Page 111 - MS Year in Review 2020

Cola is in the beverage business, Federal Express is in the package transportation

business, and Disney is in the entertainment business.

In brief, the identification and clear definition of a business concept provides the

foundation on which all other aspects of the business must be built. The customers
to be served, products offered, and day to day systems of the firm are all built upon

and extensions of the business concept/business foundation, as explained below.

The Strategic Mission. While the business concept defines what an organization
is, the “strategic mission” identifies what the enterprise wants to achieve or
become. It is a statement of the strategic intent of the enterprise. It is the answer

to the question “What do we want to achieve or become over a defined time
period.” For example, in its early days (1994) Starbucks Coffee Company (now
“Starbucks”) established the strategic mission of becoming “the leading brand of

specialty coffee in North America by the year 2000.

The “Core Strategy.” While a “strategic mission” identifies what the enterprise
wants to achieve or become, a “core strategy” is a statement of how the
organizational will complete and achieve its strategic mission. For example, the core

strategy for a commodity type of business (such as a retailer like Walmart or a
mining company such as B.H.P. Billiton) is to be the low-cost

provider. The core strategy is the central theme around which all other strategies
are created.

Importance of a Business Foundation. Just as the foundation of a building is
critical to its structural integrity, the foundation of a business is equally important
for the development of the business.

Key Developmental Tasks for Successful Organizations

An initial premise or hypothesis underlying this framework is that organizations
must perform certain tasks to be successful at each stage of their

110
© Management Systems Consulting Corporation, 2020. All rights reserved