Strategic management is defined as the management process that involves the organization preparing strategic plans and then acting on them. Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert
Background
The strategy is not new in business, it has surely been applied for several centuries, but it is only until the early sixties that academics and management scholars considered it important to achieve business success.
Initially, Chandler proposed a concept of "strategy" as follows: " determination of long-term goals and plans, actions to be taken and allocation of the necessary resources to achieve the proposed ". As we see, this conception is basic and at the same time very complete, in addition, it includes several interesting aspects such as:
- The concept of the long term comes to play a determining role, which has been applied since then and up to the present, although with variations. It takes into account the how of the strategy, not only the results. It conceives that to achieve proposed goals it is necessary to advance certain actions and that these actions need to consume certain resources to be carried out, wraps the parts of a strategy and turns them into a whole
The strategy: Way to adapt to the environment and achieve the objectives
This concept was taken up and developed by other scholars who proposed the strategy as a process rather than as a series of fixed determinations. Later, in the mid-1970s, the strategic management approach emerged, based on the following principle: the general design of an organization can only be described if the achievement of "objectives" is added to "policies" and strategy. as one of the key factors in the strategic management process. (Hofer and Schendel)
Hofer and Schendel focused on the four most representative aspects of the concept: the objectives (establishment), the strategy (formulation and implementation) and changes and achievements of the administration (activities).
From these concepts strategic management as it is known today is molded.
Those who have the responsibility of directing organizations must try to anticipate future changes in the environment and design flexible plans and structures that allow adaptation, innovation and face any unforeseen situation
Planning, strategy and policies
Planning has a lot to do with foresight, planning is trying to anticipate situations that can affect us, positively or negatively, for this reason this type of exercise is necessary within organizations, to try to anticipate changes or future events, trying to confront them and catalyze them for good. Unfortunately, administrators are not magicians or mentalists who can accurately predict the future, what some do have, fortunately, is that they are visionaries who look further than others and therefore have the right projection of the future.
Strategies are generalized provisions of the actions to be taken to meet the general objectives, if there are no clear and well-defined objectives, surely there will not be an appropriate strategy to achieve them, in addition, the strategies that are proposed must contemplate the use of the necessary resources to develop the activities that will lead to results and must take into account how these resources will be obtained and how they will be applied to increase the chances of success.
Next to planning and strategy are policies, which are basically guidelines that guide management in decision-making and generally do not require action, policies, strategies and the plan themselves must be a unique mixture that allows to achieve good results.
Strategic planning and types of organization
According to their attitude towards strategic planning, four types of organization are distinguished:
- Defenders: organizations that have a narrow market scope for their products and in which top-level managers are experts in the operational area but do not tend to look for new opportunities outside their scope. Explorers: Organizations that continually search for market opportunities and regularly experiment with potential responses to environmental trends. Generally they are the creators of change, but due to their excessive concern about innovations in their product and in the market they are not completely efficient. AnalyzersThese organizations operate in two spheres, one relatively stable and the other changing. In the first, they operate routinely and efficiently through the use of formalized structures and processes, and in the second, managers observe their competitors closely to obtain new ideas by adopting the most promising ones. Respondents: organizations in which managers frequently realize how change and uncertainty affect their organization's environments, but are not able to respond efficiently because they lack a consistent relationship between structure and strategy
We find at the two extremes organizations that will probably never achieve success, are passive and do not carry out the planning exercise, in the middle we find companies that will surely be successful, study the environment, face it and try to always be ahead of the future situations.
Anticipation. It is better to anticipate future events rather than suffer and adapt to the events that occur and affect us
Strategic Management implies being aware of the change that occurs in the day-to-day environment, it means not only stating intentions but setting measurable and achievable objectives, proposing specific actions and knowing the needs of resources (human, physical, financial and technological) to carry out those actions. It also means solidity at work, since the entire organization will move in search of common objectives applying some common strategies
Next and as a complement to learning, two video-lessons, from the School of Business and Management, with which you will be able to delve into the fascinating subject of strategic management
References:
- HOFER, Ch. And SCHENDEL, D. Strategy Formulation: Analytical Concepts. West Publishing, Los Angeles. 1978HITT, M.; IRELAND, D.; and HOSKISSON, R. Strategic Management, South-Western College Publishing, USA 1998 FINCH STONER, James Arthur; FREEMAN, R. Edward; GILBERT, Daniel R.. Administration. Pearson Education. nineteen ninety six
