 What is strategic management?

Strategic management is the ongoing planning, monitoring, analysis and assessment of all

necessities an organization needs to meet its goals and objectives. Changes in business
environments will require organizations to constantly assess their strategies for success.
The strategic management process helps organizations take stock of their present situation,
chalk out strategies, deploy them and analyze the effectiveness of the implemented
management strategies. Strategic management strategies consist of five basic strategies and
can differ in implementation depending on the surrounding environment. Strategic
management applies both to on premise and mobile platforms.

 What are the benefits of strategic management?

Strategic management is generally thought to have financial and nonfinancial benefits. A
strategic management process helps an organization and its leadership to think about and plan
for its future existence, fulfilling a chief responsibility of a board of directors. Strategic
management sets a direction for the organization and its employees. Unlike once-and-done
strategic plans, effective strategic management continuously plans, monitors and tests an
organization's activities, resulting in greater operational efficiency, market share and
profitability.

 Strategic management concepts:

Strategic management is based around an organization's clear understanding of its mission; its
vision for where it wants to be in the future; and the values that will guide its actions. The
process requires a commitment to strategic planning, a subset of business management that
involves an organization's ability to set both short- and long-term goals. Strategic planning also
includes the planning of strategic decisions, activities and resource allocation needed to
achieve those goals.

Having a defined process for managing an institution's strategies will help organizations make
logical decisions and develop new goals quickly in order to keep pace with evolving
technology, market and business conditions. Strategic management can, thus, help an
organization gain competitive advantage, improve market share and plan for its future.
 Strategic model.
The strategic management model identifies concepts of strategy and the elements necessary
for development of a strategy enabling the organization to satisfy its mission. Historically, a
number of frameworks and models have been advanced whish propose different normative
approaches to strategy determination. However, a review of the major strategic management
models indicates that they all include the following element:
 Performing an environment analysis.
 Establishing organizational direction.
 Formulating organizational strategy.
 Implementing organizational strategy.
 Evaluating and controlling strategy.

Models
Strategic analysis:
The foundation of the strategy is a definition of organizational purpose. This defines the
business of an organization and what type of organization it wants to be. Many organizations
develop broad statement of purpose, in the form of vision and mission statement.

Environmental analysis:
Assessing both the external and internal environment is the next step in the strategy process.
Managers need to assess the opportunity and threats of the external environment in the light
of the organization strength and weaknesses keeping in view the expectation of the
stakeholders.
This analysis allows the organization to set more specific goals or objectives which might
specify where people are expected to focus their efforts. With a more specifics set of
objectives in hand, managers can then plan how to achieve them.

Strategic choice:
The analysis stage provides the basis for strategic choice. It allows managers to consider what
the organization could do given the mission, environment and capabilities a choice whish also
reflects the values of managers and other stakeholders. These choice are about the overall
scope and directions of the business.
Since managers usually face several strategic options, they often need to analyses these in
terms of their feasibility, suitability an acceptability before finally deciding on their direction.
Strategy implementation:
Implementation depends on ensuring that the organization has a suitable structure, the right
resource and competencies (skills, finance, technology etc.), right leadership and culture.
Strategy implementation depends on operational factors being put into place.
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