Strategic Management must firstly be directed towards a company’s goals and objectives. Typically the company will be organized with a mission and vision developed, stating a purpose and direction of the overall organization. The goals and objectives set by the manager’s act as stepping stones to maintain that vision. These goals need to be transparent throughout the organization to allow the key players to achieve buy-in as the team moves towards accomplishing these goals.
Secondly, the strategic management of an organization must include multiple stakeholders in decision making . Typically stake holders have demands on different areas of the organization. Managers must consider the consequences of how certain decision will affect each stakeholder group. Stakeholders will include the owners, shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and the community . Decisions that may benefit the owners such as taking short cuts in safety may have drastic effects on the employees or a local community’s environment. Decisions to cut costs in quality control and employee training may benefit the bottom line of a company for a short time, but eventually will lead to a poorer product being produced and a lack of consumer confidence or higher warranty claims of the end user.
Third, strategic management requires incorporating both short-term and long-term perspectives. Managers must maintain a vision for the future as well as focus on the present needs. Managers can be put in a position to be “short sited” to reach production numbers or sales goals by making decisions that don’t coincide with those long term goals of growth. Salesmen with quotas may always look for the quick sale without respect for building a long term relationship with the customer. This can cause long term reputation issues and cause a company to develop a culture of poor service and trust.
Strategic managers must fourthly recognize the trade-off between
References: Dess, G. G. (2014). Strategic management:text and cases - seventh edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Ortiz, E. (2014, January 10). West Virginia chemical company facing tough questions after spill. Retrieved from NBC News -US News: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/13/22293313-west-virginia-chemical-company-facing-tough-questions-after-spill?lite