What is Strategic Management?

Answer 1

Strategic management is the process of developing and executing a series of competitive moves to enhance the success of the organization both in the present and in the future. These competitive moves are derived from the demands of the external environment in which the firm operates as well as the internal capabilities which it has developed or can reasonably hope to build or acquire. While managers may follow somewhat different strategic management routines, a sound process should include an analysis of the current business situation, the formulation of objectives and strategies based on that analysis, and an implementation and evaluation procedure that ensures progress toward each strategy and objective. This article focuses on the formulation of appropriate strategic objectives based on a sound understanding of the internal and external environments faced by the firm. A brief discussion of implementation is included though this topic is covered in greater detail in other entries.As nobody can surely predict the future, it is sensible to have a number of options available to directors and managers that can be put in place relatively quickly. The key to all strategic management is having a transformation process working to move you from where you are now to where you want to go. That transformation process needs to be built upon people in the business, as they are the people that are going to get you there. The transformational process needs to be a two way process, because just issuing out directives from on high will not work. Everyone in the business needs to buy into the process both mentally and physically, otherwise rather than being an ambassador for the company, they become an assassin within the company. As harsh as it sounds, people need to Fit in or F* off (FIFO). The hardest part of any change management process is convincing people internally to do it and them seeing the benefit of the change, which is not always easy to do. This can only be done by not just putting a process in place, but actually changing the mental attitudes of the staff and the new processes becoming their normal business behaviour. Within every successful strategic management group you also need a innovation cell (often the most difficult to cultivate) to think out of the box and to question normal business behaviours and processes, otherwise there is a danger that the Executives will be marking their own homework, and convince themselves they are always doing the right thing.