The stroggification process is not a cutscene so I can't skip it. If you like watching while a human body is mutilated you might find this part interesting. Part 7: Strogg medical facilities (action part). Matthew Kane is the protagonist of Quake IV. 1 Biography 1.1 Stroggos 1.2 Stroggification 1.3 Continued Campaign on Stroggos 2 Trivia 3 References 4 Gallery Nothing is known aboutMatthew Kane's early life before the events of Quake 4, but it seems likely that he received a typical Lunar upbringing in the years before the Strogg invaded. At some point around or following the outbreak of war.

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Learning Outcomes

• Explain the stages of strategy.
• Explain Porter’s general types of competitive strategies.
• Explain e-commerce strategy.

The previous sections have examined the role of strategy in management and looked at common frameworks for analyzing the external and internal environment of business organizations. But what are the specific steps in the strategic management process? How do managers decide what to do, when to do it, and make sure it is happening the way they want? This is what the strategic management process is all about.

The Strategic Management Process

The strategic management process consists of three, four, or five steps depending upon how the different stages are labeled and grouped. But all of the approaches include the same basic actions in the same order. A brief description of these steps follows:

1. Strategic Objectives and Analysis. The first step is to define the vision, mission, and values statements of the organization. This is done in combination with the external analysis of the business environment (PESTEL) and internal analysis of the organization (SWOT). An organization’s statements may evolve as information is discovered that affects a company’s ability to operate in the external environment.
2. Strategic Formulation. The information from PESTEL and SWOT analyses should be used to set clear and realistic goals and objectives based on the strengths and weaknesses of the company. Identify if the organization needs to find additional resources and how to obtain them. Formulate targeted plans to achieve the goals. Prioritize the tactics most important to achieving the objectives. Continue to scan the external environment for changes that would affect the chances of achieving the strategic goals.
3. Strategic Implementation. Sometimes referred to as strategic execution, this stage is when the planning stops and the action begins. The best plans won’t make up for sloppy implementation. Everyone in the organization should be aware of his or her particular assignments, responsibilities and authority. Management should provide additional employee training to meet plan objectives during this stage, as well. It should also allocate resources, including funding. Success in this stage depends upon employees being given the tools needed to implement the plan and being motivated to make it work.
4. Strategic Evaluation and Control. Because external and internal conditions are always changing, this stage is extremely important. Performance measurements (determined by the nature of the goal) will help determine if key milestones are being met. If actual results vary from the strategic plan, corrective actions will need to be taken. If necessary, reexamine the goals or the measurement criteria. If it becomes apparent that the strategy is not working according to plan, then new plans need to be formulated (see Step 2) or organizational structures adjusted. Personnel may need to be retrained or shifted to other duties. You may even have to repeat the strategic management process from the beginning, including the information and knowledge gained from this first attempt.

The graphic depicts the basic steps of the strategic management process. Note that analysis, decision making, and action happen in all of the steps and throughout the process.

Porter’s Competitive Strategies

The strategic management process described earlier can be successfully used for a wide number of business strategies. In practice, however, most organizations develop strategies that focus on the competition.

Besides studying the nature of industry profits in the Five Forces Theory, Michael Porter is also recognized for his work on four general types of competitive strategies. (More recently, a fifth strategy has been added.) Porter’s model describes two ways of achieving competitive advantage, either by differentiation or by cost. It also identifies two ways of targeting the market, by focusing on a particular market segment or appealing to the overall (broad) market. This approach results in four separate competitive strategies: overall differentiation, overall low cost, focused differentiation, and focused low cost. The fifth strategy combines elements of both low cost and differentiation. This is called the integrated approach.

Porter classified competitive strategies by cost and differentiation, with a focused or broad market scope. He later recognized a fifth (integrated) classification.

Low Price Leadership Strategy

An organization seeking a low-cost strategy seeks to become a leader in providing low-cost products to its customers. The strategy is to produce (or purchase) comparable value goods or services at a lower cost than its competitors. The lower cost will attract the majority of customers and allow it to profit by the volume of goods sold. For this strategy to be successful, it requires that only one or two companies can be industry leaders in this position. For example, Walmart and Costco are leaders in the overall low-cost strategy. IKEA is a low-cost leader using a focused low-cost strategy, appealing to a particular segment of the overall market.

Differentiation Leadership Strategy

A strategy based on differentiation (distinction) calls for goods and services that offer unique features and that have high value for the target customer. The features must be perceived by the customer to be so much better than what the competition offers that they are worth an additional cost.

The differentiation may be based on the total number of features, quality of the features, customer service, or other criteria. Marketing campaigns are one way to differentiate a product and create a strong emotional attachment to it, supporting premium prices. Examples of companies in the overall market scope that pursue an overall differentiated strategy include Sony and Apple. They produce a large number of quality products that appeal to the wide technology consumer market. Businesses that sell luxury goods in any industry are employing a focused differentiation strategy. Prada, BMW, and Rolex are all companies whose strategy depends upon maintaining a loyal customer base convinced of the superior quality and uniqueness of their products—and who are also willing to pay a premium for the perceived quality value.

Differentiation Strategy Advantages and Disadvantages

Integrated Strategy

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In today’s highly competitive market, customers expect distinction and low cost. Some companies have responded by adopting an integrated strategy. Porter originally argued that this integrated, or “stuck in the middle,” strategy would fail, but other researchers showed real-world examples. Later, Porter modified his view. The organizations strive to provide more value than the average competitor but also focus on keeping costs low. Examples of integrated strategy firms include the automobile companies who manufacture a “luxury” brand, such as the Kia K900. Kia keeps costs down by using many components of its low-cost models but adds additional features comparable to luxury car producers. This approach is risky, because these products run the risk of being too expensive for the economy-driven customer but not having the prestige of the classic luxury brands.

E-Business and E-Commerce

Businesses today need a strategy for competing with online “upstarts” who can underprice and steal customers. Companies that once thought they were immune to online competition have discovered that the Internet is biting into their profits. Warby-Parker is an online provider of eyeglasses that offers lenses at up to 70 percent off the price opticians charge. The customer only needs to choose frames, pick a lens, and enter the prescription. Returns are guaranteed. Even many routine medical procedures are being addressed digitally as patients meet online with doctors.

E-business can be defined as any business that takes place over digital processes using a computer network rather than in a physical location (“brick and mortar”). Organizations of all types, military and nonprofit, educational and governmental, use e-business strategies. The strategies are geared to three purposes:

• those related to decreasing production costs and increasing efficiency.
• those creating customer focus.
• those addressing internal management.

Cached

E-commerce is a more limited term than e-business. It refers specifically to exchanges or transactions that occur electronically. The younger the shopper, the more likely he or she is to conduct “business” using a smart phone. E-commerce strategies rely on the power of the Internet, both in the growing popularity of online purchasing and in shaping marketing strategies. About 8.5 percent of all retail sales were made online in 2016 and this figure is increasing rapidly every year. Many organizations have sales and marketing teams dedicated to devising strategies for capturing their share of the growing online market. Amazon clearly dominates e-commerce with a whopping 33 percent of all online purchases. Its e-commerce strategy is “simply” to make it as easy as possible for the customer to find, order, pay, receive, and return (if necessary) the goods that it buys from the giant corporation. It doesn’t wait for the customer to search out a product, but rather pushes products to the customer based on past purchases.

Retailers and manufacturers also use the aspects of the internet such as Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites to predict trends as they are developing to get a jump on production. First to market can be a key competitive advantage, in part because of the short life span of many fads. Many of the strategies needed to succeed in e-commerce are very different from competing in a nondigital environment. To survive today, organizations need to be present in both environments.

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Quake IV is the fourth entry in the Quake series, launched in 2005.The game was developed by Raven Software, using the Id Tech 4 engine (Doom 3 engine) and it's set in the Strogg arc, as a sequel of Quake II.

After the events of Quake II, the EDF starts the invasion to the Strogg planet in order to terminate the Strogg menace once and for all. The player controls Matthew Kane, a corporal of the Rhino Squad, and he must assist his comrades in the given objectives.

Bear in mind that a lot of tropes from Quake II also apply here. Also, the Character tropes go to the Characters page.

• Air Vent Passageway: There's an escape using one in the level after Kane's Stroggification, just before Kane's first encounter with a Teleport Dropper.
• Exclusively Evil: The Strogg race.
• And I Must Scream: A conversation overheard hints that the victims that are Stroggified are, for a time, aware of their actions but can not stop them. This is later shown to be true when Voss becomes Stroggified.
• Animal Motifs: The squad names: Badger, Bison, Cobra, Eagle, Kodiak, Scorpion, Viper, Warthog, Wolf, and, of course, the Rhino Squad. There's also the Raven squad, composed by members with the same names as the developers of the game.
• Badass Driver: Whoever is driving the truck in the early Nexus mission in Quake 4 has got to be crazy.
• Beam-O-War: The Railgun.
• Beam Spam: The Lightning Gun.
• BFG: The Dark Matter Gun.
• Big Damn Heroes: When the Rhino Squad saves Kane from the final part of the Stroggification process.
• Body Horror: The Stroggification process, where the subjects are put into heavy sedation and, as a result, are 75% paralyzed. Through an assembly-line-like process, they rip open your stomach, saw off your legs, fuse new legs and armor to your skin, put a big helmet on you, insert a control chip into the victims brain, and then activate said chip so he/she can serve the Strogg. Fortunately, Kane is saved from that last part by the Rhino Squad. Too bad the same can't be said for the many other poor souls before you that already completed the process, which you can see in the body jars moving around the facility.
• Boring but Practical: The Machinegun in single-player, especially because it's one of two weapons with a flashlight, the other being the Blaster.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Many examples in the fourth, specially Gladiators. Heavy Hovertanks are this plus outright Demonic Spiders, while Light Tanks are fairly Level Five Onix provided you've got enough room to keep backing away from them. They're a pain in the ass, anyway.
• Boss Rush: Just before the final battle, Kane is locked in a small-medium sized room and forced to fight 3 consecutive groups of the Boss in Mook Clothing enemies: 3 Light Tanks, 3 Heavy Hovertanks, and 3 Stream Protectors.
• Bowdlerization: The German version removes the blood and gore and censor some scenes (such as Anderson's death) However, the dub wasn't changed to accommodate the censorship and so quite a few lines turn into non-sequiturs.
• Chainsaw Good: The Gauntlet, available only in multi-player mode.
• Cypher Language: The Strogg languange.
• Degraded Boss: The Harvester first appear as a Mini Boss-type encounter, then as a regular Giant Mook later.
• Dramatic Space Drifting: In the intro. Seems that is's just a marine contemplating the emptiness, then he turns to reveal a disfigured face and then half a body missing.
• Embedded Precursor: In some editions, the original Quake II was brought with the game.
• Enemy Summoner: The Teleport Dropper, that Strogg which looked like a bulldog, and could disperse several teleporters which summoned several Mooks. These can also appear at the Strogg teleporters on the game. Strogg!Voss also has this ability.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The Strogg voices heard throughout the game, including the Makron's voice.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Stroggification. As if being conscious through all that mutilation isn't bad enough, until your higher brain functions atrophy, you're forced to watch as your body is used to kill your fellow men.
• Flunky Boss: The majority of the bosses fit this trope, if you don't count the first Makron encounter as a boss.
• Giant Mook: Stream Protectors, Light Tanks, Heavy Hovertanks, and Gladiators.
• Giant Spider: The Harvesters are enormous and rather spider-like in appearance.
• Half the Man He Used To Be: This happens to an unfortunate Marine who attempts to enter a Strogg teleporter.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Kane's first encounter with the Makron.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Although it's somewhat unique in that Kane does have to damage him significantly, otherwise he just straight out kills him (game over man, game over) instead of immobilizing him with his tractor beam.
• Industrialized Evil: Stroggification.
• Keystone Army: The Stroggos. Once the Nexus is destroyed, every Strogg force perishes.
• Major Injury Underreaction: When on the first to the Hannibal, you can hear this exchange when exiting for the field:

• More Dakka: Some vehicles.
• Nail'Em: The Nailgun. In the campaign mode, you can upgrade the weapon, so it can shot homing nails, by keeping the alternate fire button pressed.
• Nintendo Hard: General difficulty. The weakest, basic enemy Mooks can kill you in just a handful of shots. All enemies have noticeably more health, so that even mid-level enemies like Berserkers and Gunners take more than a full clip of assault rifle fire to kill. Your teammates are no longer invincible powerhouses, making all levels with them into Escort Missions. The game is already fairly stingy with Health and Armor on Normal, so imagine what all this is like on Harder Than Hard. Legendary has nothing on this.
• Nitro Express: One Escort Mission has a demolitions expert carrying explosives that will 'take out half the mountain' if set off.
• No OSHA Compliance: Any Strogg facility you could think.
• Nostalgia Levels: Quake IV, Multi-player-wise, plays this straight with its remakes of 'Claustrophobopolis', from the first Quake; 'The Edge' (plus a CTF version) from Quake II; and 'The Longest Yard' and 'The Very End Of You' (renamed as 'Xaero's Gravity') from Quake III Arena. Subsequent patches added also 'The Camping Grounds' from the latter.
• Not Using the Z Word: Played straight with the actual monster names, averted in-game where one of the marines panics after getting bit by a 'zombie' before being corrected that they're just botched Strogg.
• Orange-Blue Contrast: A variant. The Marines are, rather than blue, olive green, while the Strogg are orange. This is reflected in their respective UIs as well as in their uniforms. It also makes Matthew Kane stand out even more, post-Stroggification, when standing amongst the rest of Rhino Squad.
• Spider Tank: They're called the Harvesters and Kane find them four times: the first two before the Nexus tower as a human, the second when Bidwell dies and the last once you've escaped from the Strogg Medical Facility as a Strogg.
• Strapped to An Operating Table: The entire Stroggification process, although the victims aren't strapped to the tables--they're just heavily sedated.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Used right before the first Makron battle. Kane runs down a hallway lined with ammo to an obvious ambush. After taking out the two (relatively) easy Stream Protectors, the Makron shows up. In spite of it being a Heads I Win, Tails You Lose scenario, if he doesn't do enough damage to it first, he will die; he has to 'win' to advance.
• Translator Microbes: When Kane is Stroggified, the chip implanted in his brain lets him read and hear the Strogg language as English.
• You Don't Look Like You: The entire Strogg race.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The level before the second squad intermission is all about this. They are called 'Failed transfers' and 'Slimy transfers'.