Strategic Management

Strategic management is the method of designing, applying, and assessing multifunctional decisions, which assist a commercial enterprise in attaining its goals. Strategic management involves a number of steps, and is considered both an art and a science. Strategic management is an important tool that assists a commercial enterprise in gaining competitive advantage.

About Strategic Management
Strategic management is a procedure where the particular goals of a business enterprise are outlined, 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 enterprise.

In short, strategic management is a process where the operations of 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 executive team and the company's Chief Executive Officer.
With the help of strategic management, a company can guide itself toward a proper direction. Strategic management has an intimate association with the subject of Organizational Studies.

Processes Involved in Strategic Management

• Formulation of strategy (with the help of Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis or SWOT Analysis)
• Application of strategy
• Assessment of strategy

Common Approaches Toward Strategic Management

• The Sociological Approach
• The Industrial Organizational Approach

Types of Strategies

• 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

Origins of Strategic Management
Strategic management came into being in the form of a field of study in the 1950's and 1960's. The preeminent pioneers of strategic management include Philip Selznick, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Peter Drucker, and Igor Ansoff.
Software Supporting Strategic Management

A large number of software products are utilized for assisting strategic management:

• SEM
• SAP
• SAS