Author: Barbora Bělová
Date of Publication: 11/05/2023
Strategic management is the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating business strategies. Actually, it’s the process to achieve the goals and objectives of an organisation. In particular, it involves the identification and analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Apart from that, it helps to understand the external business environment.
Once the SWOT analysis is complete, strategic management involves developing a plan of action or strategy to:
● capitalize on strengths,
● address weaknesses,
● take advantage of opportunities,
● organizations mitigate threats.
This strategy is then implemented through various means, such as marketing campaigns, operational changes, and organisational restructuring.
Phases of strategic management
Strategic management can be broken down into four main phases, which are the following:
1. Analysis phase
This involves conducting a thorough analysis of the organisation's internal and external environment, including a SWOT analysis. In particular, this phase helps to identify the organisation's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Thus, it will contribute to the development of the organisation's strategy.
2. Planning phase
Based on the results of the analysis phase, the organisation develops a plan of action, or strategy, to achieve its goals and objectives. This plan outlines the specific steps. Therefore, the organisation will capitalise on its strengths, address its weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and mitigate threats.
3. Implementation phase
Once the strategy is developed, it is implemented through various means. For example, some of them are a marketing campaign, an operational change, and an organisational restructuring. So, this phase involves allocating resources, setting timelines, and assigning responsibilities. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that the strategy is successfully implemented.
4. Evaluation phase
Finally, the organization evaluates the effectiveness of the strategy and makes adjustments as needed. This involves measuring performance metrics and making changes to the strategy. It can also involve completely revising the strategy if it is not achieving the desired results.
Following these phases, organizations can ensure that their strategic management process is comprehensive, effective, and adaptable to changing circumstances.
Tools to keep the company's strategic direction
We can take these terms as tools to maintain the strategic direction of the company. Specifically, mission, vision, and strategic goals are important concepts in strategic management. This is because they can help organizations to define their purpose and direction.
Mission
An organization's mission is a statement that describes its purpose, values, and overall direction. Actually, it communicates the fundamental reason why the organization exists and what it aims to achieve. Therefore, a mission statement should be clear, concise, and inspiring. This way, it will guide the organization's decision-making and actions.
Vision
An organization's vision is a statement that describes its aspirations for the future. In particular, it communicates the long-term goals and objectives that the organization wants to achieve. In other words, it inspires and motivates the organization's stakeholders to work towards that vision. As a result, a vision statement should be ambitious, but also realistic and achievable.
Strategic goals
Strategic goals are the specific objectives that an organization sets for itself in order to achieve its mission and vision. Actually, they are the concrete steps that the organization needs to take to make its vision a reality. That’s why strategic goals should be measurable, specific, and time-bound. Therefore, they should follow the organization's mission and vision.
In a nutshell
Together, mission, vision, and strategic goals provide a framework for the organization's prioritized strategic planning and decision-making. They help the organization stay focused on its core purpose and direction. Also, they help to prioritise its efforts towards achieving its long-term objectives.
Overall, strategic management is an essential part of any successful organization. This is because it helps to ensure that the organization is constantly adapting and evolving. This way, it’s able to stay ahead of the competition and achieve its goals.
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