Strategic Management
What is Strategic Management?
Management, from a traditional perspective, is about
planning, organizing, staffing (recruiting, retaining and
developing talent), directing and measuring the work
that goes on in an organization. Strategic Management
is similar in nature. It is the core managerial
responsibilities and tasks associated with building,
communicating, and executing strategy. Strategic
management concepts encompass the well-managed
actions and tasks associated with a plan to win.
With effective strategic management practices in place
an organization, function or team is better positioned to
convert a vision, mission, and strategy into better
results and long-term success for stakeholders
(owners, customers, employees, etc.)
Like traditional management, strategy requires ongoing
planning about how to create and leverage competitive
advantage, organizing resources needed, directing the
efforts of the organization’s talent effectively and
efficiently, implementing and executing on priorities
and initiatives, and evaluating performance and results.
Strategic Management is a dynamic and continual
process that enables organizations to shape the future
by capitalizing on opportunities, mitigating risks, and
anticipating changes and challenges that occur.
Why Strategic Management is Important
The long-term sustained success and competitiveness
of an organization are dependent on leaders and team
members’ ability to craft and implement strategy. The
role of strategic management is critically important to an
organization because it puts a structure in place that is
needed to:
•Identify and track the opportunities, issues, disruptions,
and changes that could impact the organization.
•Form a strategic vision, mission and direction.
•Convert the vision and mission into measurable targets,
priorities, and plans.
•Align functions, departments, and teams around a
shared direction and purpose.
•Effectively allocate resources.
•Enable the organization’s talent to proactively contribute
to the strategy.
•Monitor and measure progress towards strategic
objectives.
•Make adjustments and respond to internal or external
opportunities or changes.
What Are the Four Phases of Strategic
Management?
There are four key phases of Strategic Management:
[Link]: Gathering information about the forces
shaping the environment the organization functions
in.
[Link]: Converting the information and
intelligence gathered in Phase 1 into insights about
potential opportunities, challenges, and changes.
[Link]: Defining the active measures,
strategic priorities, initiatives and plans that will lead
to success.
[Link]: Implementing the plan, aligning others,
measuring progress and making necessary
adjustments.
In the fourth phase of Strategic Management, you are
“operationalizing” the strategy, so management
practices and disciplines become especially
important in driving the strategy forward to
completion. Strategic Management responsibilities
include procuring resources, dividing tasks, ensuring
accountability, tracking progress and measuring
results. All leaders have to be flexible and able to
focus on delivering short-term results while
managing the future throughout all four phases.