Strategic Management

To deal effectively with the wide array of factors affecting the ability of a business to grow and prosper, managers need advanced processes they feel will facilitate the optimal positioning of the business in its competitive environment. Such positioning is possible with strategic management because this process improves preparedness for unexpected internal or competitive demands.

Therefore, strategic management is an all-encompassing approach for formulating, implementing and evaluating managerial decisions in a way that permits the business to reach its objectives.

For a strategic management plan to be successful, however, every manager should:

Ð'* Be firmly committed to the idea of changing the business planning process

Ð'* Assure that the strategic management process has credibility with everyone involved

Ð'* Make sure that final plans are realistic and reflect actual resources and capabilities

Ð'* Train all participants in the procedures essential to the strategic management process

Ð'* Develop concise and well-organized plans

One of the world's best performing natural resources companies created a unique organizational structure

. . .

Ð'* Innovation cannot be institutionalized.

In view of the complex environmental conditions confronting organizations and the rapid changes taking place within this environment, many organizations will no longer be able to rely on traditional ways of managing themselves. Most proposals with sponsorship from a division director have more or less free passage (a "rubber stamp"), that the analysis is rarely unbiased, and that the hard-to-quantify costs and benefits are excluded (Harrison, St. The federal benchmarking study on customer-focused strategic planning offers good advice for avoiding many of the pitfalls of strategic planning.

Concept