NAME: FUNGAYI JOHANE MAJURIRA

STUDENT ID: 21981559

COURSE: STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

COURSE CODE: BBAC 411

PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF BUSINESS IN ACCOUNTING

LECTURER MR. ANGELO SALASINI

DATE: 30 AUGUST 2022

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ASSIGNMENT NUMBER: TWO
1. Describe vision and mission and discuss their value; and the work of
strategic leaders

After a company has scanned both the internal and external environment and
has gathered all the information it needs for its strategies it then develops its
vision and mission for the benefit of investors. These investors get insight as well
as confidence throw the vision and mission statements that the company rallies
behind in which it seeks to inform stakeholders what the company is and what it
stands for.

A vision according to Siame (2017) is a picture of what the firm wants to be, what
it wants to ultimately achieve. This vision is reflected on a vision statement that is
written and published on behalf of the company by its secretariat. This statement
will lay out the direction that the company will be in the future. It is usually short
but precise and to the point. Corporate strategies are executed following the
vision statement and it guides the path that the employees will follow as it would
have been formulated by the top executives or Chief Executive Officer. The
vision statement must directly or indirectly make reference to the company’s core
business. A good vision statement acts as motivation for employees and
provides guidance on long-term goal setting. It is long-term, aligned with the
firm’s business values and short-term goals, focused on success and inspiring.
Examples of vision statements of some prominent companies include;

Tesla- To create the most compelling car company of the 21 st century by

driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles

Amazon-To be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place

where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to
buy online

Coca cola-To craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love

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 Microsoft-To help people and businesses throughout the world realize
their full potential

Nike-Do everything possible to expand human potential

Ethiopian Airlines-To become the most competitive and leading aviation

group in Africa by providing safe, market driven and customer focused
passenger and cargo transport.

Thus a vision is expressing a dream, which can be visualized by the eye of the
mind that is unique and special identity to the company and reflects the
aspirations of the Executive leadership. It helps the company to convince the
stakeholders to have confidence in its leadership and its business. It helps
employees to maintain focus and not lose sight of the long-term goal of the
company. A vision statement helps to create a legacy and designed to outlast the
founder regardless of whether you decide to sell or no longer there
circumstantially.

Mission according to Pearce and Robinson (2003) describes the company’s

scope of operations; - product, market, marker operating policies, technological
areas, social responsibility and the expression of commitment to survival, growth
and profitability, sets the overall purpose of the company. The mission specifies
the business it wants to operate in and the people it intends to serve and how it
intends to do so. It is more concrete and precise than the vision. The mission in
more galvanized if employees share the ethical standards and values of the
company as a guiding principle to be able to implement the leadership vision. It
should be inspiring and relevant to stakeholders.

The firm’s mission like the vision should be laid out as a statement and should
not be vague, too broad and not pervaded by things that are not desirable such
as jargons and unnecessary superlatives. Thus mission statements are crucial as

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strategic inputs for strategic actions in order to achieve strategic competitiveness
for earning above average returns. Examples of mission statements of some
leading companies include;

Tesla – To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy

Amazon-to serve customers through online and physical stores and focus
on selection, price and convenience

Coca cola – To refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit, to inspire
moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions and
to create value and make a difference

Nike – Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete. F you have a body
you are an athlete

Ethiopian airlines – To became the leading aviation group in Africa by

providing safe passenger and cargo air transport, aviation training, flight
catering, MRO and ground services whose quality and price value
proposition is always better than its competitors.

Thus a mission statement adds value to a company through some of the

following,
It creates unique identity – it differentiates itself from its competitors through its
mission statement
It attracts talent – those looking for a job will look at the mission statement that
they can relate to and want to be identified with the company

Provides guiding culture – the values, norms and beliefs of a company create a
unique cultural environment that can be expressed through the mission
statement

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Improves performance – the mission statement motivates employees and gives
them a clear goal for working towards the company’s long-term plans for growth.

Building community – the mission statement helps potential customers and the
community members to build positive associations with their brand through
workers who build a good reputation with business partner’s clients and
customers.

Work of Strategic leaders

Hitt, Ireland et.al (2011) states that strategic leaders are people located in
different parts of the firm using the strategic management process to help the
firm reach its vision and mission. Leadership according to Johnson, Scholes,
et.al (2013) is the process of influencing an organization (or group within an
organization) in its efforts towards achieving an aim or goal. Strategic leaders are
decisive, committed to nurturing those around and below them, and also
committed to helping the firm create value for all stakeholder groups. Hitt (2011)
further states that no matter their location these strategic leaders are decisive
and committed to nurturing those around and below them so as altogether help
to create value for all stakeholders.

The strategic leader plays very important role as a change driver who creates
and develops change management strategies and develops techniques to
make employees accept the change from time to time. He should be honest,
bold, shrewd, a visionary, an analyst, a strategist, a tactician, a technologist
and have the ability to identify those necessary people to work with him to
achieve the desired results to achieve sustainability. The strategic leader
should help the company to grow and gain competitive advantage by playing
different types of roles to achieve long-term strategic results and help to
implement change management easily and quickly.

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The strategic leader generally plays major roles in the business though
dependent on the size and scope of the business. He acts as a navigator to
deal with difficulties, solves problems and influences the work culture. He
analyses vast amounts of conflicting information understands the problem
and identify feasible and optimal solutions.cas a strategist he develops long-
term strategies and sets targets to match the vision of the organization by
setting future plans and the required direction and actions.

The strategic leader acts as an entrepreneur by taking opportunities and

expands the business by creating innovative products and services to the
market, generating new style of leadership and ideas. He acts as a
mobilizer who gathers all kinds of resources and develops teams and
partnerships with different kinds of talents do build capacity to rapidly
implement the objectives. He also works as talent advocate by identifying
talented and skillful employees both internally and externally. He then
encourages these talented individuals to be innovative by providing
training and guidance to reach their optimum abilities.

The strategic leader works as a captivator by building confidence among

employees and cultivate a culture of belongingness by convincing them to
accept his/her leadership. He works as a global thinker who understands
diversity within the organization and always identifying global
opportunities. The strategic leader works as a change driver who adapt to
dynamic business environment through making continuous change
management strategies and evolving new techniques acceptable to
employees by convincing them of the fruitful outcomes of the changes.
Last but not least he works as the guardian of the organization. In this role
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he keeps a keen observation of the business environment and guards it
against any disturbances and takes bold and wise decisions with courage
and risk attitude for the long-term benefit of the organization. He takes the
onus of failure and shares the successes with all employees. He is not
emotional; and keeps away from personal relationships in as far as the
achievement of firm’s goals is concerned elevating himself to be popular
by taking bold, useful and sometimes unpopular decisions.

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2. Define stakeholders and describe their ability to influence organizations

Stakeholders are groups or individuals that have a vested interest in and can
exert influence on an organization’s strategy and whose interests are directly
affected by the activities of the an organization. Hitt, Ireland, et.al, states that
stakeholders are the individual and groups who can affect the firm’s vision and
mission, are affected by the strategic outcomes achieved, and have enforceable
claims on the firm’s performance. Different stakeholders have different priorities
and can affect or be affected by a business’ operations and performance.

An organization cannot operate in isolation as it needs partners that will make the
business thrive and earn above-average returns. However despite their
importance to the organization stakeholders can hold the company at ransom by
withholding participation if the performance of the organization is not to their
satisfaction. Participation can come in the form of supplies, payments and even
labor. The stakeholders will continue to support the organization as long as it is
performing well and it is the ability of the firm to maintain good relations with
stakeholders that will enable it to have competitive advantage over its
competitors. Companies management however have the daunting task to
insulate the company from over dependence on stakeholders as their eventual
influence on its operations and decision making processes.

There are three types of stakeholder in an organization. These are the capital
market stakeholders, the product market stakeholders and the organizational
stakeholders. Each group of stakeholders has different expectations from the
decision makers of the firm they will be dealing with towards meeting their own
objectives. Thus some stakeholders tend to have more leverage on the firm than
the others leading to some trade-offs being reached for those stakeholders who
deal with strategic management processes.

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Capital Market Stakeholders
Capital market stakeholders refer to groups that provide and affect the availability
and cost of company capital. These are shareholders, venture capitalists, banks
and debt investors. Shareholders who would have started the company would
like to see a return on their investments. They are prepared to inject more capital
provided the financial statements show that their investments are well secured.
High risk are relative to high returns and hence were risk is high those concerned
will keep an eye against anything that will have an influence that may change the
course of the business. If the shareholders are not happy and dissatisfied with
the way the business is being run they may withhold further funding or even sell
their shares or change the whole top management team. Thus there is need to
safeguard their interests but also ensuring that the business is left to run
independently without relying much on the shareholders who if left to be too
influential on the running of the business the business may fold as they would
have taken over the policy and decision making roles of the executives. The
business hence has to respond quickly to dissatisfied shareholders. Other
stakeholders like banks and other lenders who would have given the company
debt and , as a consequence would need the company to repay it want to see a
greater return on their investment that the risk they would have taken.
Businesses always need external funding to finance the purchase of machinery,
new plants which cannot be met by the cash generated by the business.

Product Market stakeholders

Product stakeholders refer to parties who influence or are affected by the
company’s offer. Their satisfaction contributes to the company’s success. These
include suppliers, customers, unions, host communities and government. These
stakeholders have different levels of expectations from the company. The
company competitors have an indirect role to play in so far as the market playing
field is concerned. Customers want cheap and quality products to satisfy their
need. Suppliers want high prices for the supply of their products. Supplier
dissatisfaction will result in input supply stop. But competitors may start offering

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lower prices for their customers and this company’s customers may look
elsewhere for cheaper products hence the company will be forced to reduce its
prices or persuade its suppliers to always provide raw materials as and when
they are needed or reduce prices. Customers bring money into the company
which is later used to pay suppliers. Customer dissatisfaction can have an impact
on a lower income. They flow money to competitors. Without customers and
suppliers there will be no business. Host communities would want the company
to be the providers of employment to the community residents. They will provide
labor and expect the company to decent wages. They expect the company to
prioritize healthy labor practices. They also want the company not to cause
externalities such as pollution and provide community plough backs through
provision of boreholes, recreational facilities thereby lessening the demand on
local and public authority’s services. Hence these stakeholders would want a
situation where there is a balance that they see where a company looks stable
which would mean that there is no conflict with shareholders and that there is an
assurance that business will remain as usual. Unions want job securities for their
members, desirable working conditions and an assurance the business will
operate as a going concern in the foreseeable future. Government provides
infrastructure, education and transport. These have a bearing on the business as
it will have skilled human capital and also it will lower transport costs and
indirectly affects the cost and quality of its products. Government would want the
business to thrive that way the company will create more labor and thus more
taxes and comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Organizational stakeholders.
Organizational stakeholders refer to parties who have a direct interest in the
performance of the company. These stakeholders are directly affected by the
company’s practices. They include employees, managers and staff. These
stakeholders expect the organization to provide a dynamic, stimulating and
rewarding working environment. Workers want to see the company growing and
providing them with opportunities to also grow with it through training and further

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skills development. At all levels these stakeholders want to be participants in an
organization where they are rewarded according to their contribution. Those
benefits can come in the form of salary, benefits, good work facilities and
environment while also taking into consideration their skills, knowledge and
expertise. The satisfaction of the employees is key to company success and they
are more productive when satisfied. Company managers and executives are
responsible for allocating company resources and evaluating its resources. They
manage resources to create value. They take strategic steps to exploit
opportunities and minimize threats. The way they organize the company can
have a significant effect on the company’s ability to compete in the market.

This in conclusion a company must be able to identify its stakeholders and their
importance. When it has identified them it must manage them. In managing them
the company must prioritize them and try as much as it can to satisfy them.
Stakeholders wield certain powers that the organization must be able to exploit or
minimize. . Hence the earning capacity of the organization will determine how it
will respond to stakeholders’ interest. Organizations that earn below average
returns do not have the capacity to minimally satisfy stakeholders. Thus the
company must labor to earn above average returns and that way they will rely
less on the influence of the stakeholders. This flexibility will enable the company
to satisfy multiple stakeholders as it will not be held at ransom by those
stakeholders who would think they have power over the decisions of the
company. The support of each stakeholder is important to the company but their
interests cannot all be satisfied hence there will always be trade-offs in decision
making.

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REFERENCES

1. Eman Ali Ahli. (2017). Strategic leaders roles. Sharjah:Skyline College

2. Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson: Strategic Management: Competitiveness and

Globalization. Mason: engage Learning
3. Johnson, Scholes and l (2013) is

4. Pearce and Robinson. (2003). Strategic Management 8th edition. Boston:

Irwin McGraw-Hill

5. Siame,C. (2017). Strategic decision making.

6. ZICA.(2011).Strategic Management.London:BPP Learning Media

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