Week 4 - Learning Journal

Journal 4

1) Who is a strategist? Describe the main types of jobs that have a strong strategy implement.

Strategist is a person who does all the jobs related to development and implementation of strategy. A strategist is a person who has got all the required sensibilities and skills required to develop the best possible strategy and implement it.

The main types of jobs that requires strong strategy element can be:-

There are basically 3 levels of managers in an organization. They are top level managers, middle level managers and operation level managers. An organization can not run smoothly if all of these 3 levels don’t work cooperatively and effectively. The top level managers like COO, CEO are not the ultimate strategists for the organization, but they are the ones who grants the permission to formulate and implement the strategies. Middle-level managers and operation level managers are assigned with the duty to implement the strategy which are usually formulated by the top level managers.

2) What’s the difference between strategic planners and a strategic consultant?

Strategic Planners	Strategic Consultant
Strategic planners are the one who develops the strategies for the organization to achieve the desired goals.	Strategic consultant are the one who help in providing resources, analysis and information to assist in strategy formulation.
Strategic planners have a good idea on how organization works.	Strategic consultant have a better idea of how other companies works, and helps the one’s company out-do other companies.
Organization itself is the source of information and knowledge for Strategic planners.	Strategic consultant transfers information and knowledge that they have had gained from experience.
Internal consultants is the most common job that most of the Strategic planners works as in the organization.	For an organization, they are only the external consultants not more than that.

3) What answers did you give to questions 1 and 2 on the group exercise this week?

i)  Name one “strategist” for each of the following five categories, and explain why you consider them to have Strategic ability and Strategic impact in their field.

a)      Business Leader:-

Ratan Tata is the name that i would like to take because he is a great business leader and a great strategist too. He is the current chairman of the “Tata Group’ from India. He made a strategy to make the world’s cheapest car that would be affordable to middle-class people too, he started to manufacture the cars in very large quantities which reduced the cost of the cars. The car was offered at a price of IRS. 100000 only, it was an instant hit and resulted in very huge sales of those cars. He has been ranked as the most  powerful CEO of India too.

b)      Inventor or Scientist:-

The first person who comes in my mind when the word “Inventor or scientist” comes up is Steve Jobs. He revolutionized the world of music by first introducing a portable music playing device called the iPod. Through this innovation, people were no longer bound to carry cassettes, CD's with them or go to music stores to buy CD and cassettes. Now, they were able to download music and movies from their home and enjoy them in their devices through iTunes. It became a success and hence, justifies Steve jobs to be a great strategist too.

c)      Sports Manager:-

Gary Kirsten,a is the one who i consider to be a sport manager and a great strategist too. He was the coach of Indian Cricket Team during the World Cup of 2011, he made a strategy of picking the talented and young players in the team, and not selecting the senior players. His strategy was that with the existence of young players, their fielding department would improve and they would become perfect in all three parts of the game from batting, bowling to fielding. His strategy proved correct and they comfortably won the World Cup.

d)      Civil Rights Campaigner:-

In context of Nepal, Anuradha Koirala is the best example of the civil rights campaigner with strategic capabilities. She is the founder of the non-profit organization called “Maiti Nepal” which is working against women trafficking. She made a strategy of seeking help and alliance from Indian authorities to help women's trafficking because majority of women's from Nepal are taken in the Brothels of India. She is also the CNN Hero for the year 2011.

e)      Musician, writer, film maker or artist:-

I think the musician Bryan Adams is a good strategist too. He came to give the concert in a country that many of the western musicians would never come to and also would not have heard of. He came to give the concert in Nepal, which was a clever move on his perspective. After that concert, Bryan Adams and his songs are very much popular in Nepal and it has dramatically increased his fan following in Nepal too.

ii) What sort of strategy job would you like to do? What skills do you have that would be valuable in a strategy roles? What skills do you think you need to work on?

The most preferred job for me would be as a general manager or as a human resource manager, if it ought to be a strategy job.

I am quiet capable in leading people and also a good communicator. I could effectively make people clear and understand about the strategies and their personal and joint roles. I would know more about the process in development, formulation, planning and implementation of strategies inside and outside the organisation by the end of this module. I am pretty sure that i could make a good general manager &, the ability to communicate and handle people effectively could  also make me a candidate for the job of human resource manager.

The skills that i need to work on would be technical skills. I am not much aware about different technical aspects of an organisations. I think i should be working hard and seriously in this area, and i know i can achieve this.