17 February
Topic:Organisational strategy (PESTEL) and stakeholders
     As the further studying of our business and management course, I have understood lots of theories about organisations deeply. Through this week's study,I mastered some fresh professional knowledge and got the continuous learning to last week.Now,I will talk about some important points about the organisational strategy and stakeholders in detail.     

     Firstly, I want to talk about the general environment---PESTEL.It is a technique which includes six factors---political,economic,social,technological,environment and legal.Each of them is consisted of many different points and all of them are relevant to an organisation. The theory of PESREL provides different angels to help managers analyse organisations' pressure and problems from the external environment,ensuring they can solve these problems exactly as well as formulate feasible development strategy.For example,I was taught a case which is analysed with PESTEL---university of Sussex.Through the analysis of six aspects,let me have a clear understanding for the general environment of the university.Thus, PESTEL likes a tool to make organisations progress.

      Secondly,I focus on the strategy.Strategy is about how people decide to organise major resources to enhance performance of an enterprise.It is significant for organisations and divided into different types,like competitive strategy,emergent strategy and so on.Moreover,I know some methods which managers use to develop strategies,such as shifting from formalised to less formal,decreasing documentations and increasing the flexibility in plans.

      Finally,let me talk some important points about stakeholders.Stakeholders refer to any individual or group or organisation that is vital to the surveil or success of the organisation.A wider definition includes any of above that affects or is affected by the organisation.The power of stakeholders have strong influence.It can bring lots of advantages and disadvantages for organisations,even affecting the overall interests.In addition,according to sources of power for internal stakeholders and external stakeholders,managers can analyse business cases and work easily and correctly.In fact,equal levels of power and impacts for all stakeholders are nonexistent.The analysis of British Airways as an important negative example,showing the importance of these theories.Due to its shortcomings and huge losses,British Airways have to change its original management strategy to get development.These measures make stakeholders get new benefits and more powerful position in the market.

      All of these are fresh knowledge for me,although some of them are quite difficult to be mastered,I am still interested in this course.After classes,I will research some typical business cases to read and expert the further studying.