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., & Tsch¤ppeler, 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 authors 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, Mu±oz-Torres, & Fern¡ndez-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 Porters 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 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 competitors 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 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 someones 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 God and the creation of an image in ones 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., Mu±oz-Torres, M. J., & Fern¡ndez-Izquierdo, M. . (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. New York: Currency.
Annotated Bibliography
 Ferrero-Ferrero, I., Mu±oz-Torres, M. J., & Fern¡ndez-Izquierdo, M. . (2015). Changes in top management team strategies caused by the external financial environment. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 849-866.
Ferrero-Ferrero, Mu±oz-Torres, & Fern¡ndez-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 Castell³ de la Plana, Valencia, Spain.
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