Borders Group, Inc.
The strategic plan documents the history of the company in some detail, elaborating the recent troubles in its working and profitability. Whilst trouble has been taken to outline the poor performance of the company, the analysis of its working suffers from a lack of financial analysis, which appears to be cursory. With most strategic objectives, especially those concerned with turnaround, ultimately working towards achieving measurable financial improvement in terms of sales and profits, the background of the company appears to have been incompletely analysed.
The mission statement provides a very brief view of the company’s mission. Again the internal and external analyses would have been helped by the inclusion of more detailed (Pearce & Robinson, 2004). Whilst the plan contains some interesting suggestions for improvement of operations, the absence of even basic financial projections make it difficult to judge its objectives or to what extent the suggestions will help in turning the company around. 2. Toll Brothers
With the housing crisis going through its worst crisis in recent memory, Toll Brothers, a maker of high quality homes, is facing difficult times. The analysis of the company’s existing financial position, as also its internal and external environment, is detailed and informative, and highlights the enormous difficulties facing the company. More attention to the mission and vision statement would however have been more appropriate in a strategic plan, as the strategy of a corporation, is above all dependent upon its mission and values (Pearce & Robinson, 2004).
The plan has many suggestions, possibly too many to implement at the same time, and a prioritisation of the various suggestions would have helped in formulating a workable plan rather than having to decide between a heap of suggestions. It would also have helped to relate the suggestions, both to the mission statement of the company and to financial projections; the plan is incomplete in these two aspects. 3. Terra Environmental Technologies
The strategic plan for Terra Environmental details the current situation of the company painstakingly, with respect to its current operations as well as its internal and external environment. Whilst the suggestions on augmentation of the company’s mission statement are relevant, the analysis suffers from lack of financial analysis. The lack of a financial snapshot makes any analysis appear to be incomplete, half hearted and not backed by relevant details.
The plan provides a strong case for expansion of the company’s activities into Hungary. The case is argued forcefully and illustrated with economic and infrastructural data. The second half of the plan is incomplete in many places, thus making it practically impossible to comment upon its viability, other than to state that the plan for entering Hungary should be examined further. 4. Blockbuster
The strategic plan for Blockbuster, a home movie and game entertainment company, whilst being inadequate with respect to the vision and mission statement contains a detailed and informative analysis of the environmental situation and a macroeconomic forecast that is essential for building strategy. The section on plans and goals is detailed with clarity and the financial assessment is comprehensive and elaborately done. The plan has been prepared with care. It is comprehensive and stress has been given both to the current position as well as to suggested future strategies.
Stress has also been given to critical success factors and to controls. References Pearce, J. , & Robinson, R, 2004, Strategic Management: Formulation Long Term Objectives and Grand Strategies. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Shrapnel, R, 2000, A concise summary of strategic management thought, Retrieved February 13, 2009 from www. richardshrapnel. com/resources. shtm Wit, B and Meyer, R, 2004, Strategy Synthesis: Resolving strategy paradoxes to create competitive advantage, Thomson Learning, ISBN-10: 1861521391
