essay
To: Professor Nick Egelanian
From: Robert C. Shub
Subject: Assignment
Date: 04/03/17
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Introduction
Even though strategy and tactics are bound to be used interchangeably, it is important to not that they are very distinct in regards to their purpose, roles, accountability and scope among others. For instance, in regards to the purpose, a strategy will give a clearly define the goals and objective of the organization as a whole. On the hand, tactic refers the use of specific resources within the organization that makes the lower level goals and objectives add up to the overall achievement of the mission of the organization. After getting the difference between the two words, one can, therefore, be able to know how and when best to use either or both of them in order to achieve their particular goals and objectives.
Discussion
1. Importance of knowing difference between strategy and tactic
The business world is always characterized by some level of competition that makes the players in the industry try their best to outdo the other when reaching out to the targeted customers. As a result, these businesses end up innovative employee ideas in the manner in which they outshine the other competitors. This is what is seen in the case of JC Penny where the business embarked on a mission to create a new market by increasing its range of products to the customers. What this means is that customers are able to find all their shopping needs from food to home appliances under one roof. This is very convenient to customers especially those who are always time conscious because of their tight schedules. Moreover, the introduction of the specialty shopping is aimed at including more customers in its customer base.
With the accelerated closure of the JC Penny stores and focusing more on appliances, its is clear that the business is making some major changes in its business strategy. With this in place, the business is in a better position to not only attract new customers but also sell to the customers that it already had under the stores. The business aims at attracting customers from some of its major competitors such as Sears. Moreover, the level of competition in the market has greatly increased from businesses such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kohs among others have greatly to a state of confusion for the customers as they try to figure out who offers the best deals which make JC Penny effort bare little or no positive outcomes.
2. Macy’s is making the same mistake as JC Penny
To reemphasize on the confusion created in the market by the rapid growth of Wal-Mart Mercy’s provides a perfect example. Just like the case of JC Penny, the management of Mercy’s opted to expand their wings and venture into the discounts and high end inside the same store. Even thought the management might have expected positive outcomes by taking the move, one thing that is clear that the tactics being used have proven to be ineffective. This is the case because of the move resulted in having both commodities as well as specialty items in the same place. As such as the business may have intended to increase customer experience and satisfaction by bringing everything in one place, customers end up being overwhelmed and as such become confused regarding what exactly they wanted to buy from the stores.
From the way things are going in the retail market, it is clear that Wal-Mart is out to get the how pie for itself. This is so because the company is not only shaking the physical stores and retailers but has also ventured into the online platform. Wal-Mart keeps on opening brick motor stores, and these play a major role in the giving Amazon a challenge in online retail.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that understanding the difference between strategy and tactics will play a major role in helping a business or organization achieve its goals and objectives. From the explanations presented above, it is clear that Wal-Mart has been able to develop an effective strategy that is not only helping it realize its goals and objectives but also render the company a market leader. As such, using a tactic to overcome a strategy is bound to give average or negative results owing to the difference in the manner in which a strategy and a tactic are used.
