Businesses vary in the processes they use to formulate and direct their strategic management activities. Sophisticated planners, such as General Electric, Procter & Gamble, and IBM, have developed more detailed processes than less formal planners of similar size. Small businesses that rely on the strategy formulation skills and limited time of an entrepreneur typically exhibit more basic planning concerns than those of larger firms in their industries. Understandably, firms with multiple products, markets, or technologies tend to use more complex strategic management systems. However, despite differences in detail and the degree of formalization, the basic components of the models used to analyze strategic management operations are very similar.
Components of the Strategic Management Model
This section will define and briefly describe the key components of the strategic management model. Each of these components will receive much greater attention in a later chapter.
The intention here is simply to introduce them.
1. Company Mission
The mission of a company is the unique purpose that sets it apart from other companies of its type and identifies the scope of its operations. In short, the company mission describes company mission. The unique purpose that sets a company apart from others of its type and identifies the scope of its operations.
2. Internal Analysis
The company analyzes the quantity and quality of the company’s financial, human, and physical resources. It also assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s management and organizational structure. Finally, it contrasts the company’s past successes and traditional concerns with the company’s current capabilities in an attempt to identify the company’s future capabilities.
3. External Environment
A firm’s external environment consists of all the conditions and forces that affect its strategic options and define its competitive situation. The