What is Strategic Management? Meaning and Definition

What is Strategic Management? 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. Strategic management can also define as a bundle of decisions and acts which a manager undertakes and which decides the result of the firm’s performance.

Here explains read and learn; What is Strategic Management? Meaning and Definition.

Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and involves specifying the organization’s objectives, developing policies and plans designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the plans. Academics and practicing managers have developed numerous models and frameworks to assist in strategic decision making in the context of complex environments and competitive dynamics. Strategic management is not static; the models often include a feedback loop to monitor execution and inform the next round of planning.

Michael Porter identifies three principles underlying strategy: creating a “unique and valuable market position”, making trade-offs by choosing “what not to do”, and creating “fit” by aligning company activities with one another to support the chosen strategy. Dr. Vladimir Kvint defines strategy as “a system of finding, formulating, and developing a doctrine that will ensure long-term success if followed faithfully.”

The corporate strategy involves answering a key question from a portfolio perspective: “What business should we be in?” Business strategy involves answering the question: “How shall we compete in this business?” In management theory and practice, a further distinction is often made between strategic management and operational management. Operational management is concerned primarily with improving efficiency and controlling costs within the boundaries set by the organization’s strategy.

Definition of Strategic Management:

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.

The strategy is defined as;

“The determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals.”

Strategies are established to set direction, focus effort, define or clarify the organization, and provide consistency or guidance in response to the environment. As well as, Strategic management involves the related concepts of strategic planning and strategic thinking. It is analytical and refers to formalized procedures to produce the data and analyses used as inputs for strategic thinking; which synthesizes the data resulting in the strategy. Strategic planning may also refer to control mechanisms used to implement the strategy once it determines.

In other words, strategic planning happens around strategic thinking or strategy making activity. Strategic management often describes as involving two major processes: formulation and implementation of a strategy. While described sequentially below, in practice the two processes are iterative and each provides input for the other. Also, Strategic Management is all about identification and description of the strategies; that managers can carry to achieve better performance and a competitive advantage for their organization. An organization is said to have a competitive advantage if its profitability is higher than the average profitability of all companies in its industry.

Explanation;

The manager must have a thorough knowledge and analysis of the general and competitive organizational environment to make the right decisions. They should conduct a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), i.e., they should make the best possible utilization of strengths, minimize the organizational weaknesses, make use of arising opportunities from the business environment and shouldn’t ignore the threats.

Strategic management is nothing but planning for both predictable as well as unfeasible contingencies. It applies to both small as well as large organizations as even the smallest organization faces competition; and, by formulating and implementing appropriate strategies; they can attain sustainable competitive advantage.

It is a way in which strategists set the objectives and proceed about attaining them. It deals with making and implementing decisions about the future direction of an organization. They help us to identify the direction in which an organization is moving.

Strategic management is a continuous process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which an organization involve; evaluates its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reevaluates strategies regularly to determine how it has been implemented and whether it was successful or does it needs replacement.

More things;

Strategic Management gives a broader perspective to the employees of an organization; and, they can better understand how their job fits into the entire organizational plan; how it co-relate to other organizational members. It is nothing but the art of managing employees in a manner that maximizes the ability to achieve business objectives. The employees become more trustworthy, more committed and satisfied; as they can co-relate themselves very well with each organizational task.

They can understand the reaction of environmental changes in the organization; and, the probable response of the organization with the help of strategic management. Thus the employees can judge the impact of such changes on their job and can effectively face the changes. Also, the managers and employees must appropriately do appropriate things. They need to be both effective as well as efficient.