Strategic management is the method of designing, applying and assessing the multifunctional decisions, which assist a commercial enterprise to attain its goals. Strategic management is considered both as art and science. Strategic management involves a number of steps to be performed.
About Strategic Management
Strategic management is a procedure where the particular goals of a business enterprise are chalked out, a number of policies and schemes are formulated for the purpose of accomplishing these goals and resources are allocated or distributed to reach the goals of the commercial enterprise.
In short, strategic management is process where the operations of the various functional domains of a business enterprise are consolidated for the purpose of accomplishing organizational goals.
Strategic management is the function of the top rank managers of a company, generally planned by the board of directors and executed by the team of executives and the Chief Executive Officer or CEO of the company.
With the help of strategic management, a company can guide itself towards a proper direction. Strategic management has an intimate association with the subject area of Organizational Studies.
Processes Involved in Strategic Management
The principal steps or processes that are involved in strategic management are the following:
- Formulation of strategy (with the help of Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis or SWOT Analysis)
- Application of strategy
- Assessment of strategy
Common Approaches Towards Strategic Management
The common approaches to strategic management can be categorized into the following types:
- The Sociological Approach
- The Industrial Organizational Approach
Types of Strategies
The different forms of strategies are as follows:
- Functional strategy: Human resource strategies, new product development strategies, legal strategies, financial strategies, marketing strategies, information technology management strategies and supply-chain strategies
- Corporate strategy
- Operational Strategy
- Strategic Business Unit or SBU
Origination of Strategic Management
Strategic management came into existence in the form of a field of study in the decades of 1950s and 1960s. The most eminent pioneers of strategic management include Philip Selznick, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Peter Drucker and Igor Ansoff.
Softwares Supporting Strategic Management
A large number of software products are utilized for assisting strategic management and these include the following:
Strategic management acts as a significant tool that assists a commercial enterprise in gaining competitive advantage.