Mgt 498 Week 4 Strategic Management Process

Strategic Management Process
MGT/498
February 4, 2014
Instructor Name

Strategic Management Process
There are four basic steps in a strategic management process. One of the four steps in the strategic management process begins with environmental scanning; in this first step an organization will evaluate its internal and external environment and all information available to assess what is needed. The management team will also identify strategic factors that will help with the process in determining the goals and objectives of the organization. At this point a SWOT analysis will be an essential part in the first step (Chron, 2014)
The second step in the process is strategy formulation; at this step management will review the information retrieved from the evaluation performed in the first step. Identifying what resources the organizations already has and will need to accomplish the goals and objectives is also part of this step. The team also identifies any potential issues/risk and what possible resolutions could help fix the problems. The organization will specify their expectations and set policies and guidelines to help develop strategies to achieve the organizations overall mission.
The following step is strategy implementation. In this step the management team will take action by assigning responsibilities and duties
to the employees and set the level of performance expected of them. All financial resources are allocated as well as the time necessary to execute the strategic plan. Many changes will take place in this step as needed to ensure the process goes as planned.
The final step is the evaluation and control step.
In the final step is when the monitoring and evaluation is constant to ensure all process are working and if any changes are needed to finalize the process and meet the objectives. The strategic plan is evaluated and compared with desired performance to see how the organization did overall with the process. The management team will continue to evaluate set certain measurements to understand and evaluate clearly the strategic plan in process. These basic steps are very important to ensure an organization is successful as needed and desired (Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D.,
2010).
A strategic management process is needed in any organization to ensure all goals and objectives are met continuously. The process emphasizes long-term performance for long-term organizational success. It provides a clear understanding of the organizations vision and what is important to the organization. As the environment continues to change a strategic management process is essential to ensure the organization keeps up with the constant change and demand from the current and future markets. The process also helps to self identify new opportunities for growth and change where it is needed within the organization. Lastly, it provided guidance to all levels of managers to enforce processes and regulations to successfully accomplish the goals and objectives set emplaced by the organization (Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D., 2010).
References
The Five stages of the Strategic Management Process (2014). CHRON. Retrieved February 3, 2014 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-stages-strategic-management-process-18785.html
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2010).Concepts in strategic management and business policy (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.