21/01/2014

Strategic Management


Strategic management co exist with the strategic management model and cannot really be separated because they are one in the same.  The model points out three different aspects out that any good manager or CEO should know by heart.  They are the following; Formulation, Implementation, and Control.

The Company Mission

OK, I know I'm moving fast but I see no point going around the bush with this blog posting.  The most important aspect and the whole idea of business is to set out a mission statement because without one you can't formulate anything substantially.

So what is an mission statement, and what is the purpose of an mission statement?  Mission statements is a mission you set out for your business entity and the purpose is to keep your company intact that it doesn't fall apart.  I personally like small mission statements like banking made simple, making food better than anyone else, or even we don't sell it if it isn't quality.  So if you introduce that makes banking complicated the mission statement will out rule it and help your company on trek!

However there are core mission statements and sub mission statements that are more specific to the point and the reason for this is because not every division in your business is exactly the same. So it is a good idea to have an flexible core mission statement and more specific mission statements for sub divisions.

Build a Company Profile    

Company profiling is nothing more that estimating your competitive advantages and disadvantages and are done by measuring the company mission up against external environment conditions like competition, infrastructure and operations.

To do this you will need forecasting tools and techniques but for the blog purpose we will not discuss this because it will complicate the blog to much be free however to Google it and then go on with reading.

Assembling a Company Profile that is Desirable 

The two major forecasting techniques are when starting a business will be Market Opportunity Analysis and the most popular SWAT.  These are the one you build a company profile on to see what are your weaknesses and strengths are.

Once you have identified strengths and weaknesses in your business plan then one could start assembling a profile that is more desirable.  Think as it was an online dating profile, and you want the best suitable date, how will you adjust it taking it through SWAT.  Although the example is personal the same principle applies when building a company profile.  You need a profile that looks much better than your competitors and thus you know what needs improvement and what is your strengths.

Long Term Objectives 

So what needs improving?  This question will help greatly when formulating your long term objectives, and ultimately will be the determining the factor that will help you formulating your generic and grand strategies to follow to the tee.  Always remember to be very specific about your long term objective.

Generic and Grand Strategies 

With long term objectives formulated, it is important then to work out plans to reach these objectives.  This is where generic and grand strategies play the big role,  they are what you will say your plans but more specific plans with directions in mind.

Plan A will work different than plan B for instance but will end  up with your long term objectives in mind.  Something interesting to note is, that you could in practice follow two or three grand or generic strategies simultaneous to get to your objectives with more of an competitive advantage.

Short Term Objectives  

With the grand strategies or generic strategies in place one have to formulate short term objectives that is to say short term challenges to be overcome by the organization in short sessions of time.  Short term objectives are relatively long list and ever changing as thing change very quickly however make sure you keep them to your strategies.

If for some reason the strategies are  impossible to obtain then the generic and grand strategies have to change as well, however only the strategies that is not working but keep the other in place.

Action Plans  

Well now it is time to put things in action and this co exist with functional tactics as well.  Putting things simple action plans are nothing that glorified to-do-list that is connected with your short term objectives in mind.

Out of action plans you will also have to formulate policies to make the work easy, understandable and to the point. Policies is there to keep you into check and make sure your not compromising for the sake of getting the job done!

Restructuring, Re-Engineering and Refocusing the Organization 

Like all plans the sometimes don't work so good in practice as they do in theory so you will always need to restructure, re-engineer and refocus everything from the top to the bottom if things are not giving the results as it should be.

Last Words 

Management is a huge discipline and I hope I have done my best to explain the key element of strategic management,  however there is allot of different models out there and it is all up to you to decide!  This is an popular model to use and big organizations are using it...
Courtesy ~ Ritter Cox

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