Strategic Management

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1. STRATEGIC & THE MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

According to Johnson & Scholes (2002),

"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations"

The three most common levels for strategy identified in the business literature are:

• Corporate Level Strategy:

concerned with the overall purpose and scope of an organisation and how value will be added to the different business units of the organisation (Johnson & Scholes, 2002)

• Business Unit Strategy:

concerned with a particular business unit within the organisation or a particular market in which the organisation competes.

• Operational Strategy:

concerned with planning and management of the operations of the organisation so that they can support both the business unit and corporate level strategies.

2. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

The complex nature of strategic management including its organisation wide scope makes it difficult to describe it in terms of a series of linear or specific activities.

Johnson & Scholes (2002) give one definition, which emphasises the difference between traditional operational management and strategic management:

“Strategic management is concerned with complexity arising out of ambiguous and non-routine situations with organisation-wide rather than operation-specific implications”

This definition tells us about the nature and scope of strategic management but does not give any insight into the processes involved. A more helpful characterisation considers strategic management as comprising three main elements:

• Strategic Analysis

Continuous study and awareness of happenings in the organisation's environment and how these happenings may affect the organisation. The model suggests that analysis should be done in three main areas, the organisation's environment, the resources and culture. The culture should indicate expectations, objectives and the power relationships among major stakeholders in the organisation.

• Strategic Choice

Strategic analysis enables managers to identify the opportunities and threats facing their organisations. Strategic choice is thus concerned with the identification and selection of suitable strategies for implementation. Again three main dimensions are identified: generation of options, evaluation of options and selection of strategy.

• Strategic Implementation

Once a suitable strategy is selected, arrangements must be made and action taken to implement the chosen strategy. The three main areas to focus here are the planning of resources and the adaptation of the organization structure, people and systems to suit the chosen strategic processes.

3. STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

Strategic alignment concerns the formulation, co-ordination and execution of all strategies within an organisation in order to ensure that they support each other in the pursuit of overall corporate goals. If the strategies are not aligned, they might work against each other and possibly stifle the attainment of the overall corporate goals. This is because organisational strategies are often inevitably linked due to the systemic nature of organisational processes. A change in one strategy would trigger a change in another.

The concept of strategic alignment requires that all the strategies in a single organisation work in tune with each other and that they collectively support the overall corporate strategy. If individual strategies are not aligned with each other, it is possible that they may work against each other and hence make it difficult to realise the overall corporate objective.

The concept of strategic alignment requires that all the strategies in a single organisation work in tune with each other and that they collectively support the overall corporate strategy. If individual strategies are not aligned with each other, it is possible that they may work against each other and hence make it difficult to realise the overall corporate objective.

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Reference(s)
	Book		Johnson, G., Scholes, K. & Whittington, R. (2007) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text & Cases with Companion Website Student Access Card: Text and Cases. 8th Edition. Financial Times Prentice Hall: United Kingdom (UK), England, Essex, Harlow. [ISBN: 9780273711926]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3f7sg4u].
	Book		Robson, W. (1997) Strategic Management and Information Systems: An Integrated Approach. 2nd Edition. Pitman: United Kingdom (UK), England, London. [ISBN: 9780273615910]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3EZNmvZ].

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Reference (or cite) Article
	Kahlon, R. S. (2012) Strategic Management [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom, England, London. [Published on: 2012-07-07]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000050]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi - https://ravi.dkode.co/2012/07/strategic-management.html].

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