Hi,

Below main references: 

Porter, Michael E. (1980). Competitive Strategy. Free Press. ISBN 0-684-84148-

Porter, Michael E. (1985). Competitive Advantage. Free Press. ISBN 0-684-84146-0

Bowman clock in 

https://books.google.fr/books?id=QQtCwQE4e-AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Gerry+Johnson%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijvKX9wrfNAhVBChoKHeVACYsQ6AEISjAD#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hope it helps

Thanks a lot Houcine Akrout

Hello Missoum,

Here I share you an article from Richard. P. Rumelt that can be helpful.

In my view strategy is a way of the thinking to achieve the intended objective that prompted that thinking most organisations spend money planning but as long those plans achieve their objective then they can b called strategy but if they do not achieve then they r not stragues for that particular objective I don't  believe in failed strategy that means it was not a strategy in the first place thus the tools I can advice is one to have institutional, environment and contextual intelligence before making the decision.

See HBR's "Must reads on strategy," especially Michael Porter, "What is Strategy" article: 

https://jdavidulloa.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/harvard-business-strategy.pdf

Here is a 3rd party summary of Porter's article:

http://www.scms.coop/repository/3rd_LarryBiernacki_WhatIsStrategy_2.pdf.

Hi Missoum,

when assessing a business strategy, next to the useful advice that has already been given to you on this discussion board, you also might want to consider the strategic orientation of the company. Noble et al. (2002) understand them as guiding principles that not only influence the strategy-making but also the concrete behaviour of an enterprise.

The literature offers a wide variety of different strategic orientations, for example market or customer orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, or brand orientation. You will find plenty of literature on those - nevertheless, if you have problems identifying relevant articles, let me know and I give you the full references.

Regards, Holger

Noble, C.H., Sinha, R.K. and Kumar, A. (2002), “Market orientation and alternative strategic orientations: a longitudinal assessment of performance implications”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 66 No. 4, pp. 25–39.

Very interresting advices and orientations.

Thank you all 

Hi Missoum,

from my point of view there is one very important book missing: Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, Joseph Lampel: Strategy Safari - your complete guide through the wilds of strategic management. They especially describe the differences between different thinking schools.

Thank you very much Dieter

Hello Missoum,

Use the five generic strategy matrix for qualifying (identifying)  the strategy of the business. The five strategies are low price, focus low price, differentiation, focus differentiation, and best cost. 

Regards,

Mohammed 

Thank you very much Mohammed Ahmed

As Mohammed says you could use the Five Generic Strategies of Porter, if you are dealing mainly with products.  You could also look at the work of Treacy and Wiersama which also consider service aspects or an extension of it by Martinez & Bititci.  

I would suggest you also to look at  Drucker P., 1973, Management Tasks and Responsibilities! It's a challenging topic!

Regards,

Anna

Thank you very much Anna Omarini and Mark Phillips

In my opinion a strategic decision solely depends on the objective that needs to be achieved.  The objective will determine which theory to use.  Many scholars have documented theories on making strategic decision but remember not all locations have the same environment.  The business environment in uk may not be the same as China.  Therefore, first determine the objective that the strategy is intended to achieve, then check the environment which you intend to apply the strategy then determine which theory to use or if you have to combine different theories from scholars.  There are various theories in strategic decision but at the end of the day, what you want is to achieve the objective.  Definitely the objective comes before strategy.  Good luck.

Maybe you can explore the topics of strategic audit and administrative audit, not accountant audit. However, in my research about of marketing audit I found an important idea: trazability of strategy in planning and ejecution.