Strategic Development and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Strategic Development and Management - Essay Example According to the paper findings strategy is that function of an organisation where decisions and plans are made, which reflect the long-term objectives of the organisation, and is independent from decisions made on a daily level. Other definitions include, â€Å"the pursuit of superior performance by using a plan that ensures a better or stronger matching of corporate strengths to customer needs than is provided by competitors†. It can be argued that the above definitions may be interdependent because attaining competitive advantage may sometimes be seen as a long-term objective by organisations, depending upon the market environment they operate in. As the essay stresses the definitions also show that there are internal and external implications to strategy, where the internal factors may include the structure of the organisation, the kind of corporate governance (leadership) that exists within the organisation, and the function of Human Resources Management. The external factors may include the Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Environmental, and Legal issues associated within a given market environment where the organisation operates. There are other methods of internal and external analyses that influence strategy like the SWOT analysis and Porter’s five forces, which are all helpful for the organisation to make strategic decisions in order to attain competitive advantage. These methods will be discussed in detail in later stages of the study.... To delve further into the study it is important to establish the definition for the terms ‘strategic management’. David (2009) defines strategic management as the â€Å"art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organisation to achieve its objectives† (p. 36). As the definition suggests, there are different functions within an organisation like management, marketing, finance/accounting, production/operations, research and development, and computer information systems (David, 2009; Johnson et al, 2008), but not necessarily restricted to these, and the job of strategic management is to integrate all these functions towards the common goal of achieving organisational success. Stages of Strategic Management: The strategy formulation stage normally involves assessing the organisation’s resources and determining what market(s) to enter and which ones to abandon. This is also the stage where visions and m issions of the company are developed and long-term objectives are established. Top managers take up the responsibilities to assess the advantages of expansion or reduction, and/or entering international markets, resource allocation, product diversification, mergers/ takeovers etc. This is also where companies assess the opportunities and threats in particular markets and internal strengths and weaknesses in order to create contingent strategies (SWOT). Analysis is also done on what markets to invest in and what political, economical, socio-cultural, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) issues may arise in said market. Decisions made during this stage commit an organisation to specific products, resources, markets and technologies for