4. Recommendations
Strategic Issue. This is the same questionthat is presented at the end of Section 2.
Strategy Recommendations. Identify the GENERIC and functional strategy recommendations. These will tie closely to the SWOT analysis. The recommendations should play into the company’s strengths and opportunities. They should minimize the company weaknesses and overcome its threats. Discuss each strategic initiative in detail including the actions required in the functional areas to support the strategic recommendations: marketing, operations, human resource management, finance, etc.
Objectives.Specify the performance objectives that should be monitored and result from the strategic recommendations and earlier analysis. What key performance indicators should be reported and what are the appropriate targets? For example, what are the sales and profitability goals? What goals should be established for nonfinancial indicators?
Strategic Justification. Justify why your recommendations are the best option and why other options are not. This is a comparative analysis. Develop this fully, tying it back to the various factors in your strategic analysis. Evaluate the pros and cons of the recommended direction. Demonstrate that you understand the implications of your recommendations.
A justification analysis weights the strength of the pros and cons for a given alternative in comparison to the other alternatives. It presents a rationale for why the pros of the recommended alternatives are better than the pros of the other alternatives. It also addressed why the cons of the recommended alternatives are less significant the those of the rejected alternatives.
Common Errors
Not naming and discussing a generic and several supporting functional strategies
Developing recommendations that don’t tie clearly to the previous analysis.
Not describing distinguishing characteristics of the strategies.
Not clearly describing each strategy.
Not aligning strategy recommendations with objectives.
Writing in generalities rather than company and situation specific.
Not describing strategies for all the relevant functions, e.g., human resource management, finance, etc.