The strategic management of a company involves creating a framework to ensure the success of the entire organization. This includes the planning process, monitoring and implementing strategies, and encouraging employees to prioritize tasks that support strategic goals. It also involves looking for opportunities and analyzing threats and obstacles within the business environment. This type of management is often performed by top management. However, new ideas can be generated by employees at any level. Companies employ descriptive and prescriptive strategies management techniques based upon renowned managerial theories to help them make decisions, allocate resources and achieve their goals.
The first step of strategic management is to evaluate the present state of the company. This includes evaluating the company’s internal structure, capabilities and resources, as well evaluating any strategic plans. Businesses can also utilize tools like SWOT analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in the market.
After the initial assessment stages of strategic management companies must create a vision statement, or amend it to reflect the broad strategic goals of the business. These goals can include increasing revenue or cutting costs. Typically, these goals will include some kind of measurable target that can be accomplished over time.
The process of developing the strategy isn’t enough to ensure that it’s successful however. Executing the plan is the last stage of strategic management. This requires excellent communication and coordination between levels and departments. Making a decision and implementing a management framework such as the Balanced Scorecard, Theory of Change or Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is crucial to coordinating and managing the various aspects of the strategic plan.