What is Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy, Executions and Tactics?

VISION AND MISSION : is short, powerful and inspirational narrative about the future - why are you in the business in the first place - and what you want to achieve over a long period of time - typically a decade or more. Vision statements are typically used for communicating to the outsiders regarding what the company is trying to do and they are more inspirational and timeless. Mission statements on the other hand are used internally and much more specific and generally articulate what the business will be like in 5 years. The content of vision and mission may be anything - products, customers, methods, resources, activities etc but the challenge is to be brief (and hence memorable) and to clearly state what the company will always want to do - and therefore by implication what it will never do. 

 

OBJECTIVES AND GOALS  They both are exactly the same things. They are the end results towards which effort is directed or coordinated. Although it is the end, it is not necessarily the final achievement.  That’s the mission. Objectives and goals are "whats", not "hows" but they are smaller than the mission. There can be a number of objectives and goals to be achieved in order to achieve a mission, but there is usually only one mission.

STRATEGY: Strategy is how you will allocate your resources to achieve a given objective (or even a mission). The strategists excel at devising schemes and plans and courses of action to achieve the desired result. As you advance in the ranks, you move from being more of a “doer” (execution, tactics) to being more of a “thinker” (developing strategies to achieve objectives and solve problems).

EXECUTION :Executions are what is done to deliver on or coordinate a strategy. They are definitely a what, not a how. Although execution is more about doing than thinking, it is still critical, as poor execution will prevent us from delivering on the strategy that will achieve our objective.

TACTICS :Tactics are devices or actions taken to achieve a larger purpose. They are also a what, not a how, but they are on a smaller scale than an execution. When we say that someone is a good tactician, we mean he is good at making the smaller moves, gestures and acts that achieve a strategy. Many people often confuse tactics with strategy and also confuse tactics with execution, but there are differences, even if they are subtle.

EXAMPLE : 

Vision : To be seen as being the leader in candy business among the elite.

Mission : To become the largest seller of premium candy.

Objective : Share of the premium candy market from 23% to 55% in 5 years.

Strategy : Associate with high-end people and entities.

Execution : Top print and TV vehicles to carry celebrity endorsers.

Tactic - Sampling at high-end stores

Tactic - Put it on the pillows of beds in high-end hotels

Pyramid of strategy

Even a good strategy will fail
if people don't understand it. 

Without communicating the strategy clearly: The people won't know where the organization is going, or how to help you get there. They'll probably get frustrated and confused; customers may feel dissatisfied; and other stakeholders may lose their faith in your organization's ability to deliver. 

So your business needs both effective strategic planning as well as a good communication of strategy.  Just as a map is more effective than a list of directions, so in strategy "Pyramid of purpose" is more effective than a big document.

The strategy essentially answers why are we doing what we are doing? What do we need to do to fulfill our intended purpose? How exactly are we going to do what needs to be done? Who (or what) is going to make sure it's done?

A hierarchy of questions emerges: In order to answer question 4, you need to answer question 3; to answer question 3, you need to answer question 2; and to answer question 2, you need to answer question 1. 

• Question 1 – "why" – refers to your organization's values, mission, and vision.  
• This is the "Collective Mind" part of the strategy which energizes , motivates and directs the employees and other stakeholders. These decisions are taken by the founders and boards
• In terms of "7S" model, these decide style, shared values and skills
• They represent what the organization wants to do and what it does not want to do and thus represent both the aspirations and limits. 
• They are used by the top management to decide the kind of culture that needs to be created inside the organization; and the type of people the company needs to hire so that their value system matches with the organization's values. 
• Most of the times these are expressed in "timeless" terms and, as such, do not change over time unless there is a drastic change in the external and internal environment.  
• Vision is expressed normally to communicate strategy to external audiences in inspirational terms whereas the mission is normally used to communicate the strategy to internal audiences and is more specific regarding what to achieve. 
• Question 2 – "what" – covers objectives and goals.  These are long range (typically 5 year) plans and objectives  and are crucial to linking the vision, mission and values to the long terms decisions the top management must take to create enablers for the long term direction by taking important long term decisions like allocating resources to capital expenditures, resource development, capacity building and organizational development  in terms of structures, staff and systems.
  
• Question 3 – "how" – refers the actions needed to realize these goals. This is a typical organization wide process - generally done under the supervision of the finance department - of setting annual goals and incorporate all aspects of inflows and outflows of money and the activities which will drive them. The evidence is in terms of all people being aware of what they need to deliver financially (revenues and costs)
  
  
• Question 4 – "who" – refers to the people, systems and tools which deliver these. Much of this happens within a function / department wherein the activities are planned and periodically monitored and corrected.  These are variously called as projects, programs, work plans etc. 

How to build your own Pyramid Of Purpose

STARTING POINT

If the purpose is to communicate strategy to customers and stakeholders of your organization (an external audience), a good place to start your pyramid is with a vision statement. For an internal audience, the "why" level might focus on the mission statement, or indeed include both vision and mission statements in your pyramid.

("Mission" and "Vision" are different jobs. A Mission is the organization's purpose and is to be used by the leadership team and owners as the key measure of success. A vision also defines the purpose but in more inspirational / value terms rather than in terms of bottom line.  The vision statement communicates both the purpose and values of the organization. For employees, it gives direction about how they are expected to behave and inspires them to give their best. Shared with customers, it shapes customers' understanding of why they should work with the organization. Mission Statements and Vision Statements usually refer to an organization or an organizational unit) 

An entrepreneur explains his strategic plan to potential investors as a Pyramid 

1. Why: Vision / Mission : To delight and enthrall parents and children alike with beautiful, collectable, wooden toys and games, and in so doing, become the nation's leading retailer of high quality, wooden toys and games.
2. What: Objectives : Prove the concept by launching a pilot store and reaching profitability within 18 months.
3. How: Actions : Identify the pilot store location, Source good quality wooden toys and games, Design attractive store front and merchandising approach
4. Who: People : Responsible for location selection; Responsible for supplier identification and product sourcing; Responsible for selecting store designers and shop fitters;

Once you have described the "why", the next steps of building your pyramid must define the "what", then the "how" and finally the "who". And you need to do this in a way that clearly explains your strategy to your specific audience.  putting the various elements of a good strategic plan into a pyramid form, it is easy to see the "big picture" and relationships between different elements of the plan in a form that is easy to understand: The purpose shown at the apex cascades from one level of strategy to the next. 

There are no hard and fast rules for building a Pyramid of Purpose: Use it to convey your plan in the way your intended audience is most likely to understand.

Glossary of strategic management terms

1. Acquisition: When one company, the acquirer, purchases and absorbs the operations of another, theacquired.
2. Barriers to Entry/Exit: Economic or other characteristics of a marketplace that make it difficult fornew firms toenter or exit. Examples include: economies of scale; product differentiation; capitalrequirements; cost disadvantages other than size; access to distribution channels; governmentpolicy; etc.
3. Benchmarking: An analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses; used to evaluate a firm’s relativecompetitive position, opportunities or improving, and success/failure in achieving suchimprovement.
4. Best Practices: The business methods and procedures utilized by firms considered the leader in an industry.
5. Business Model: A company’s business model is management’s storyline for how the strategy will be a money maker.
6. Company Culture: The mix of important assumptions shared by members of an organization; may be explicit or implicit, usually determined by the business environment of a firm’s industry; the  prior experience of employees in other firms, professions, communities, etc; and the experiences that the employees share in their everyday work environment within the firm.
7. Company Mission: The unique purpose of a firm that sets it apart from firms of its type; identifies scope of operations including markets, customers, products, distribution, technology, etc. in manner that reflects values and priorities of the firm’s strategies.
8. Competitive Advantage: Advantages that a firm has over its competitors. See also Sustainable Competitive Advantage.
9. Competitive Position: The position that a firm has or wishes to achieve within its industry as measured against its competition.
10. Competitive Reaction:  Anticipated reaction of competition to a firm’s strategic initiatives.
11. Concentric Diversification: A strategy of growing a firm by acquiring other firms which are similar to and synergestic with the acquiring firm in terms of markets, products or technology. See also Conglomerate Diversification.
12. Conglomerate Diversification: A strategy of growing a firm by acquiring other firms for investment purposes; usually little or no anticipated synergy with the acquired firm. See also Concentric Diversification.
13. Consolidation: The merger of business units and/or property portfolios.
14. Core Competencies: The competencies of a firm required to fulfill its value proposition with its customers; competencies may be competitively unique to an industry but not necessarily a single firm. See also Competencies, Non-Core Activities, Value Proposition.
15. Cost Advantage (Disadvantage):  Operating advantage enjoyed by an entrenched firm, which would be difficult for entering firms to capture, regardless of size. May relate to patent protection, proprietary technology, learning curve, experience curve, government subsidies, favorable locations or access to key raw materials.
16. Differentiation Strategy: One of three generic strategies in which a firm strives to create and market unique products/services for various customer groups. See also Focus Strategy and Low Cost Strategy.
17. Diseconomy of Scale: When a company has become so large that additional production creates reduced marginal revenue. See also Economy of Scale.
18. Distribution Channel:  The means by which products or services are moved from production to customer.
19. Distinctive Competence: A competence that provides a firm with a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
20. Diversified Company:  A company that has enough different products so it does not depend on success of one product or type of product.
21. Divestiture: The sale of all or major part of a firm.
22. Driving Forces: The most dominate forces because they have the biggest influence on what kinds of changes will take place in the industry’s structure and competitive environment.
23. Early Entrants:Firms entering new markets or developing new products before other firms. (Also knownas “first mover"). See also Late Entrants.
24. Economy of Scale: A reduction in costs through larger operating units, spreading fixed costs over large  numbers of items/units. See also Diseconomy of Scale.
25. Emerging (Sunrise) Industry: A newly formed or restructured industry growing faster than the overall economy.Usually created by changing customer needs, technological change or other socioeconomic conditions. See also Mature Industry.
26. External Environment: The conditions and forces that define a firm’s competitive position and influences its strategic options. Also called Competitive Environment.
27. Financial Objectives: Concerned with the financial results and outcomes the management wants the organizations to receive. Ex: earnings/growth/stock price. 
28. Flat Organization:  An organizational structure in which most middle management functions are eliminated,   allowing senior management to have greater exposure to customers and to those in the  organization that deal with customers. See also Flat and Matrix Organizations.  
29. Retrenchment Response: In a turnaround situation, cost cutting and asset reduction to improve a firm’s fortunes.
30. Short term objectives : Usually one year objectives sometimes known as Annual Objectives. They often dovetail into Long Term Objectives; they usually indicate the speed at which management wants the organization to progress. See also Long term objectives.
31.  Stakeholder:  A person, group, or business that has an interest in the outcomes of a firm’s operations. 
32. Strategic Advantage: See Competitive Advantage
33.  Strategic Alliances: Cooperative agreements between firms that go beyond normal company  to  company  dealings but fall short of merger or full joint venture partnership with formal ownership ties.  
34. Strategic Analysis: Contrasts a firm’s Company Profile with its External Environment to identify a range of possible strategic alternatives; screened against the Company Mission statement to determine desired opportunities. 
35. Strategic Business Units: The organization of a firm by “groups” of divisions that serve similar strategic interests of the firm.  Utilized by larger firms with multiple divisions
36. Strategic Decisions: Management decisions related to the future of a firm’s operations; made at the corporate, business, functional, and individual level.
37.  Five Competitive Forces: A tool that helps diagnose the principle competitive forces in the market and assess how important each one is (a) The rivalry among competitive sellers in the industry (b) The potential entry of new competitors : The market attempts of companies in other industries to win customers to their own (c) substitute products (d) The competitive pressures from sellers (e) the competitive pressure from buyers 
38. Flat Organization: An organizational structure in which most middle management functions are eliminated, allowing senior management to have greater exposure to customers and to those in the organization that deal with customers. See also Flat and Matrix Organizations. 
39. Focus Strategy: One of three generic strategies in which a firm tries to appeal to one or more customer groups focusing on their cost or differentiation concerns. See also Low Cost Strategy and Differentiation Strategy. 
40. Focused (Market Niche) Strategy Based on Lower Cost: Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment and out competing rivals by serving niche members at lower cost than rivals.  
41. Functional Organization: An organizational structure along functional lines (e.g. marketing, acquisition, asset  management, development, finance and accounting, etc.) See also Flat and  Matrix  Organizations. 
42. Functional Strategies: Strategies for each firm’s function or division; integrates into Grand Strategy and ties to Long Term Objectives. See Grand Strategy; Long term Objectives. 
43. Generic Strategies: Three approaches to strategic planning based on different fundamental ideas about how to  appeal to the customer. See Low Cost Strategy, Differentiation Strategy, and Focus Strategy. 
44. Grand Strategy: A firm’s comprehensive plan of key actions by which it plans to achieve it Long Term Objectives; usually considers factors such as market development, product development, innovation, horizontal and/or vertical integration, diversification, joint ventures and strategic alliances, turnaround, divestiture, liquidation, etc. 
45. Growth Industry: An industry growing at the same rate as the nation’s economy. 
46. Horizontal Integration: The acquisition of similar firms operating at the same stage of the production/marketing chain as the acquiring firm. Utilized to expand into new markets and/or eliminate competition. See also Vertical Integration.
47.  Joint Venture: A third party commercial operation established by two or more firms to pursue a particular market, resource supply, or other business opportunity. Created and operated for the benefit of the co-owners. 
48. Key Success Factors :  The product attributes, competencies, competitive capabilities and market achievements with the direct bearing on company profitability. 
49. Late Entrants: Firms entering new markets or  developing new products after they have been established by other firms. Also called Latecomers. See also Early Entrants. 
50. Leapfrogging: Establishing entirely new competitive space in which a firm is not only a leader but establishes most, if not all, of the standards by which other firms in its industry are measured. 
51. Long Term Objectives: A firm’s intended performance over a multi-year period of time; usually includes measures such as competitive position profitability, return on investment, technology leadership, productivity, employee relations and development, public responsibility. See also Short Term  Objectives. 
52. Low Cost Strategy: One of three generic strategies in which a firm attempts to establish itself as the cost leader in the industry. See also Focus Strategy and Differentiation Strategy. 
53. Macro environment: All relevant forces outside company boundaries that are important enough to affect the company’s business model strategies. 
54. The economy at large : Legislations and regulations. Population an demographics, Societal values and lifestyles,  Technology.  Immediate industry and competitive environment 
55. Market Leader: The company that has control over a certain market. 
56. Market Share: The revenues generated by a firm as a percentage of total revenues; usually measured by industries, markets, or products. 
57. Matrix Organization: An organizational structure which delegates power to independent operating units which then rely on centralized corporate facilities for functional support see also Flat and Matrix Organizations. 
58. Mature Industry: An industry growing slower than the overall economy or actually declining. See also Emerging Industry. 
59. Merger: Combination and pooling of equal companies, with the newly created company often taking on a new name. 
60. Outcomes: Results arising from management actions. 
61. Outsourcing: Contracting and activity to another firm.  
62. Partnerships: Entails forming a new corporate entity owned by partners that can be terminated whenever one of the partners choose. 
63. Portfolio Approach: A method of looking at each of the “businesses” of a firm as elements in a total portfolio. 
64. Product Life Cycle Analysis: A forecasting technique which analyzes/predicts the performance of a product/service during each stage of its development. 
65. Retrenchment Response: In a turnaround situation, cost cutting and asset reduction to improve a firm’s fortunes. 
66. Strategic Analysis: Contrasts a firm’s Company Profile with its External Environment to identify a range of possible strategic alternatives; screened against the Company Mission statement to determine desired opportunities. 

mullin's model of 7 domains

Mullins' Seven Domains Model

This tool is designed to be used before writing a business plan and is a sort of  "New Product Road Test" and was created for entrepreneurs interested in starting new businesses but you can use it to decide whether to pursue a new product, or launch a new project. It helps you examine an opportunity from  7 different angles.

Figure 1 – Mullins' Seven Domains

The model has 7 "domains": 4 look at  micro and macro pictures and 3 focus on your team. 

Note: The terms "market" and "industry" are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have very different meanings. Your market is the group of people who are, or will be, buying your product or service. Your industry is the group of sellers, most often organizations, that offer products or services similar to your own. These are your competitors. 

Market Domain/Macro Level

Market Attractiveness

How big is it, in terms of the number of customers, the value of sales, and the quantity of units sold? Then, look at trends within the market. Has it grown in recent years? If so, is this growth likely to continue? What you're doing here is checking that the market is big enough to give you the growth you want, and that it's growing healthily – after all, it's much easier to grow a business in a growing market than it is in a declining one. Also, use PEST analysis to explore the large-scale factors that affect your market. Do these look healthy?

Market Domain/Micro Level

Sector Market Benefits and Attractiveness

Realistically, it's unlikely that your venture will meet the needs of everyone in the market. You'll be more successful if you target your idea at one market sector or segment, and aim to meet its needs fully. To identify this segment, look at the market on a micro level. Think about the following questions:

• Which segment of the overall market is most likely to benefit from your venture?
• How is your venture or product different from others already servicing this segment?
• What trends is this segment showing? Is it growing, and, if so, is this growth set to continue?
• What other market segments could you access if you're successful in this one?

Look for qualitative and quantitative data. Talk to prospective customers to gather feedback on their needs, and to find out how well competitors are meeting these. Then, look for data on the sector you're targeting, for example, by reading analysts' reports and market research reports.

Industry Domain/Macro Level

Industry Attractiveness

It's now time to look at how attractive your industry is on a macro level. Mullins suggests using Porter's Five Forces to assess which factors affect the profitability of your industry.
To do this, first define the industry that you will be competing in, and then ask yourself how easy it is to enter this industry. If it's easy to get into, you can quickly be flooded with competitors if you are seen to make a success of your business.

Next, look at your competition. Is rivalry in this market fierce or civilized? Are organizations stealing ideas from others in the industry? Take time to gather intelligence about your potential competitors to see what they're up to.

Last, look at buyers and suppliers. How much power do they have? Are they setting their own terms and conditions because of this power? If so, how will this affect your offering?

Industry Domain/Micro Level

Sustainable Advantage

Once you've looked at your industry from a macro level, it's time to examine it close up.
Start with a USP Analysis. What can you do to build and sustain a USP? Next, explore the competencies that you'll need, and think about how to develop and sustain these.

Then think about how easy it will be for your competitors to duplicate your product or service.

Also, what resources do you possess that your competitors don't? Do a VRIO Analysis to answer this question, and then look at your competitors' resources. What do they have that you don't? This could include patents, established processes, and finances. How will these affect your ability to compete?

Team Domain: 

Mission, Aspirations, Propensity for Risk

In this domain, located in the center of the model, you're going to analyze commitment – yours, and that of your team – to this idea. Think about why you want to start this business. Are you passionate about this idea, and, if so, why? What do you want to do with this business – are you ambitious for it, or do you want it to be a "lifestyle business"? What are your personal goals and values, and how does this venture align with these? And are you prepared to take the risk and put in the hard work needed to build this business? Explore the motivations of your team, too. What are they hoping to achieve, and why? Do their motivations align with yours? And are they prepared to work really hard to make the business a success?  Money and/or reputations could be at stake if the venture fails, so think about attitudes towards risk within the team. Our article "Cautious or Courageous?" can help you think about your approach to risk.

Team Domain: 

Ability to Execute on Critical Success Factors

You now need to identify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the business, and think realistically about whether your team can deliver on these.
Start doing this by thinking about these questions:

• Which decisions or activities will harm the business significantly if you get them wrong, even when everything else is going right?
• Which decisions or activities will deliver disproportionately high benefits or enhance performance, even if other things are going poorly?

Then look at the knowledge and skills of the team that you've put together. How certain are you that you and your team can deliver successfully on these CSFs? If you see a gap in skills or abilities, who can you bring on board to fill this gap?

Team Domain: 

Connectedness Up, Down, Across Value Chain

This last domain is all about your connections and how important they are to the success of your business.

First, look at your suppliers and investors. Who do you know that can supply you with the resources you need to pursue this venture? How good are your relationships with these people?

Next, look at your potential customers and distributors. In what ways can you capitalize on your connections here?

Last, look across the value chain. Do you know any of your competitors personally? If so, how could this relationship help or hinder your venture? And could these people be partners if you thought about them differently?

Next Steps

As you work through the model, it's likely that you'll come up against problems or challenges that you hadn't foreseen. You need to assess how critical these issues will be.
If they're related to your industry or your market, to what extent can you influence them? If they relate to you or your team, what can you change? What will the effect of these changes be?

GE Matrix and portfolio analysis

Focusing Effort to Give the Greatest Returns

Imagine that you're reviewing your organization's products. You need to decide which ones you should focus investment on.One of the products is doing well financially. However, demand has fallen, and this trend looks set to continue.Another product is also doing well, but it's in a new market, and needs a lot of cash to support it. Should you continue investing in it?

And another product is barely profitable, although its market is growing. Should you kill it or keep it? To make these decisions, you need to look beyond the income that the products are currently bringing in. You need to assess how they're likely to perform in future.  The Boston Matrix, also called the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, is a simple, visual way to examine the likely financial performance of your product or business portfolio.

Understanding the Boston Matrix

Management consultants at the Boston Consulting Group developed their matrix in the early 1970s. They designed it to help managers at large corporations decide which business units they should invest in.

However, managers in all kinds of organizations now also use it to decide which of their product lines or products to invest in, and which to dispose of or to shut down.

The matrix, shown in figure 1, places products into four categories based on their market share and market growth.

Figure 1 – The Boston Matrix

The categories are:

• Dogs: Low Market Share and Low Market Growth Dogs are business units or products that have low market share in a low-growth market. They often don't make much profit, but they don't need much investment either. Much of the time, you'll need to offer a price discount to sell Dog products.
• Cash Cows: High Market Share and Low Market Growth These businesses or products are well established. They're likely to be popular with customers, which makes it easier for you to exploit new opportunities. However, you should avoid spending too much effort on these, because the market is only growing slowly, and opportunities are likely to be limited.
• Stars: High Market Share and High Market Growth Businesses and products in this quadrant are seeing rapid growth. There should be some good opportunities here, and you should work hard to realize them.
• Question Marks (Problem Children): Low Market Share and High Market Growth These are the opportunities that no one knows how to handle. They aren't generating much revenue right now, because you don't have a large market share. But they're in high-growth markets, so they could become Stars or even Cash Cows if you can build market share. However, if you cannot increase market share, Question Marks could absorb a lot of effort with little return. 

    GE / McKinsey Matrix

GE / McKinsey Matrix

		Business Unit Strength
		High	Medium	Low
	High
	Medium
	Low

It maps strategic business units on a grid of the industry and the SBU's position in the industry. The GE matrix however, attempts to improve upon the BCG matrix in the following two ways:

• The GE matrix generalizes the axes as "Industry Attractiveness" and "Business Unit Strength" whereas the BCG matrix uses the market growth rate as a proxy for industry attractiveness and relative market share as a proxy for the strength of the business unit.
• The GE matrix has nine cells vs. four cells in the BCG matrix.

Industry Attractiveness

The vertical axis of the GE / McKinsey matrix is industry attractiveness, which is determined by factors such as the following:

• Market growth rate
• Market size
• Demand variability
• Industry profitability
• Industry rivalry
• Global opportunities
• Macroenvironmental factors (PEST)

Each factor is assigned a weighting that is appropriate for the industry. The industry attractiveness then is calculated as follows:

Industry attractiveness    =		factor value1   x   factor weighting1
	+	factor value2   x   factor weighting2
	. . .
	+	factor valueN   x   factor weightingN

Business Unit Strength

The horizontal axis of the GE / McKinsey matrix is the strength of the business unit. Some factors that can be used to determine business unit strength include:

• Market share
• Growth in market share
• Brand equity
• Distribution channel access
• Production capacity
• Profit margins relative to competitors

The business unit strength index can be calculated by multiplying the estimated value of each factor by the factor's weighting, as done for industry attractiveness.

Plotting the Information

Each business unit can be portrayed as a circle plotted on the matrix, with the information conveyed as follows:

• Market size is represented by the size of the circle.
• Market share is shown by using the circle as a pie chart.
• The expected future position of the circle is portrayed by means of an arrow.

The following is an example of such a representation:

The shading of the above circle indicates a 38% market share for the strategic business unit. The arrow in the upward left direction indicates that the business unit is projected to gain strength relative to competitors, and that the business unit is in an industry that is projected to become more attractive. The tip of the arrow indicates the future position of the center point of the circle.

Strategic Implications

Resource allocation recommendations can be made to grow, hold, or harvest a strategic business unit based on its position on the matrix as follows:

• Grow strong business units in attractive industries, average business units in attractive industries, and strong business units in average industries.
• Hold average businesses in average industries, strong businesses in weak industries, and weak business in attractive industies.
• Harvest weak business units in unattractive industries, average business units in unattractive industries, and weak business units in average industries.

There are strategy variations within these three groups. For example, within the harvest group the firm would be inclined to quickly divest itself of a weak business in an unattractive industry, whereas it might perform a phased harvest of an average business unit in the same industry.
 
 While the GE business screen represents an improvement over the more simple BCG growth-share matrix, it still presents a somewhat limited view by not considering interactions among the business units and by neglecting to address the core competencies leading to value creation. 

Rather than serving as the primary tool for resource allocation, portfolio matrices are better suited to displaying a quick synopsis of the strategic business units. At this point, you can make a "go/no-go" decision. If you decide to "go," carry on to develop your business plan.