[MUSIC] The final point to make for this lesson is to talk about the three main areas for strategic action that organizations take. So, the first one concentrates on the internal organization and we'd label that internal development. So, it might be that the strategic action we take is inwardly focused, and we've identified that in order to achieve our strategy, we need to develop the talent within the business, the expertise within the business, specialization within the business. So we're looking inwards, it might be developing more innovative products. It might be purchasing new technology to make us more efficient. So, that's obviously a fairly popular action to take, because we can use the resources that we currently have or maybe invest in some, but its controlled within the organization, so its about keeping control within and taking a view internally. If we look back to some of the theories we've covered, if we look to Ansoft, what we'd be linking to is that forward and backward integration. Okay, the horizontal integration and vertical integration, where we take control of what's going on within the business. So, the second option or strategic action, and it's very, very popular, is mergers and acquisitions. And if you look in the Business Press, you'd find it difficult to find a paper which is not discussing one merger or another. So, I've already talked to you about the Kraft Heinz company merger. I've also mentioned the BT/EE merger. And they talk about these mergers as mergers of equals, but actually quite often, one organization has a greater percentage share than the other. But often mergers and acquisitions can be used interchangeably. We also had The Curry's PC World merger with Carphone Dixon's. On the horizon there's the AB Inbev takeover of SABMiller, which is going to be a huge drinks company if that merger goes ahead. So the companies that are wishing to merge or acquire, they may be doing that for growth possibilities, they may be doing that to expand their expertise based they can actually buy in expertise they don't currently have, but want to expand in the area. One of the main reasons for mergers and acquisitions, though, one of the main outcomes I should say, is this thing about synergies, you know the shareholders will want to make sure that their synergies and their savings through that merger. So that's happening more and more. Interestingly though, the quote is 70% of mergers fail, yet we still see them happening a lot. And then the other option, the strategic action that we can take a joint developments where it literally is, companies coming together to share resources, increasing their investment potential and to buy new warehouses or new distribution centers. And of course, if you're sharing all of that you're also sharing the profits. But that's another strategic action that organizations can take to help keep them competitive in the market place. And one example of that you may know of is the Jaguar Land Rover joint venture. Strategic actions tend to come under those three areas, so internal development, merges and acquisitions, and joint development or joint ventures. So that brings us to the end of this session. One thing you will be asked to do, is to actually identify the strategic actions that are going on in your industry. And your organization, just so that you can situate this knowledge. And the next thing that we'll be looking at is our final lesson on monitoring and evaluating our strategic actions. [MUSIC]