Minimum of 400 words in the body Minimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course texts  Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2019). Essentials of strategic management: The Quest            for Competitive Advantage . (6th ed.), New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education Keller, T., & Alsdorf, K. L. (2012). Every good endeavor: Connecting your work to God's work .            New York, N.Y: Dutton, Penguin Random House. Krogerus, M., & Tschäppeler, R. (2018). The decision book: 50 models for strategic thinking.,             (Revised ed.), New York, NY: W. Norton & Company, Inc. Rumelt, R. (2011)., Good strategy/bad strategy: The difference and why it matters ., New York,            NY: Crown Busines Content must include:  · Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words · What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 word APA FORMAT A MUST FOR THE REPLY PLEASE Gokus (2015) discusses the difficulty in anticipating the roles company structure and the external environment have on market orientation and business strategy. He believes the external environment, which he categorizes as market turbulence and competitive intensity, can affect company performance and influence strategy. He suggests companies explore the current research on the moderating role of the external environment and structure has on customer orientation and strategy types. Ferrero-Ferrero, Muñoz-Torres, & Fernández-Izquierdo (2015) echo these assertions, as they found different environmental conditions require different strategies set forth by top management. They attribute these challenges to the onset of the global financial crisis, as it challenged corporate leaders to reassess the formulation of effective strategy. They believe team orientation, leadership effectiveness, and organizational size as impediments to strategic goal setting. Evaluating the External Environment              Gamble, Peteraf, & Thompson Jr. (2019) suggest organizations conduct an evaluation of the current happenings in the business landscape through the exploration of seven areas. They suggest conducting analyses to better understand the macro-environment, competitive forces, driving forces of change, industry rivals, forthcoming strategic initiatives of rivals, key success factors, and opportunities in the industry. They discuss one of the most widely used tools to address these seven areas, Michael Porter’s five forces model of competition—buyers, potential new entrants, intensity of rivalry, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, and bargaining power of buyers. Their assessments convey one of the most important areas to understand relates to the strategies and initiatives of competitors, as being unaware to this information can be detrimental to an organization. They offer Michael Porter’ Framework for Competitor Analysis, as it focuses on the current strategy, objectives, capabilities, and assumptions of an.

1. Minimum of 400 words in the body Minimum of 2 sources from
the literature in addition to course texts
Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2019).
Essentials of strategic management: The Quest
for Competitive Advantage
. (6th ed.), New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education
Keller, T., & Alsdorf, K. L. (2012).
Every good endeavor: Connecting your work to God's work
.
New York, N.Y: Dutton, Penguin Random House.
Krogerus, M., & Tschäppeler, R. (2018).
The decision book: 50 models for strategic thinking.,
(Revised ed.), New York, NY: W. Norton & Company,
Inc.
Rumelt, R. (2011).,
Good strategy/bad strategy: The difference and why it matters
., New York,
NY: Crown Busines
Content must include:
· Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125
words · What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no
less than 125 word
APA FORMAT A MUST FOR THE REPLY PLEASE

2. Gokus (2015) discusses the difficulty in anticipating the roles
company structure and the external environment have on market
orientation and business strategy. He believes the external
environment, which he categorizes as market turbulence and
competitive intensity, can affect company performance and
influence strategy. He suggests companies explore the current
research on the moderating role of the external environment and
structure has on customer orientation and strategy types.
Ferrero-Ferrero, Muñoz-Torres, & Fernández-Izquierdo (2015)
echo these assertions, as they found different environmental
conditions require different strategies set forth by top
management. They attribute these challenges to the onset of the
global financial crisis, as it challenged corporate leaders to
reassess the formulation of effective strategy. They believe
team orientation, leadership effectiveness, and organizational
size as impediments to strategic goal setting.
Evaluating the External Environment
Gamble, Peteraf, & Thompson Jr. (2019) suggest
organizations conduct an evaluation of the current happenings
in the business landscape through the exploration of seven
areas. They suggest conducting analyses to better understand
the macro-environment, competitive forces, driving forces of
change, industry rivals, forthcoming strategic initiatives of
rivals, key success factors, and opportunities in the industry.
They discuss one of the most widely used tools to address these
seven areas, Michael Porter’s five forces model of
competition—buyers, potential new entrants, intensity of
rivalry, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, and
bargaining power of buyers. Their assessments convey one of
the most important areas to understand relates to the strategies

3. and initiatives of competitors, as being unaware to this
information can be detrimental to an organization. They offer
Michael Porter’ Framework for Competitor Analysis, as it
focuses on the current strategy, objectives, capabilities, and
assumptions of an organization and its industry rivals.
Additionally, they discuss the usefulness of strategic group
maps, as they provide a keen understanding of the positioning
of industry rivals. They believe the ability to ascertain the
strength or weakness of a rival can help an organization identify
driving forces favoring strategic groups and to better understand
competitive pressures.
Key Source of Power
Rumelt (2011) provides corporate leaders seek growth
for many reasons—to include the belief that administrative
costs will decrease with size, a poor but common reason. He
found acquisitions often displace key executives to the
organizational periphery rather than result in complete removal
from the company, as leaders of large firms receive high
salaries. His position is organizations find acquisitions more
interesting than reports on divisional performance, as healthy
growth is the outcome of growing demand for special
capabilities or of expanded or extended capabilities, while the
reward of successful innovation, cleverness, efficiency, and
creativity. He importantly notes no single organization has an
advantage at everything, only in certain kinds of rivalry, as
competitive advantage is the ability to produce at a lower cost
than competitors, or the delivery of a perceived value, or a mix
of the two. His analyses conveys the challenges associated with
sustainability, as a key indicator is a competitor’s inability to
duplicate a product or service. He believes the provision of
increased perceived value can help an organization avoid
becoming a commodity, through increasing value, deepening
advantages, broadening the extent of advantages, creating
higher demand for advantaged products or services, and

4. strengthening the isolating mechanisms that block easy
replication and imitation. However, he also suggests
considering business inertia and entropy, as successful
strategies are often the result of inefficient rivals.
Decision Models
Krogerus & Tschappeler (2017) present the Diffusion
Model to better understand why some ideas gain traction and
others not so much—sociologist, Everett Rogers, would
describe this as diffusion. They offer the example of how the
diffusion of hybrid corn in agricultural management, analyzed
by Bruce Ryan and Neal Gross, in Greene County Iowa lends to
understanding its impact. They discuss how hybrid corn was
better in every way, but took twenty-two years to become
widely accepted, as innovators, early adopters, and opinion
leaders followed by skeptical masses. They found product
interest can rise gradually and reach a critical point—this
critical point encompasses the early adopters to the skeptics, as
this point of transition is known as chasm. They provide if early
adopters succeed at getting innovation across the chasm to the
skeptical masses, the cycle reaches the tipping point where the
masses accept the product and then declines leaving the
remaining stragglers.
Conclusion
Exodus 34:17 states “Do not make any idols” (New
International Version). This will be important for corporations
to consider as they formulate strategy, as it can easily become
tainted with selfish ambitions. Keller & Alsdorf (2012) discuss
the pervasiveness and power idols can have in someone’s life,
especially in a business context where the success of a company
is determined by the valuation of assets and pressure to
continually improve. They warn people of deriving idols of the
heart, as the love and service in action is intended to glorify

5. God and the creation of an image in one’s heart requires
spiritual and psychological action. Thus, they suggest
surrendering imaginations, control, security, significance, and
satisfaction to God—this will be especially important for
believers in leadership positions where they can directly
influence strategy.
References
Ferrero-Ferrero, I., Muñoz-Torres, M. J., & Fernández-
Izquierdo, M. Á. (2015). Changes in top management team
strategies caused by the external financial environment.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal
, 849-866.
Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M. A., & Thompson Jr., A. A. (2019).
Essentials of strategic management: The quest for competitive
advantage.
New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Gokus, O. (2015). The moderating roles of company structure
and external environment on market orientation and business
strategy types.
Academy of Marketing Studies Journal
, 190-209.
Keller, T., & Alsdorf, K. L. (2012).
Every good endeavor: Connecting your work to God's work.
New York: Penguin Books.
Krogerus, M., & Tschappeler, R. (2017).
The decision book: Fifty models for strategic thinking.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Rumelt, R. P. (2011).
Good strategy bad strategy: The difference and why it matters.

6. New York: Currency.
Annotated Bibliography
Ferrero-Ferrero, I., Muñoz-Torres, M. J., & Fernández-
Izquierdo, M. Á. (2015). Changes in top management team
strategies caused by the external financial environment.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal
, 849-866.
Ferrero-Ferrero, Muñoz-Torres, & Fernández-Izquierdo (2015)
offer an analysis to determine whether the onset of financial
crisis cause changes in the influence of top management, thus
impeding corporate objectives. They sampled companies on the
S&P 500 index between 2002-2008 using a longitudinal
methodology addressing unobserved heterogeneity,
simultaneity, and endogeneity. The Leadership and Organization
Development Journal offers the most current research within
public and private business sectors facing pressures in the
external environment to streamline activities, foster innovation,
increase efficiency, and satisfy organizational objectives. The
LODJ focuses on management theory and in offer innovation
perspectives applicable to the current business landscape. They
promote the alignment between research and usefulness to
practitioners. They strongly emphasize the use of empirical
research substantiated with sound literature as the framework
for theoretical development to advance the respective field.
They welcome both quantitative and qualitative research
methodologies. The authors are researchers in the accounting
and finance department at
Jaume I University in the
city of
Castelló de la Plana
, Valencia,
Spain.

7. Gokus, O. (2015). The moderating roles of company structure
and external environment on market orientation and business
strategy types.
Academy of Marketing Studies Journal
, 190-209.
Gokus (2015) discusses how company performance is largely
determined by strategy set forth by a company. Additionally, he
offers how market-oriented culture and company structure
influence strategy. The Academy of Marketing Studies Journal
is an internationally recognized business and marketing journal.
They are an open access forum for practitioners, professionals,
students, academicians, and researchers to become learned in
the latest happenings across the business industry. They
maintain stringent quality standards by ensuring all research is
double peer reviewed with acceptance rates of thirty percent—
this enhances research quality and reliability. Dr. Omer Gokus
is a business professor at Norfolk State University