Class begins on Monday and ends on Sunday at 11:55PM of each week.

Your first/ initial entry into the discussion MUST be made by Thursday in order to receive credit for the week. This way you can read, learn, and comment on each other’s posts before the assignment is due.

If you have any questions or need further clarification please feel free to contact me via e-mail at: lcohen@mcny.edu

In the event that you email me and I don’t reply within 24 hours, it is most likely because I didn’t get your email. Please check the address and email me again. If for some reason you have to email me any documents, please be kind and write me a note too and don’t just send your document making the assumption that I will read it. Don’t forget the old axiom, people do business with people they like, with that in mind, make yourself likable and you might be surprised by what people will do for you.

Answer the following questions…

1. Why is strategic planning important to a small company?
2. What is a competitive advantage? Why is it important for a small company to establish one?
3. What are the steps in the strategic management process?
4. One Business writer says, “The text of a mission statement is what you do with it after you put it in place.” What does she mean? Do you agree? Explain.
5.  “Our customers don’t just like our ice cream,” write Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Inc. “They like what our company stands for. They like how doing business with us makes them feel.” What do they mean?
6. What are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?  Give an example of each.
7. Explain the characteristics of effective objectives. Why is setting objectives important?
8. What are business strategies? Describe the three basic strategies available to small companies. Under what conditions are each successful?
9. “It’s better to be a company with a great strategy in a crummy business than to be a company with a crummy strategy in a great business,” says one business expert. Do you agree? Explain.
10. Explain how a company can gain a competitive advantage using each of the three strategies described in this chapter: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Give an example of a company that is using each strategy.
11. How is the controlling process related to the planning process?