The strategy and change management fields have developed new perspectives in recent years. Studies show that a high percentage of strategic change efforts fail and it was argued that one problem was the unsuccessful communication of the vision and strategy to employees. This exploratory research studied the use of graphic facilitative methods within the context of an organisation's strategic change process. Phase one of the explorative study was carried out using the combination of interview data, workshops and literature to identify emerging themes and to develop a conceptual model. Phase two of the study was again exploratory but more focused on the themes that had emerged from the preliminary study. Data was collected through interviews, observational methods, survey and a more focused literature review. Through the combined findings of the preliminary and focused study and from the literature, the author established an understanding and theory of how the methods contribute to improved strategy communication. The research has re-enforced the view in literature that the strategy communication process will be more successful by ensuring the strategy is driven by the right people and the strategy development is realistic. The use of graphics, metaphors, stories and dialogue, in combination, can help to improve the strategy communication process by conveying a clear strategic message, by facilitating an interactive strategy communication process, by encouraging communication in an open and safe environment, and because they are new, innovative and different.

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This thesis explores the experience of the historical and contemporary commercial manager, its rise and fall as an expert occupation and its rise again as potentially a new organisational profession in the project-led organisation. Despite their importance in such organisations, commercial managers often report not seeing their work as a site for innovation and being viewed as being impediments to the experience of other functions in cross-functional teams. Their main association, the IACCM, intends to improve the status of commercial managers through 'professionalisation'. However, historically, the commercial manager was of considerable status, in the firms of the late Industrial Revolution. They have been lost to the principal histories of British management, until now. How was the status of the occupation lost? This thesis considers the historical structuring of the occupation through analysis and interpretation of historical employment archives and the novel use of historical actor's own situations wanted advertising to reconstruct the experience of the historical commercial manager.The lived experience of contemporary commercial managers was investigated using Critical Incident Technique and phenomenological content analysis of first-person accounts of commercial managers successfully and unsuccessfully attempting to innovate within their routine work. The conflicts and scarcities of their position are key elements amongst the antecedents of insight that lead to commercial innovation. This thesis responds to Rickard's (2003) call for more realistic research into innovation and practical models of the actual practices of innovating people. Past and present are unified by an analysis of trait and ideological theories of professionalism. Through development of a framework for assessing progress in professional mobility projects, conditions for the fall of historical commercial managers are theorised and the status of modern commercial managers is analysed. Several key debates are also considered, such the rate of vertical integration in British firms.The limitation of the study in both its historical and contemporary parts is the availability of data and interpretive approach taken to it. Although the method by which data types were elicited and analysed is clear and repeatable, there is a limitation in the degree to which the data is representative, in terms of the degree of participation of commercial managers and the physical limits of the archive; interpretation can only be carried out on the data that actually survives. Further work is proposed and recommendations are made for supporting the professional mobility of modern commercial managers. Once again, commercial managers find themselves as a response to the concerns of capital and enterprise, yet will their putative institution be able to create the kind of collective mobility that was impossible for their historical forebears?

Corporate social responsibility in global supply chains has become an increasingly salient issue for many organisations. In a response to this, the aim of this research is to consider the influence of strategic management, and in particular the role of business strategy, in shaping socially and environmentally responsible purchasing and supply management activities. In examining this theme, this research draws heavily upon recent conceptualisations of the relationship between strategic management and corporate social responsibility, and empirically assesses this relationship with a focus on such practices within the supply chain. Using a novel data collection approach to capture firms’ actual social and environmental supply management activities, these data draw on interviews with 178 UK-based firms and observations of 340 separate buyer-supplier relationships. Primary data were supplemented with secondary data to capture both industry and firm characteristics. This methodology minimises social desirability bias and common source bias. The findings suggest that responsible purchasing and supply management is strongly driven by business strategy in the business to consumer market. In contrast, in the business to business market such initiatives are largely influenced by firms’ financial resources and economic obligations. In both the business to consumer and business to business sector, however, business strategy and financial resources are contingent on the industry environment. Hence, the industry environment plays a significant, albeit indirect, role in shaping socially and environmentally responsible purchasing and supply management activities. This research offers one of the first insights into how strategic management, and in particular how business strategy, influences firms’ investments in socially and environmentally responsible purchasing and supply management initiatives. Through conceptual and empirical investigations this research highlights this relationship and notes the importance of integrating business strategy with general supplier practices, with a focus on the implementation of corporate social responsibility in individual buyer-supplier relationships.

This thesis explores the role of corporate venture capital (CVC) investment in business growth strategy. It is particularly concerned with identifying the CVC investment options for business development and growth. Business growth strategy involves choices of products (and services) or markets for an organisation to enter or exit. An organisation has a choice between penetrating its existing markets, developing new products for its existing markets, bringing its existing products into new markets, or diversifying its activities by introducing new products into new markets. A framework linking CVC investment with business growth strategy is developed and is used for identifying the relevant contribution which the different CVC investments make to business growth. Firms interested in diversifying their investment portfolio utilise CVC for this purpose. These investments, however, support organisational growth when they are aligned to business strategy, defined by the goal of increasing demand for existing products (or services), bringing new products to existing markets faster, protecting against a competitive threat which involves offering existing products to new markets, and developing new products in new markets. There are instances where CVC investments can be used as a channel for later stage funding of corporate venturing projects. This thesis highlights the fact that contrary to both popular wisdom and academic arguments, CVC funds can still be successful when they function like independent venture capital funds, with reliance on financial return on investment as critical to their success. They are, however, able to endure by executing this practice in line with the corporation’s business growth strategy. Using archival data collected from three case studies over a 34-year period, the framework developed from literature review is applied as a basis for understanding how CVC investment can be linked to business growth strategy.

Tourism trade as well as hotel industry plays an important role in the services sector of the national economy of many countries, including the Czech Republic. The success of the whole branch is significantly influenced by demand fluctuations which usually occur in seasonal terms. Nowadays, however, when the world economy is afflicted by economical crisis, the demand downturns are apparent even in the times of high season. That is why the companies search for methods which would help to soften the impact of the crisis. Yield management appeared in hotel industry more than 20 years ago and is now used in many hotel chains and even small independent hotels. Its goal is to eliminate the demand fluctuation through an effective use of the hotel capacity. In practice it means to ensure that the right rooms are sold to the right customer for the right price. The aim of this thesis is a presentation of an application of Yield management theory in practice, in case of Hilton Prague hotel and to find out the opportunities of the Yield management to reduce the impact of economical crisis. First, we will need to define the base and principals of Yield management. Then we will apply them in practice to the Hilton Prague hotel. Finally, for the use of this hotel, we will examine the methods of smoothing the stroke of the crises.

The subject of this thesis is to process a future development strategy of a specific firm based on its strategy analysis. The thesis consists of theoretical and practical part, where the theoretical part describes methods and procedures, which are subsequently used in the practical part. The practical part then analyses external and internal environment of the company, based on which SWOT analysis is created. A proposal of the firm's future development is put together from the obtained data, which also corresponds with the mission and vision of the company, and is described further in more detail within the functional strategies of the individual strategy business units. At the end, the chosen strategy is evaluated from the perspective of suitability, acceptability and viability.

In my thesis I will try to compare the profitability of investment strategies based on the books of the eight famous financial gurus. I'll try to explain the process of selection of stocks to model portfolios, and describe its pitfalls and ideas hidden behind them.I will evaluate the performance of model portfolios under current market conditions based on observation of their development. I will try to clarify the trend observed in stocks moves not only in terms of the criteria of tested strategies, but also in terms of important company news that occurred at the time of observation. I will look on the chosen strategies from the short-term point of view, the observation will last several weeks. The outcome of my work should be my own scoring model for finding undervalued stocks based on chosen strategies and criteria that will appear to be successful within my own observation.

In this study, it is aimed to determine and implement a process based strategic planning methodology for Turkish Ministry of Finance. Proposed methodology has been implemented in Ministry of Finance by a T&Uuml / BiTAK supported strategic management project in collaboration with Ministry of Finance Strategy Development Unit (MoF_SDU), T&Uuml / SSiDE and a private Consultancy Company. This project was a direct consequence of reforms on Public Financial Management and stipulated by the Laws No. 5018 and 5436 which have been prepared based on efficiency in public service delivery. Proposed methodology is different from other strategic planning methodologies for public and non-profit organizations because it uses a combination of numerous techniques that are previously developed for strategic planning. Examples are mentoring, e- learning, idea tray method, and process modelling. Firstly, strategic planning methodology is determined with close inspection of international approaches and best practices. Ministry of Finance&rsquo / s organizational chart is redesigned to enable more effective and efficient operation. Ministry of Finance is divided to 14 strategic business units (SBUs). For every SBU, detailed environmental analyses are conducted and critical issues are derived. Mission and strategic vision statements are clearly determined and core processes are modelled and standardized. Strategic goals and detailed objectives are formulated. Finally, performance indicators are determined for every objective for evaluation and continuous improvement. At the end of the implementation, 2008-2012 strategic plan for Ministry of Finance is prepared and numerous organizational improvements are observed.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the diversification of a major oil company into the. petrochemical business and then through thorough analysis to recommend the appropriate corporate strategies to be followed by the petrochemical subsidiary of such a company in the 1980's and the 1990's. The petrochemical industry has undergone great changes during the last decade. In the early 1970's it entered a new era of maturity, however due to the misplannings of the late 1960's extending to the early 1970's the industry was suddenly faced with significant overcapacity which has persisted to the present date and is expected to last well into the 1980's. The 1974 oil crisis caused a further decline in the growth of demand, hence exacerbating the situation. During the seventies the industry has had to operate under increasing material prices, unlike the past, which when coupled with the problem of overcapacity and the resulting deterioration of prices, has caused considerable decline in the financial ability of the companies to finance their capital expenditure programmes through internal cash generation (which was the case in the industry's 'golden era'). This situation is threatening the long term viability and survival of the petrochemical businesses. A System Dynamics model for a hypothetical petrochemical subsidiary of a major oil company has been constructed which embodies all the policies inherent in such a system. The dynamic behaviour of the model closely resembles that expected from the real system such as the declining financial ability, which is mostly due to the inflationary conditions. Through thorough analysis, the impact of varying inflation level on the performance of the system was explored, and the need for adopting suitable accounting policies which would take account of the replacement costs of assets, during periods of high inflation, was proposed. The adoption of a number of policies led to a certain degree of improvement in the financial performance of the system, and these are recommended concerning the corporate strategy of the company for the next two decades. Finally it was discovered that due to the low level of growth of demand (compared to the past), the large economic sizes of the petrochemical plants and the market share consensus, the companies will have to go into joint ventures in the future.