What is Strategic Management? Why it’s useful.

Strategic management is the highest level of management activity. Lower levels are called operational management.

Strategic implies that the role of a strategic manager is concerned with in the formulation; implementation and evaluation of the decisions which a company makes to achieve its long-term objectives.

Strategic management involves working on an organization’s mission, vision and objectives. That process is followed by developing policies, plans, projects and programs, which will further the organization’s objectives.

Later, in the planning process, resources will need to be allocated to implement the policies, plans, projects and programs.

Further strategic management functions will be to coordinate and will integrate the activities of all functional areas of a business in order to achieve long-term corporate objectives.

Strategic management is normally the province of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an organization, approved/authorized by a Board of Directors and implemented under the supervision of the organization’s top management team or senior executives.

Strategic management is ongoing because continual evaluation is essential to maintain competitive advantage. Strategic managers control a business, are aware of competitors in the market and and monitor and assesses the competitors.

A strategic management team sets the goals and strategies for existing and potential competition and a strategic manager reassesses each strategy at agreed regular intervals. This is done to provide an analysis of the success of recent planning and implementation. This process will identify if there is a need for a new strategy to deal with a changed scenario or circumstances, new product, new technology, new competitors, a new economic environment or a new social, financial or political environment.

Excellent strategic management is of inestimable value to every company to inform all aspects of business planning and marketing.