Strategic management: tool for decision making

in organizations.

Strategic management. Some theoretical reflections.

The administration strategic, also called

address strategic,
Strategic direction, strategic management or strategic planning, requires the
analysis of organizations from a comprehensive perspective, as well as the
adoption of expanded visions, adopting and adapting by decision makers,
mental models that facilitate harmonizing the vision of the world and of its
participants (Chiavenato and Sapiro, 2011). Its approach from a traditional
conception has been refined and complemented with modern visions,
accompanied by advances that have been incorporated into specialized
literature (Thompson and Strickland, 2001; David, 2003; Chiavenato, 2001; Hitt
et al., 2004 ; among others), this includes, among other aspects, definitions,
elements and basic stages that integrate and expand the vision of
administration or management in current organizations.
In this sense, strategic management is defined by various authors,
these being in tune with the way of conceiving it, since in most cases there are
coincidences in the key elements or aspects considered in its definition. Citing a
classic in the area, David (2003), suggests that this can be defined as the art
and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating decisions through the
functions that allow a company to achieve its objectives; It outlines on the one
hand the mission of the organization, while on the other hand its future direction,
the long-term strategic objectives, while defining strategies and policies to
achieve them; all of this supported by evaluation processes of the environment
both external and internal to the organization.
For David (2003), strategic management is a process that begins with
the establishment of organizational goals, defines strategies and policies to
achieve these goals, and develops detailed plans to ensure the implementation
of the strategies and thus obtain the desired goals. It allows decisions to be
made about the type of planning efforts that should be done, when and how it
should be done, who will carry it out, and what will be done with the results.
According to the author, strategic planning is systematic in the sense that it is
organized and conducted based on an understood reality. However, for most
organizations, it represents a series of plans and actions produced after a
specific period of time. It responds to a continuous process, particularly with
regard to strategy formulation (David, 2003), due to continuous changes in the
context.
In line with David (2003), he establishes that strategic management
focuses on the formulation of a company's strategies based on the
creation of a set of competitive advantages, as part of a systematic
planning system. Specifying the above,

Thompson and Strckland (2001) point out that strategic management must be
assumed as a process and not as an isolated event in organizational life, while
establishing five tasks:

• development of a strategic vision of the organization, specifying where it is

going.

• determination of objectives that allow the strategic vision to be

converted into specific performance results that must be achieved.
• creation of strategies that aim to achieve objectives.
• implementation of the strategy efficiently and effectively.

• evaluation of performance and initiation of corrective adjustments in

vision, direction, objectives, strategy or implementation, seen from actual
experience, changing conditions, new ideas and new opportunities.

For his part, Francés (2006) shares the previous definitions by defining it
as a systematic process that establishes strategic guidelines for an
organization. The author specifies that this process takes into account
uncertainty by identifying opportunities and threats in the environment, and tries
to anticipate what other actors can do, highlighting that the executed strategy is
also fed by the emerging one, which arises from the activity. daily, and that is
incorporated into the formulated strategy. Authors such as Betancourt (2006)
establish that it should be seen as the “art and/or science of anticipating and
generating change, with the purpose of permanently creating strategies that
guarantee the future of the business.”

Rivas and Velásquez (2009) propose that strategic management can be

conceived as a theoretical structure for reflection on the company's major
options, a reflection that is based on a new organizational culture and a new
management attitude, where It is not about copying the difficulties arising from a
turbulent environment but rather going to meet them, where we flee from the
improvised in search of the analytical and the formal. In this context, it is worth
expressing that strategic management fits within the concept of intelligent
organization introduced in 1990 by Peter Senge (2009), but already coined by
Seymour Papert in the 1960s, which involves strategy in all sectors. of the
organization breaking the paradigm of the levels of scientific administration;
That is to say, this involvement of people in strategic management, and the
internalization of the vision in each of the members of the organization, is what
makes an organization intelligent.