Strategic Management, Its Phases and Useful Concepts for the Formulation and Implementation of Value-Oriented Corporate Level Strategy

Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the systematic identification of the firm 's objectives, nurturing policies and strategies to achieve these objectives, and acquiring and making available these resources to implement the policies and strategies to achieve the firm 's objectives. Strategic management, therefore, integrates the activities of the various functional sectors of a business, such as marketing, sales and production to achieve organisational goals. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually

Pearce, J. A. II, & Robinson, R. B. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control (11th ed.). [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved August 20, 2011, fr

Once the customer value strategy is established, the company must ensure the implementation of the strategy by committing everyone in the workplace to its objectives and building support system for it. For this the business must ensure the followings:

To produce a good strategy, the strategist should not depend so much on the first strategy, rather, the strategists must be ready to change strategy when encountering with the enemy. The reason why is that every situation could change immediately, and depending on its outcome there may be a possibility that something happened that could “not have been expected earlier” (Heuser,

Strategy is not only a tool for outfoxes the competition but also an incredible means for creating and shaping a company

Competition or also can be known as the struggle for life, had been thought of for a reason that a given species might succeed in life of go extinct. Darwin's theory works like this: In any population there will be variations. Individuals bore with certain characteristics. I.e., strong legs, keen eyesight, good camouflage, will enjoy an advantage over their peers. If these individuals could pass on the same traits, their offspring will enjoy the same advantages. If the surrounding environment changes over time, it may come to change that new characteristics will take over and be better than the last ones. For instance, a new color that will make better camouflage. As environments change, the individuals with the new characteristic will do better, live longer, and produce more offspring until the population will look very different from its original version. If the population changes enough to satisfy some taxonomist, it will be classified as a new species. In other words, new species arise when the environment favors new characteristics over old ones. Another Example would be the example of giraffes: when a giraffe is born with a longer neck than its fellows it is able to reach more food from the tree. The longer neck Giraffe is therefore stronger, lives longer and most likely to have offspring.

2441 A firm has achieved ____ when it successfully formulates and implements a valuecreating strategy. A. strategic competitiveness B. a permanently sustainable competitive advantage C. substantial returns D. legal and ethical core values E. Correct Response: A 2445 The strategic management process is A. a set of activities that will assure a sustainable competitive advantage and above-average returns for the firm. B. a decision-making activity concerned with a firm’s internal resources, capabilities, and competencies, independent of the conditions in its external environment. C. a process directed by top-management with input from other stakeholders that seeks to achieve above-average returns for investors through effective use of the organization’s resources. D. the full set of commitments, decisions, and actions required for the firm to achieve above-average returns and strategic competitiveness. E. Correct Response: D 2476 A firm’s mission A. is a statement of a

Strategic goals, values, vision, and mission are appropriately referred to as strategies since they direct strategists in their quest to develop crucial organizational directions. The mission aims to capture the distinct purpose of the organization or reason for its existence. The vision attempts to portray a mental image of stakeholders, patients, physicians, employees, and managers want the business to be when it is achieving its mission or purpose, hence, it is regarded as the company’s hope for the future (Swayne, Duncan, & Ginter, 2012). On the other hand, values are those principles that organizations hold crucial as the guiding principles the employees and managers cannot afford to compromise as they plan to achieve their mission as they also pursue strategic goals and missions (Newhouse & Balotsky, 2013). Strategic goals are the overarching outcomes that the organization pursues so that it can achieve its vision and mission. Hence, the

Today, strategies are vital for businesses, in many cases it helps to achieve a competitive advantage. Increasing competition in most sectors and technological development has led to accelerated changes in the global economy. In order to meet the market needs, strategies encourage and enable the adaptation of companies in a changing environment (Tribe, 2010).

Rousseau (2011) defines strategy as a link connecting military power and political purpose. He emphasizes that strategy entails the use of threat and force to achieve policy objectives. Given the unfortunate centrality of war to world events, strategy becomes a significant aspect in providing a theory of success. The perennial popularity of books on military and application of works of wisdom in the use of force today is unequivocal. Particularly, books that generally focus of the theory of strategy, studies with varied meanings for all purposes, technologies, places, and times are increasingly rare. In the past 2,400 years, only 3 classic works are significant on this subject and no more than five have an enduring value (Rousseau, 2011). Sun-Tzu’s classic work on The Art of War is one such classic works basing on strategic theory that has implications for all purposes, places, times, and technologies. Sun-Tzu wrote his book in China in ca. 400 BC during the era of “Warring States, 403-221 BC” (Rousseau, 2011, p. 79). Henri de Jomini’s The Art of War that he wrote in 1838 also deserves an honorable mention.

Strategic Management is the spirit for a corporation all over the world. A corporate’s strategy mainly based on three steps: Identify the strategic position, make strategic choice and make strategic actions. Each step includes different aspects. When we identify the

Talking about corporate strategy lead us to talk first about the strategy. Strategy defined as "the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal" (Merriam-Webster online, 2007). It is a plan of actions to achieve long-term goals. At any organization, there are three main levels of strategy; Corporate Strategy, Business Strategy and Functional Strategy as in figure1. Figure2 shows an example of my organization with three strategies levels.

Sun Tzu’s classical book was intentionally written for the conduct of war but his ideas and perceptions don’t just fit for war. The book addresses strategy in broad manner making it applicable to strategic management.

But if value creation is the overarching corporate goal, the process of creating value involves much more than simply holding up value maximization as the organizational objective. As a statement of corporate purpose or vision, value maximization is not likely to tap into the energy and enthusiasm of employees and managers. Thus, in addition to setting up value maximization as the corporate scorecard, top management must provide a corporate vision, strategy, and tactics that will unite all the firm's constituencies in its efforts to compete and add value for investors.

Creating a value proposition is part of business strategy. Kaplan and Norton[1] say "Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition. Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value creation."