Strategic Management : Strategic Planning

See Chapter 1, Exhibit 01: Strategic management consists of the analyses, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages:

Harper College’s Information Technology (IT) Client Services department houses the Information Security group. This group does not gather most of its own data, so the leaders will need to gather metric information from other College areas.

Strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by a company 's top management on behalf of owners, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization competes.[1]

This step of the planning process is critical in that is serves as the foundation upon which the remainder of the plan is built. A vision is a statement that identifies where an organization wants to be at some point in the future. It functions to provide a company with directionality, stress management, justification and quantification of resources, enhancement of professional growth, motivation, standards, and succession planning. Porrus and Collins (1996) point out that a well-conceived vision consists of two major components: a core ideology and the envisioned future.

All organizations have a mission statement and a vision for the future. Every organization should know where they stand, and have an idea of where they see themselves five to ten years from now. To make their vision a reality, they must set goals and make specific plans. The two major types of planning used by organizations to achieve goals are strategic and operational planning. Goal setting is imperative to organizational growth, but without planning those goals may not be attainable. Top-level managers, as well as frontline lower level managers must work together if they want their organization to succeed. As stated by Cascella, (2002) “most business leaders recognize the importance of strategic planning, but few succeed in translating their strategies into business results”(Cascella, 2002, Pg.1). Everyone in the organization must understand the strategic and operational plans and how to act on them. Without this balance and understanding, there will be no improvements to the business or their customers.

To businesses today strategic planning is not just an idea, it defines a way to build a brand, customer loyalty, produce and grow long-term revenues which enables an organization to achieve its objectives. (David, F., 2014) Strategic management is a fundamental part of business which assists in sustainability of the business and helps create value for a business. Without the right mix of strategic planning a business can lose market share to their competitors; hence profits. Since 1994, Amazon has been paving the way for both e-commerce and traditional brick and mortar retail companies.

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

Strategic planning aids a business in laying out a direction and path for the business to follow in order to increase its chances of being successful and prosperous. According to the textbook “Strategy Planning” by Bethel University, strategy is defined as “A company’s strategy consists of the competitive moves and business approaches management has developed to attract and please customers, conduct operations, grow the business, and achieve performance objectives” (2011, p. 3). From this definition, one can also ascertain the importance management plays in the strategic plan. The plan allows the managers of a business to make decisions that will be supported by all of the stakeholders involved in the organization. As the plan is developed three key questions need to be addressed. The first of these will establish the position and status of the company now. The next of these three questions will seek to establish a direction for the company moving forward. The final of the three questions will lay out a plan for achieving the targets established in the second question.

A strategic plan is an important aspect in any business. In order to be successful, a company must have goals, be capable of creating a path to achieving them, and be successful in implementing the strategy to reach their goals.

Strategy means consciously choosing to be clear about your company’s direction in relation to what’s happening in the dynamic environment. With this knowledge, you’re in a much better position to respond proactively to the changing environment.

Strategic planning is critical to an organizations success. Without a strategic plan, leaders can lose sight of their vision, mission, and goals and cause the organization to fail. “Strategic planning is an ambitious undertaking that requires a significant amount of time for development, implementation, and

Strategic management is a level of managerial activity under setting goals and over Tactics. Strategic

Before an organization starts carrying out its activities, it has to come up with a strategic plan. This will help it in effectively and efficiently carrying out its activities. Before coming up with the plan, the management should carry out both an internal and external analysis. This will assist it in identifying the organization’s strong and weak points. (Jackson, 2006).

Strategic management is defined as a process where various strategies and several policies are put into action by the development of programs. Through budgets and processes, the objectives of an organization are identified so that the policies and strategies are developed. The chief executive officer and the executive team are tasked with developing such plans. What direct the whole direction of an enterprise is knowns as strategic management. The factors that affect strategic management are; resources, objectives of the organization and the prevailing circumstances. Strategic management involves procedures that include development, drafting the issues involved, implementation and finally assessing the decisions that affect several functions that are put into use in an organization. Strategy is the main criteria that is employed in the assessment of an organization‘s vision, mission, policies, goals and on their implementation. Long ago strategies were used in local organizations where the objectives and goals of organizations were not globally oriented. But due to the changing times, they are now being implemented in the world stage. Due to this nature of strategic management, it is now commonly referred to as global financial management.

Strategic Management is a substantial wing of the management system of an organisation or company whereby a set of managerial decision and action helps to determine the long-run performance and major goals of the organisation or company. Generally, top-level management of an organisation is responsible for the initiation and implementation of such decisions and actions based on the available resources and welcoming environment. The strategies involve the formulation and setting of directions, aims and objectives; improving organisational performance; collaborating and executing changes; developing and training the employees etc. It also stresses on the monitoring and evaluation of internal strengths and weaknesses and identifying external opportunities (Adair 2009).