Activity Instructions: Small Businesses and Entrepreneurial Ventures

Although many small companies have a number of reasons for not using strategic management practices, strategic management is being used successfully by a growing number of them. This Activity asks you to discuss the important issues for small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures under the headings of strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and evaluation and control. To demonstrate your understanding of these concepts, respond to the following. Cite any sources you use in an APA-formatted bibliography. Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (A 2-pg response is required.)

Part A: In terms of strategic management, how does a new venture's situation differ from that of an ongoing small company?

Part B: How should a small company engage in environmental scanning? To what aspects of the environment should management pay most attention?

Part C: What considerations should small-business entrepreneurs keep in mind when they are deciding whether a company should follow a growth or a stability strategy?

Part D: How does being family-owned (as compared to being publicly owned) affect a firm's strategic management?

Part E: If the owner/manager of a small company asked you for some advice concerning the introduction of strategic planning, what would you tell her?