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Strategic Management Process
Components of a strategic management process There are many components of a strategic management process, but there are four main elements. According to Wheelen and Hunger, “strategic management consists of four basic elements: environment scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, evaluation and control” (2010). Environmental scanning is a broad look at things that pertain to the company. Many companies will do a SWOT analysis by analyzing the company’s strengths and the opportunities that the company has and then look at the company’s weaknesses and threats. This information is then distributed to the appropriate individuals for strategy formulation. According to Wheelen and Hunger, “strategy formulation is the development of long-range plans for the effective management of environmental opportunities and threats, in light of corporate strengths and weaknesses (SWOT). It includes defining the corporate mission, specifying achievable objectives, developing strategies, and setting policy guidelines” (2010). Once strategies are formulated, the strategies are implemented. Strategy implementation is putting the strategies into effect by establishing the programs and procedures required to accomplish the tasks. The last element of strategic management is evaluation and control. When a strategy has been implemented, the strategy needs to be evaluated in order to understand if the strategy is accomplishing what it was put in place to do. Sometimes the strategy needs to be adjusted based on the outcome findings and continued monitoring until the strategy performs satisfactorily. All of the components of a strategic management process work together to achieve a desired outcome. An organization needs to have a strategic management process in order to stay competitive and be able to have plans in place to achieve the overall goals of the