concept of the corporation as a portfolio of business units, with each plotted graphically based on its market share (a measure of its competitive position relative to its peers) and industry growth rate (a measure of industry attractiveness),
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#17327810691031826-434: Is avoiding the label 'best practice ' " and elaborates further: The allure and seduction of best-practice thinking poisons genuine dialogue about both what we know and the limitations of what we know. ... That modeling of and nurturing deliberative, inclusive, and, yes, humble dialogue may make a greater contribution to societal welfare than the search for generalizable, "best-practice" findings – conclusions that risk becoming
1909-454: Is black." Management theorist Peter F Drucker wrote in 1954 that it was the customer who defined what business the organization was in. In 1960 Theodore Levitt argued that instead of producing products then trying to sell them to the customer, businesses should start with the customer, find out what they wanted, and then produce it for them. The fallacy of the production orientation was also referred to as marketing myopia in an article of
1992-875: Is existing controversy about the lack of culturally appropriate evidence-based best practices and the need to utilize a research-based approach to validate interventions. Some communities have deployed practices over a long period of time that has produced positive outcomes as well as a general community consensus to be successful. The California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) is working to identify such practices. CRDP intends to improve access, quality of care, and increase positive outcomes for racial, ethnic and cultural communities. These communities have been identified as (1) African American, (2) Asian/Pacific Islanders, (3) Latinos, (4) lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, questioning, and (5) Native Americans. Strategic Planning Workgroups composed of mental health providers and community members as well as consumers and family members are given
2075-462: Is most suitable for them to use in generating clean energy policies and programs. The guide includes 16 clean energy policies and programs that offer opportunities for states to save energy, improve air quality, lower greenhouse gas emission and increase economic development. An example of a successful best practice from the guide is building codes for energy efficiency . This practice is to use building energy codes to set requirements that establish
2158-481: Is normative. It consists of the schools of informal design and conception, the formal planning, and analytical positioning. The second group, consisting of six schools, is more concerned with how strategic management is actually done, rather than prescribing optimal plans or positions. The six schools are entrepreneurial, visionary, cognitive, learning/adaptive/emergent, negotiation, corporate culture and business environment. The third and final group consists of one school,
2241-468: Is not a general consensus on what constitutes promising practices or best practices. In this context, the use of the terms "best practices" and "evidence-based practices" are often used interchangeably. Evidence-based practices are methods or techniques that have documented outcomes and ability to replicate as key factors. Despite these challenges, the literature suggests that there is some common use of and criteria for identifying best practices. For example,
2324-415: Is not best practice it's common practice. Specifically relating to the field of projects based work Dr Darling asserts in the past work practices were pragmatic in order to get achieve the task, recent decades has seen rise in opinions with limited evidence of best. Further rather than best practice perhaps we should strive for evidence based practice. Scott Ambler challenges the assumptions that there can be
2407-409: Is strategic management of a corporation (a particular legal structure of a business); business strategy is the strategic management of a business . Management theory and practice often make a distinction between strategic management and operational management , where operational management is concerned primarily with improving efficiency and controlling costs within the boundaries set by
2490-430: Is striving and the means (policies) by which it is seeking to get there." He continued that: "The essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment." Some complexity theorists define strategy as the unfolding of the internal and external aspects of the organization that results in actions in a socio-economic context. Michael D. Watkins claimed in 2007 that if mission/goals answer
2573-446: Is the tutoring program for children in grades 1-3 called Reading One-to-One. The program from Texas includes one on one tutoring with supervision and simple structured instruction in phonemic awareness . Phonemic awareness is one highly regarded predictor of how well a child will learn to read in the first two years of school. The program takes advantage of the fact that many children, especially ESL students, fail in reading because it
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2656-652: Is to tailor current practices that are in the world to the specific situation you are looking to solve. Best practices are meant to give insight into existing strategies. The concept of best practice has been employed extensively in environmental management. For example, it has been employed in aquaculture such as recommending low-phosphorus feed ingredients, in forestry to manage riparian buffer zones , in livestock and pasture management to regulate stocking rates, and in particular, best management practices have been important to improving water quality relating to nonpoint source pollution of fertilizers in agriculture as well as
2739-578: Is very hard for second language students to understand and pronounce sounds in English. The program is easily duplicated at a relatively low cost because of the straight forward teaching materials, systematic methods and administrative oversight. In September 2013 at the New York State Conference for Mayors and Municipal Officials, successes, ideas and information on best practices were shared among government peers. A best practice that
2822-427: The experience curve . Companies that pursued the highest market share position to achieve cost advantages fit under Porter's cost leadership generic strategy, but the concept of choice regarding differentiation and focus represented a new perspective. Porter's 1985 description of the value chain refers to the chain of activities (processes or collections of processes) that an organization performs in order to deliver
2905-485: The 'what' question, or if vision answers the 'why' questions, then strategy provides answers to the 'how' question of business management. The strategic management discipline originated in the 1950s and 1960s. Among the numerous early contributors, the most influential were Peter Drucker , Philip Selznick , Alfred Chandler, Igor Ansoff , and Bruce Henderson. The discipline draws from earlier thinking and texts on ' strategy ' dating back thousands of years. Prior to 1960,
2988-480: The 1950s and 1960s. Strategic management In the field of management , strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization 's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization operates. Strategic management provides overall direction to an enterprise and involves specifying
3071-576: The Best Practices recommendations and standard measures. This is the first national federally funded effort to develop a Best Practices guide for providers who serve the HIV positive transgender community. The nonprofit/voluntary sector is generally lacking tools for sharing and accessing best practices. Steps are being taken in some parts of the world, for example in the European Union, where
3154-525: The Corporate Level 2014 In 1980, Porter defined the two types of competitive advantage an organization can achieve relative to its rivals: lower cost or differentiation . This advantage derives from attribute(s) that allow an organization to outperform its competition, such as superior market position, skills, or resources. In Porter's view, strategic management should be concerned with building and sustaining competitive advantage. Porter developed
3237-562: The Europe 2020 Strategy has as a top priority the exchange of good practices and networking (including the nonprofit sector). An initiative of sharing good practices in terms of human resources (HR) and leadership among European nonprofit organizations was financed by the EU and launched in 2013, called HR Twinning. The platform allows the public to search for good practices and its members the possibility to share their practices, engage in discussions in
3320-521: The Steinbeck Innovation Foundation to increase investment in new technologies to help the area's agricultural industry. In recent years, public agencies and non-governmental organizations have been exploring and adopting best practices when delivering health and human services. In these settings, the use of the terms "promising practices", "best practices", and "evidence-based practices" is common and often confusing as there
3403-455: The argument for achieving higher market share and economies of scale . Porter wrote in 1980 that companies have to make choices about their scope and the type of competitive advantage they seek to achieve, whether lower cost or differentiation. The idea of strategy targeting particular industries and customers (i.e., competitive positions) with a differentiated offering was a departure from the experience-curve influenced strategy paradigm, which
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3486-521: The available medical evidence. The San Francisco Public Health Department conducted The Transgender Best Practices Guide project, a best practices document for cultural and service competency in working with transgender clients within HIV/AIDS service- provision settings. Following an intensive literature search and consumer focus group, a Working Group composed of noted community leaders; activists, professionals, and transgender consumers participated in
3569-536: The business. Porter defined two types of competitive advantage : lower cost or differentiation relative to its rivals. Achieving competitive advantage results from a firm's ability to cope with the five forces better than its rivals. Porter wrote: "[A]chieving competitive advantage requires a firm to make a choice...about the type of competitive advantage it seeks to attain and the scope within which it will attain it." He also wrote: "The two basic types of competitive advantage [differentiation and lower cost] combined with
3652-597: The concept of "parenting advantage" to be applied at the corporate level, as a parallel to the concept of "competitive advantage" applied at the business level. Parent companies, they argued, should aim to "add more value" to their portfolio of businesses than rivals. If they succeed, they have a parenting advantage. The right level of diversification depends, therefore, on the ability of the parent company to add value in comparison to others. Different parent companies with different skills should expect to have different portfolios. See Corporate Level Strategy 1995 and Strategy for
3735-399: The configuration or transformation school, a hybrid of the other schools organized into stages, organizational life cycles, or "episodes". Michael Porter defined strategy in 1980 as the "...broad formula for how a business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what policies will be needed to carry out those goals" and the "...combination of the ends (goals) for which the firm
3818-452: The corporate consciousness." Prior to the 1960s, the word competition rarely appeared in the most prominent management literature; U.S. companies then faced considerably less competition and did not focus on performance relative to peers. Further, the experience curve provided a basis for the retail sale of business ideas, helping drive the management consulting industry. Completion of an importance-performance matrix forms "a crucial stage in
3901-442: The day-to-day operations of the business is often referred to as "operations management" or specific terms for key departments or functions, such as "logistics management" or " marketing management ," which take over once strategic management decisions are implemented. Strategy has been practiced whenever an advantage was gained by planning the sequence and timing of the deployment of resources while simultaneously taking into account
3984-423: The development of the Best Practices guide. Topics covered by the Best Practices guide include mental health issues; gender identity; hormone use and clinical care practices. The Best Practices guide is currently in production; it will be published and distributed to EMA providers, as well as to select organizations nationwide. In addition, four large-scale EMA provider training will be provided to educate providers on
4067-436: The expected impact of untested smart practices is a common critique. If a current practice is known to be ineffective, implementing a promising alternative after weighing the alternatives may be worth the risk. Bretschneider et al. offers an alternate methodology for Best Practices research in 2005. Bretschneider's approach is much more technical than Bardach's, and explores issues of completeness and comparability. He addresses
4150-503: The fact that fully establishing whether a practice is truly a best practice would require assessment in all contexts, while in practice, only example cases are analyzed. Bretschneider also stresses the fact that in order for something to be considered a "best practice" it must be arrived at through a comparative process between methodologies. In order for a "best practice" to be valid, it must take into account all relevant approaches, since neglecting to do so would lead to inappropriate usage of
4233-522: The formulation of operations strategy", and may be considered a "simple, yet useful, method for simultaneously considering both the importance and performance dimensions when evaluating or defining strategy". Notes on this subject from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge suggest that a binary matrix may be used "but may be found too crude", and nine point scales on both
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#17327810691034316-746: The forum section and enroll their organization. Membership is free. The project is currently limited to a European audience. Nearly every industry and professional discipline discusses best practices. Areas of note include information technology development (such as new software,) construction, transportation, business management, sustainable development and various aspects of project management . Best practices also occur in healthcare to deliver high-quality care that promotes best outcomes. Best practices are used within business areas including sales , manufacturing , teaching , computer programming , road construction , health care , insurance , telecommunication and public policy . There are some criticisms of
4399-499: The framework via a 1963 conference and it remains commonly used in practice. The experience curve was developed by the Boston Consulting Group in 1966. It reflects a hypothesis that total per unit costs decline systematically by as much as 15–25% every time cumulative production (i.e., "experience") doubles. It has been empirically confirmed by some firms at various points in their history. Costs decline due to
4482-488: The identification and adoption of best practice for controlling salinity. However, in the context of complex environmental problems such as dryland salinity, there are significant challenges in defining what is best in any given context. Best management practice for complex problems is context specific and often contested against a background of imperfect knowledge. In these contexts, it is more useful to think of best management practice as an adaptive learning process rather than
4565-440: The importance and performance axes are recommended. An importance scale could be labelled from "the main thrust of competitiveness" to "never considered by customers and never likely to do so", and performance can be segmented into "better than", "the same as", and "worse than" the company's competitors. The highest urgency would than be directed to the most important areas where performance is poorer than competitors. The technique
4648-448: The industry. These forces affect the organization's ability to raise its prices as well as the costs of inputs (such as raw materials) for its processes. The five forces framework helps describe how a firm can use these forces to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage , either lower cost or differentiation. Companies can maximize their profitability by competing in industries with favorable structure. Competitors can take steps to grow
4731-512: The issue of the appropriate level of diversification . In 1987, he argued that corporate strategy involves two questions: 1) What business should the corporation be in? and 2) How should the corporate office manage its business units? He mentioned four concepts of corporate strategy each of which suggest a certain type of portfolio and a certain role for the corporate office; the latter three can be used together: Building on Porter's ideas, Michael Goold, Andrew Campbell and Marcus Alexander developed
4814-437: The key dimensions considered (industry attractiveness and competitive position) remain central to strategy. In response to the evident problems of "over diversification", C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel suggested that companies should build portfolios of businesses around shared technical or operating competencies, and should develop structures and processes to enhance their core competencies . Michael Porter also addressed
4897-413: The latest rigid orthodoxies even as they are becoming outdated anyway. Quinn proposes avoiding asking or entertaining the question "Which is best?" and says that more nuanced questions related to conditions and contexts should be asked instead. He further suggests terms which "tend less toward overgeneralization" like better practices, effective practices, or promising practices . Eric Darling states it
4980-697: The main elements of strategic management theory where consensus generally existed as of the 1970s, writing that strategic management: Chaffee further wrote that research up to that point covered three models of strategy, which were not mutually exclusive: The progress of strategy since 1960 can be charted by a variety of frameworks and concepts introduced by management consultants and academics. These reflect an increased focus on cost, competition and customers. These "3 Cs" were illuminated by much more robust empirical analysis at ever-more granular levels of detail, as industries and organizations were disaggregated into business units, activities, processes, and individuals in
5063-478: The opportunities and threats in the business environment. Alfred Chandler recognized the importance of coordinating management activity under an all-encompassing strategy. Interactions between functions were typically handled by managers who relayed information back and forth between departments. Chandler stressed the importance of taking a long-term perspective when looking to the future. In his 1962 ground breaking work Strategy and Structure , Chandler showed that
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#17327810691035146-404: The organization's objectives , developing policies and plans to achieve those objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the plans. Academics and practicing managers have developed numerous models and frameworks to assist in strategic decision-making in the context of complex environments and competitive dynamics. Strategic management is not static in nature; the models can include
5229-431: The organization's strategy . Strategy is defined as "the determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals." Strategies are established to set direction, focus effort, define or clarify the organization, and provide consistency or guidance in response to the environment. Strategic management involves
5312-615: The organization's strategy and a series of specific short-term and long-term goals or objectives and related measures. The second major process of strategic management is implementation , which involves decisions regarding how the organization's resources (i.e., people, process and IT systems) will be aligned and mobilized towards the objectives. Implementation results in how the organization's resources are structured (such as by product or service or geography), leadership arrangements, communication, incentives, and monitoring mechanisms to track progress towards objectives, among others. Running
5395-538: The overall profitability of the industry, or to take profit away from other parts of the industry structure. Porter modified Chandler's dictum about structure following strategy by introducing a second level of structure: while organizational structure follows strategy, it in turn follows industry structure. Porter wrote in 1980 that strategy target either cost leadership , differentiation , or focus. These are known as Porter's three generic strategies and can be applied to any size or form of business. Porter claimed that
5478-431: The past and could be applied to a current problem. Determining best practices to address a particular policy problem is a commonly used but little understood tool of analysis because the concept is vague and should therefore be examined with caution. Vagueness stems from the term "best" which is subjective. While some research and evidence must go into determining a practice the "best" it is more helpful to simply determine if
5561-447: The potential for taking the intervention to scale and generalizing the results to other populations and settings are key factors for best practices, the manner in which a method or intervention becomes a best practice can take some time and effort. The table below demonstrates the process for a promising practice to achieve the status of research-validated best practice. The National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
5644-666: The probable capabilities and behavior of competition. Bruce Henderson In 1988, Henry Mintzberg described the many different definitions and perspectives on strategy reflected in both academic research and in practice. He examined the strategic process and concluded it was much more fluid and unpredictable than people had thought. Because of this, he could not point to one process that could be called strategic planning . Instead Mintzberg concludes that there are five types of strategies: In 1998, Mintzberg developed these five types of management strategy into 10 "schools of thought" and grouped them into three categories. The first group
5727-436: The related concepts of strategic planning and strategic thinking . Strategic planning is analytical in nature and refers to formalized procedures to produce the data and analyses used as inputs for strategic thinking, which synthesizes the data resulting in the strategy. Strategic planning may also refer to control mechanisms used to implement the strategy once it is determined. In other words, strategic planning happens around
5810-441: The results of these studies have been published in a peer-reviewed journal or other professional publication, or documented in a comprehensive evaluation report; and (4) implementation materials, training and support resources, and quality assurance procedures have been developed and are ready for use by the public. NREPP is not an exhaustive list of interventions and inclusion in the registry does not constitute an endorsement. There
5893-416: The same name by Levitt. Over time, the customer became the driving force behind all strategic business decisions. This marketing concept, in the decades since its introduction, has been reformulated and repackaged under names including market orientation, customer orientation, customer intimacy, customer focus, customer-driven and market focus. In 1985, Ellen Earle Chaffee summarized what she thought were
5976-426: The scope of activities for which a firm seeks to achieve them lead to three generic strategies for achieving above average performance in an industry: cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The focus strategy has two variants, cost focus and differentiation focus." The concept of choice was a different perspective on strategy, as the 1970s paradigm was the pursuit of market share (size and scale) influenced by
6059-439: The skill of a firm in converting its plans into reality; and the skill of a firm in managing its own internal resistance to change. Bruce Henderson , founder of the Boston Consulting Group , wrote about the concept of the experience curve in 1968, following initial work begun in 1965. The experience curve refers to a hypothesis that unit production costs decline by 20–30% every time cumulative production doubles. This supported
6142-409: The strategic thinking or strategy making activity. Strategic management is often described as involving two major processes: formulation and implementation of strategy. While described sequentially below, in practice the two processes are iterative and each provides input for the other. Formulation of strategy involves analyzing the environment in which the organization operates, then making
6225-549: The task of identifying new approaches toward reducing disparities. The five Strategic Planning Workgroups work to identify new service delivery approaches defined by multicultural communities for multicultural communities using community-defined evidence to improve outcomes and reduce disparities. Community- defined evidence is defined as "a set of practices that communities have used and determined to yield positive results as determined by community consensus over time and which may or may not have been measured empirically but have reached
6308-421: The term "best practice". Eugene Bardach claims that the work necessary to deem a practice the "best" is rarely done. Most of the time, one will find "good" practices or "smart" practices that offer insight into solutions that may or may not work for a given situation. Michael Quinn Patton jokes in his book about qualitative research and evaluation methods "the only best practice in which I have complete confidence
6391-517: The term "best." Comparing sample practices may yield a good practice, but may also be altogether unreliable, depending on how the sample was selected. There are many examples of the use of best/smart practice evaluations in Public Policy. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produces a document called The Clean Energy-Environment Guide to Action , designed to share practices found to be successful and best by states, to determine what
6474-481: The term "distinctive competence" in referring to how the Navy was attempting to differentiate itself from the other services. He also formalized the idea of matching the organization's internal factors with external environmental circumstances. This core idea was developed further by Kenneth R. Andrews in 1963 into what we now call SWOT analysis , in which the strengths and weaknesses of the firm are assessed in light of
6557-400: The term "strategy" was primarily used regarding war and politics, not business. Many companies built strategic planning functions to develop and execute the formulation and implementation processes during the 1960s. Peter Drucker was a prolific management theorist and author of dozens of management books, with a career spanning five decades. He addressed fundamental strategic questions in
6640-428: Was focused on larger scale and lower cost. Porter revised the strategy paradigm again in 1985, writing that superior performance of the processes and activities performed by organizations as part of their value chain is the foundation of competitive advantage, thereby outlining a process view of strategy. The direction of strategic research also paralleled a major paradigm shift in how companies competed, specifically
6723-451: Was followed by G.E. multi factoral model , developed by General Electric . Companies continued to diversify as conglomerates until the 1980s, when deregulation and a less restrictive antitrust environment led to the view that a portfolio of operating divisions in different industries was worth more as many independent companies, leading to the breakup of many conglomerates. While the popularity of portfolio theory has waxed and waned,
6806-419: Was highlighted at the conference was how Salinas, California is rebuilding their economy by engaging technology companies with their agricultural business in order to grow jobs. Salinas is taking advantage of an idle opportunity. The area already has abundant lettuce fields and now the city is marketing itself as a lab for agricultural technology. This public/private partnership includes a new nonprofit called
6889-600: Was summarized in the growth–share matrix developed by the Boston Consulting Group around 1970. By 1979, one study estimated that 45% of the Fortune 500 companies were using some variation of the matrix in their strategic planning. This framework helped companies decide where to invest their resources (i.e., in their high market share, high growth businesses) and which businesses to divest (i.e., low market share, low growth businesses.) The growth-share matrix
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