Strategic Management



Strategic Management

Elements of the Strategic Management Process

There are six basic elements involved in strategic management process i.e. mission, objectives, external and internal analysis, strategic choice, strategic implementation, and competitive advantage. All these elements are sequential analyses and choices that enhance the possibility of a firm to gain competitive advantage.

Mission

The strategic management process of any company starts with its mission statement, which defines the long-term purpose of a company. The mission statement clearly defines where a firm wants to be in future and how, which means that it is clearly a starting point for the strategic process of a firm that can lead it towards choosing and implementing right strategies for developing competitive advantage.

Objectives

With being given the mission statement, the company clearly knows the broader perspective of firm's purpose and values. However, objectives facilitate the company by providing particular measureable targets that a company can utilize for assessing the level to which it is realizing its mission. Thus, the objectives of a company are second step of strategic process of a firm as it provides the company specific assessable targets that must be achieved to acquire the goal of competitive advantage.

External and Internal Analysis

The next two important elements of strategic process are external analysis and internal analysis; usually occur at the same time. External analysis helps a company identify the crucial threats and opportunities in its competitive business environment, and also assesses the evolution of competitiveness in the environment and the implications of this evolution associated with the threats and opportunities the company has identified. On the other hand, the internal analysis facilitates a company identify its strength and weaknesses within the company. Further, it also facilitates a company identify its sources that can help in achieving the competitive advantage as well as those which are less ...