CHALLENGES OF THE VIKING SEWING MACHINE GROUP IN STRATERGIC MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
The Viking Sewing machine (VSM) company was originally controlled by Electrolux, having acquired it in 1997; but was sold 20 years later to an investment fund, Industri Kapital.
The company is into the business of sewing machine manufacturing and has since grown to be a force to be reckoned within the same industry since 1997.
The mission statement of the company reflects the intention of the management of the company to make the company the leading sewing machine manufacturer in the industry; but these missions cannot be executed without a direction or scope.
It is the direction and scope with which the management intends to follow or execute the mission that is known as Strategy.
But Strategy in itself is not about the careful follow up of the direction and scope as agreed by some school of thoughts in management.
WHAT THEN IS STRATEGY?
There are four different approaches in the analysis of strategy as a tool.
These (Whittington 2001: 3) views as: Classical, Evolutionary, Systemic and Processual.
Whittington (2001: 10) views the Classical and Evolutionary approaches in summary to be profit-making and maximization as the dividend of these strategies while the systemic and Processual approaches strategy as all odds experienced by the management of an organisation including profit making.
Some of the authorities, which believes in the Classical approach of strategy includes: Igor Ansoff and Michael Porter. These theorists view strategy as a "rational process of long ?term planning, vital to securing the future of any organisation" (Whittington 2001: 4).
The Evolutionist on the other hand shares their v ...