Concept of Strategy

 Strategic management is the process in which an organization develops and implements plans that espouse the goals and objectives of that organization. The process of strategic management is a continuous one that changes as the organizational goals and objectives evolve. Small businesses engage in strategic management to ensure that they adapt to trends and external changes such as globalization. Several key concepts characterize strategic management and the development of organizational goals.

Goal Setting

At the core of the strategic management process is the creation of goals, a mission statement, values and organizational objectives. Organizational goals, the mission statement, values and objectives guide the organization in its pursuit of strategic opportunities. It is also through goal setting that managers make strategic decisions such as how to meet sales targets and higher revenue generation. Through goal setting, organizations plan how to compete in an increasingly competitive and global business arena.

Analysis Strategy Formation

Analysis of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses is a key concept of strategic management. Other than the internal analysis, an organization also undertakes external analysis of factors such as emerging technology and new competition. Through internal and external analysis, the organization creates goals and objectives that will turn weaknesses to strengths. The analyses also facilitate in strategizing ways of adapting to changing technology and emerging markets.

Strategy Formation

Strategy formation is a concept that entails developing specific actions that will enable an organization to meet its goals. Strategy formation entails using the information from the analyses, prioritizing and making decisions on how to address key issues facing the organization. Additionally, through strategy formulation an organization seeks to find ways of maximizing profitability and maintaining a competitive advantage.

Strategy Implementation

Strategy implementation is putting the actual strategy into practice to meet organizational goals. The idea behind this concept is to gather all the available and necessary resources required to bring the strategic plan to life. Organizations implement strategies through creating budgets, programs and policies to meet financial, management, human resources and operational goals. For the successful implementation of a strategic plan, cooperation between management and other personnel is absolutely necessary.

Strategy Monitoring

A final concept is monitoring of the strategy after its implementation. Strategy monitoring entails evaluating the strategy to determine if it yields the anticipated results as espoused in the organizational goals. Here, an organization determines what areas of the plan to measure and the methods of measuring these areas, and then compares the anticipated results with the actual ones. Through monitoring, an organization is able to understand when and how to adjust the plan to adapt to changing trends.