Strategic Management 101

I had a refreshing talk at the Philippine Marketing Association's (PMA) seminar this afternoon because I managed to inject the importance of Strategic Management in our function as marketing professionals.

Strategic management seem to be so "big" that ordinary marketing mortals would have difficulty absorbing it. In today's blog, I will discuss Strategic Management and its importance in the organization.

Strategic management is a technique you can use to create a favorable future and help your organization to prosper. To create this favorable future, you must involve your organization's goals in envisioning the most desirable future and then in working together to make this vision a reality. The key to strategic management is to understand that people communicating and working together will create this future, not some words written on paper.

Strategic management does not replace traditional management activities such as budgeting, planning, monitoring, marketing, reporting, and controlling. Rather, it integrates them into a broader context, taking into account the external environment , internal organizational capabilities, and your organization's overall purpose and direction.

Each organization's experience with strategic management is unique, reflecting the organization's distinct culture, environment, resources, structure, management style, and organizational features. However, our experience in working with leaders and managers in a variety of organizations indicates that similar questions and concerns develop as organizations implement strategic management. In my experience as consultant, leaders who have addressed these questions and concerns developed a common basis of experience that is valuable for those beginning a strategic management process.

Managers and business owners use strategic planning as a management function to allocate resources to programmed activities calculated to achieve a set of goals in a dynamic and competitive environment.

On my next blog, I will talk about Strategic Management Model and on how you could introduce and apply this discipline in your organization.