OxfordAQA A-Level Business: Implementing a strategy (9725)

This study guide is written to the OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Business (9725) specification, Version 1.1, for International AS exams May/June 2027 onwards and International A-level exams May/June 2028 onwards. It teaches section 3.4.5 Implementing a strategy, which sits inside 3.4 Business strategy and is International A-level only content. If you are completing the older 9625 specification, work from your own specification instead of this page. All businesses here are invented.

Condensed version: revision notes · Questions with answers: practice set · Other topics: 9725 Business hub · Track coverage: 9725 Business tick-list · Check your gaps: 10-minute diagnostics

Coverage of 3.4.5 at a glance

Content heading	You need to be able to	Stage
Strategy implementation	Explain the factors that affect successful implementation (resources, quality of planning and monitoring, leadership, communication, external factors); explain why links between mission, objectives, strategy and functional decisions matter	International A-level only
The value of network analysis	Explain the purpose and value of project management and of network analysis; understand, interpret, amend and complete network diagrams; calculate Earliest Start Times, Latest Finish Times and total float; identify the critical path	International A-level only
Strategic decision making	Explain the value of strategic planning, why strategies fail and the reasons for strategic drift	International A-level only

Where it is tested. Everything in 3.4 belongs to the Unit 4: Business strategy paper. That paper lasts 1 hour 45 minutes for 80 marks (30% of the International A-level): two case studies, each with five questions worth 40 marks. Network analysis is named in the quantitative skills appendix as a diagram you may need to interpret.

1. What makes implementation succeed

A chosen strategy delivers nothing until people, money and time are organised to carry it out. Grenfold Batteries makes battery packs for electric buses and has chosen a product development strategy: packs for home solar systems. The specification lists five factors.

Factor	Why it matters	At Grenfold
Resources	Finance, people, equipment and time must match what the strategy needs	Needs certified installers and a testing rig; if cash is tied up in bus contracts, the launch slips
Quality of planning and monitoring	A plan sets tasks, owners, budgets and deadlines; monitoring compares progress with the plan	Monthly checks on installer numbers and unit cost reveal problems before money runs out
Leadership	Leaders set direction, make trade-offs and keep commitment going when results are slow	A chief executive who keeps pulling engineers back to bus orders signals the range is optional
Communication	Staff, suppliers and investors must understand what is changing and why	Sales staff who first hear of the range in a press release will not sell it with conviction
External factors	Competitor moves, interest rates, laws or technology can help or block a strategy	A cut in grants for home solar would shrink demand however well Grenfold executes

The first four can be managed. External factors cannot, but good monitoring lets the firm respond quickly, for example by delaying a launch.

2. Why the links from mission to functional decisions matter

The strategic options guide sets out the chain from mission to functional decisions. Here the focus is on why the links matter when implementing.

• Coordination: functions stop making decisions that cancel each other out.
• Resource allocation: budgets and staff go where the strategy needs them first.
• Measurement: functional targets derived from corporate objectives show whether the strategy is working.
• Commitment: staff who see how their task serves the mission accept change more readily.
• Early warning: a decision that breaks the chain shows up as a conflict managers can fix.

Worked example 1: an alignment check at Grenfold

Grenfold’s mission is “to make clean energy storage dependable for everyone”. Its objective is that home packs earn a quarter of revenue within three years. Test each functional decision against that chain.

Function	Decision	Linked?
Marketing	Partner with solar panel installers to sell packs as a bundle	Yes: reaches home buyers directly
Operations	Move the best test engineers back onto bus orders to protect monthly output	No: slows certification of home packs
Finance	Ring-fence a launch budget for two years	Yes: protects the strategy from short-term cuts
Human resources	Keep the existing bonus scheme, paid only on bus-pack output	No: rewards staff for ignoring the new range

Judgement. Two decisions pull against the objective. Grenfold should add home-range targets to the bonus scheme and give the test team a fixed share of engineering hours; otherwise a well-chosen strategy fails because daily decisions reward the old business.

3. Project management

A project is a one-off set of tasks with a clear goal, a budget and a deadline, such as opening a site, launching a product or installing a new system. Project management is the planning, organising and controlling of those tasks.

Purpose: to deliver the project on time, within budget and to the required quality, with a named project manager, milestones and progress tracking.

Value: it turns a broad strategy into tasks with owners, gives one point of responsibility, lets progress and spending be compared with the plan, and flags risks and resource needs early. Limits: it adds cost and paperwork, and a rigid plan adapts slowly.

4. Network analysis

Network analysis (critical path analysis) is a project-management tool that shows the order of activities, which can run at the same time, and how long the whole project must take.

Purpose and value. It finds the minimum project duration; identifies critical activities, where any delay holds up the whole project; shows total float on the others, so staff and equipment can be moved; supports ordering supplies just in time; and becomes a monitoring tool.

Limitations. Durations are estimates. It shows nothing about cost or quality. Large networks must be redrawn when plans change, and the critical path can switch.

Reading a network diagram

• Each activity is an arrow labelled with a letter and duration.
• Each node is a circle where activities start and end. A common layout shows the node number on the left, Earliest Start Time (EST) top right and Latest Finish Time (LFT) bottom right.
• An activity cannot begin until every activity ending at its start node is complete.
• The network has one start node and one end node.

Calculating the values

EST (forward pass): start node = 0. For each later node,
  EST = EST of previous node + duration of the activity entering it.
  If several activities enter, take the HIGHEST value.

LFT (backward pass): final node LFT = its EST (the project length).
  Working back, LFT = LFT of next node − duration of the activity leaving.
  If several activities leave, take the LOWEST value.

Total float = LFT (at end node) − duration − EST (at start node)

The critical path runs through the activities with zero total float. It is the longest route through the network, and its length is the shortest possible project time.

Worked example 2: Corrabine Studios opens a second studio

Corrabine Studios, a dance-fitness business, is opening a second studio as part of a market development strategy. Times are in weeks.

Activity	Description	Duration	Depends on	Nodes
A	Agree lease	3	–	1 → 2
B	Design fit-out	4	A	2 → 3
C	Recruit instructors	5	A	2 → 4
D	Building works	6	B	3 → 5
E	Order and receive equipment	2	B	3 → 4
F	Train instructors on equipment	3	C, E	4 → 5
G	Final fit-out and safety inspection	2	D, F	5 → 6
H	Pre-launch marketing	4	C, E	4 → 6
J	Trial week	1	G, H	6 → 7

Forward pass (EST):

Node 1: 0
Node 2: 0 + 3 = 3
Node 3: 3 + 4 = 7
Node 4: via C 3 + 5 = 8; via E 7 + 2 = 9  → highest = 9
Node 5: via D 7 + 6 = 13; via F 9 + 3 = 12 → 13
Node 6: via G 13 + 2 = 15; via H 9 + 4 = 13 → 15
Node 7: 15 + 1 = 16   → project length 16 weeks

Backward pass (LFT):

Node 7: 16
Node 6: 16 − 1 = 15
Node 5: 15 − 2 = 13
Node 4: via F 13 − 3 = 10; via H 15 − 4 = 11 → lowest = 10
Node 3: via D 13 − 6 = 7; via E 10 − 2 = 8   → 7
Node 2: via B 7 − 4 = 3; via C 10 − 5 = 5    → 3
Node 1: 3 − 3 = 0

Total float:

Activity	LFT at end − duration − EST at start	Total float
A	3 − 3 − 0	0
B	7 − 4 − 3	0
C	10 − 5 − 3	2
D	13 − 6 − 7	0
E	10 − 2 − 7	1
F	13 − 3 − 9	1
G	15 − 2 − 13	0
H	15 − 4 − 9	2
J	16 − 1 − 15	0

Critical path: A → B → D → G → J, minimum duration 16 weeks. Check: 3 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 1 = 16.

Interpretation. Corrabine must watch A, B, D, G and J closely. Recruitment (C) and marketing (H) can each slip 2 weeks, so their staff could help elsewhere if a critical activity falls behind.

Amending the network

The equipment supplier warns that delivery (E) will take 4 weeks, not 2. E has only 1 week of float, so an extra 2 weeks pushes the project back by 2 − 1 = 1 week.

Redo the forward pass from node 3: node 4 EST = 7 + 4 = 11; node 5 EST = highest of 13 (via D) and 11 + 3 = 14, so 14; node 6 EST = highest of 14 + 2 = 16 and 11 + 4 = 15, so 16; node 7 EST = 17 weeks.

The new critical path is A → B → E → F → G → J (3 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 17), and building works now has 1 week of float. A faster supplier, or training on borrowed equipment so F no longer waits for E, would remove the delay.

5. Strategic decision making

The value of strategic planning

Strategic planning sets long-term objectives, chooses the strategy and commits resources to it. It makes managers analyse the internal and external position before spending, gives a shared direction for functional decisions, sets targets to monitor against, and reassures investors and lenders. Its value falls when the environment changes fast: a detailed plan dates quickly and managers may cling to it, so outline plans reviewed often can work better.

Why strategies fail

• Poor choice: weak analysis or over-optimistic forecasts.
• Poor implementation: any of the five factors in section 1.
• Broken links: functional decisions that do not support the strategy.
• Staff resistance to a change they do not understand or accept.
• External shocks the plan did not allow for, such as a recession.
• Strategic drift (below).

Reasons for strategic drift

Strategic drift is a gradual mismatch between a firm’s strategy and its changing environment: the firm keeps tweaking what it already does while customers, technology or competitors move faster. Performance slips slowly, then sharply. Reasons include:

• Past success: managers assume what worked before will keep working.
• Culture: shared beliefs and routines make new ideas seem risky.
• Incremental change: small tweaks feel safe but do not match a large external shift.
• Poor environmental scanning: managers miss early signs of change.
• Leadership: long-serving leaders defend their own strategy.

Example. Asherwick Books kept opening high-street shops and refreshing layouts for a decade while its customers moved to e-books and online ordering. Sales per shop slipped until losses forced closures. Better scanning, and leaders willing to question the store-led model, might have prompted an earlier move online.

Common errors

• Listing the five implementation factors with no link to the case.
• Taking the lowest value on the forward pass or the highest on the backward pass; the rule is highest forward, lowest backward.
• Calculating float as LFT − EST without subtracting the duration.
• Calling the critical path the route with the fewest activities. It is the route with zero float, and the longest in time.
• Assuming every delay extends the project; compare it with the float.
• Describing strategic drift as a sudden collapse.

Next: practice questions and case-study technique for 9725.

Official syllabus

OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Business (9725) specification, Version 1.1, for International AS exams May/June 2027 onwards and International A-level exams May/June 2028 onwards. Published by OxfordAQA.