Strategic Management: Strategy for Business and Non-Profits

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of strategic management, emphasizing its significance for both business and non-profit organizations. It defines strategy as a crucial game plan guiding operations, market positioning, and competitive advantage. The essay highlights the importance of strategy in providing a clear business performance overview, identifying opportunities, and fostering organizational vision. It further delves into how strategies are vital for non-profit organizations, facilitating financial planning, stakeholder engagement, and mission alignment. The paper also addresses challenges in strategy development and implementation, such as adherence to plans, leadership issues, communication gaps, and the need for adaptability. It concludes by stressing the importance of customer-oriented and technology-driven strategies in the modern competitive landscape, ensuring that strategic objectives are realistic and can be adapted to changing market demands. The document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic Management
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A business strategy can be regarded as the game plan taken by the management to
conduct various operations, stake out the position in the market, compete with the other
companies and achieve various strategies of the organization. The strategy of a company helps to
strengthen the competitive position which will be beneficial in the long run. It helps to create a
vision and direction for the entire organization. The strategic plan is a framework of the
principles that provides a clear picture of how the company will attain the goals. This paper will
highlight the importance of strategy and its role in non-profit organization. It will also give an in-
depth idea of the challenges which are faced by the organization in the implementation of the
strategy (Omar, Leach and March 2014).
Strategy is important because it gives a clear picture of the performance of the business,
its various capabilities and how the business will grow in the long run. A proper and planned
business strategy will be a guide for the company. It will give an idea to compete with the other
companies. A business strategy also helps to identify the opportunities and trends for future. It
can help to identify the broader changes such as technological, political and social change. A
business strategy also helps to develop certain important tactics for the development of business
in the future. It creates a vision and direction for the organization. Strategy helps the organization
to get a clear understanding of their own company. It also identifies and addresses the
weaknesses and provides a clear understanding of the capabilities. Strategies help in the
mitigation of risk. It is important to understand the business environment and accordingly
prepare a business strategy. So, a proper understanding of the market environment is very
important for a successful business venture (Skelcher and Smith 2015).
Strategy is important to expand the business in a new country. It will give an idea of the
challenges and opportunities that are available in other countries. Strategies are important to an

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organization unlike business planning. It not only identifies the mission and visions of the
company but also design the required action plan. For example, in order to adopt the strategy of
expanding B2B revenue, it is important to frame out a proper action plan. Strategies also help in
achieving the objectives of the business (Maier, Meyer and Steinbereithner 2016). For example,
if an e-commerce business needs expansion to increase the sales volume, there must be a definite
strategy which is to be identified to meet the targets of the company. Strategy helps in making
different kinds of choice, allocates the resources for strategic initiatives, establishes priorities and
co-ordinates for achieving the desired output. Strategy helps in defining timeless and gives a
clear idea of accountability for achieving the results. It enhances commitment and
communication in the organization. It increases the alignment of all the activities of an
organization and also fosters commitment in different levels (Burke 2017).
A proper business strategy helps in evaluating the progress of the business organization.
Strategy is important because it includes all the employees of the organization. Strategic helps in
the attainment of organizational goals. Business strategy is important for nonprofit organization.
The financial forecast is also crucial for the nonprofit organization. It allows effective utilization
of the financial and human resources. The nonprofit organizations also provides strategic plan to
potential donors and it can be compared to the profit earning business ventures that plans their
capital sources effectively. The expenditure of the nonprofit organization is prioritized on the
basis of their service quality. It can be said that the strategic plan acts like a guide to the
organization (Grant 2016). It ensures that all the team members are working to achieve the goals
of the organization and they also prioritize the goals accordingly. The nonprofit organization
unlike the business ventures also needs to identify the opportunities and threats. It is also
important for them to analyze the strength and weaknesses of the organization and find out the

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valuable and unique services accordingly (Wicker and Breuer 2013). Management and
performance planning are the two important tools for the implementation of strategy in a
nonprofit organization. The nonprofit organization must also engage its stakeholders in its
strategy. The charity organizations are also benefitted from these strategies. There are some
stakeholders who do not fulfill the expectation of the organization. So, proper planning is
required in nonprofit organization (Chang 2016).
Strategy helps in the development of a common vision in the nonprofit organization. It
also helps in clarifying the beliefs and values and providing a proper vision for the operational
decision. Strategy also helps in defining the goals and missions in a nonprofit organization. The
broader objectives of strategic planning can be broken down into small plans. Strategy also
helps in creating a definite work plan for the organization. The task plan will provide information
to fulfill the basic objectives and it will also help to keep a track of the performance of the
organization. It is also important to assemble the plan in a nonprofit organization (Hudson 2017).
There are certain important challenges which are faced by a business organization. The
challenges are faced in developing and implementing the strategies in business There are many
organizations that create a strategic plan but they do not follow it. They develop the plan for the
sake of development and work out everything out of plan. This must not be adopted because
these will not help the business to develop further. It is also important to focus on the business
environment and plan out the results. Only mere development of the strategic plan will not help
the organization. The business owners or the top officials sometimes make false promises or
partial commitments to the company. They do not have proper knowledge of the internal
working environment of the company (Colombo et al. 2014). The business leaders must have
proper knowledge of the firm because it may be necessary to develop or change the strategy in

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order to fulfill the required goals. The business organization also faces challenges in its strategy
when there is no right person who is involved in the execution of the plan. it is seen that the
implementation of strategy fails due to inappropriate and weak leadership. The organizations
chooses wrong leaders for developing its strategy. This affects the organization because such
leaders cannot take important decisions in the company. If the leaders are not present in the right
time and with the right people, it affects the organization. The business leaders are not able to
take important decisions and support the firm in weak environment. The leaders must have the
capacity to think strategically. Both ineffective leadership and lack of proper attention of the
leaders affects the strategy of the business organization (Angeloska-Dichovska and Mirchevsk
2017).
Strategy also requires proper consensus building. There must be proper communication,
collaboration and participation in the organization. It is important to understand the problem and
discuss the issues with the co-workers so that there is development of proper strategy. Lack of
honest and weak assessment will lead to the development of inappropriate and weak strategy.
The firms must try to implement the strategy properly. There are certain business firms which
cannot change its strategy or adopt any new changes quickly (Stacey 2016). The strategy of a
business also fails when there is no momentum in the short run. The annual evaluation of a
strategy is very much important to check the effectiveness of the business. This will help in the
growth and development of the organization. These evaluation will also help to take certain steps
which will help in the development of the organization in the short run (Wheelen and Hunger
2017).
Strategy refers to a framework of the business plan based on which the necessary actions
are taken in a business to achieve the business goal. In order to cope up with the changes in an

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organization, strategies are required to develop. The modern competitive environment is defined
as the dynamic system or the market structure in which a business competes. However, in the
modern competitive environment business strategy should be updated to get success in a
business (Peppard and Ward 2016). Incorporation of the new strategies in the business is a
relevant concept to overcome the barriers in a business. As for example, if the business
organization needs to incorporate the change in their existing system then formulation of a
strategy is required before the implementation of the strategy. Strategy formulation allows the
organization to make the quick decision regarding the current situation. Therefore, to make the
organizational structure flexible and dynamic strategy formulation is crucial for any
organization. However, in the recent years, development of the new business strategy is essential
to gain competitive advantages. Traditional strategy in a business resists the business to survive
in a competitive environment (Akter et al. 2016).
Incorporation of the fast change in the business is a prior element in the current years to
enhance the market share in the competitive environment (Cortimiglia, Ghezzi and Frank 2016).
Establishment of the new strategy is required for the competitive advantages however, the
strategy should be technology oriented. The traditional process of the strategy formulation is less
effective in the modern competitive environment. Hence, every business organization needs to
adopt the strategy that is associated with the modern technology as it makes the business
operation faster and effective. However, in the competitive environment, it is vital to develop a
clear vision regarding the business objectives of an organization. As for example,
communication with the strategy leads the organization to develop a clear vision about their
business goal. This will enable the employees of an organization to survive in the competitive
environment by utilizing the modern strategies in the business. As for example, providing quality

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product or service with low price is an effective strategy that is used by several large and small
business organizations to survive in the modern competitive environment. However, in the
modern time consumer prefer quality product at reasonable price. This strategic concept is
relevant for the business organization to achieve the demand of the target customers in a modern
competitive market (Baker 2014).
In order to get a valuable position in the modern competitive environment, the business
organizations should incorporate the strategy that is customer oriented (Akter et al. 2016).
However, the concept of the strategy is relevant for the success of a business but in the modern
competitive environment, a traditional strategic concept is not appropriate. Hence, technology
and customer oriented strategies are essential to lead a business to survive in the competitive
market. The demand of the modern people is changing over the time thus it is important for the
business to develop strategies that meet the needs of the modern market by achieving
competitive advantages.
Thus, it can be said that the strategy of an organization must be realistic rather than a
mere plan. The success of a business enterprise depends on the various measures which are
implemented by the stakeholders. This strategy is vital for achieving various kinds of objectives.
The strategies must be framed in such a way that it can be easily changed to fulfill any minor
needs. There are different sources from which strategies can be framed, obtained and put into
practice. The strategic objective of the organization are based on the necessity of the
organization and also help in making an realistic assessment of the firm's achievement. There are
certain challenges which are faced in the development and implementation of strategic plan. It is
vital that the business organization selects an appropriate leader and the leader must be efficient
and effective so that the strategy of the business can be developed effectively. A proper business

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strategy also helps in improving the marketing channels and thereby improve its sales and profit.
It also helps in transforming the mission and vision of the business into effective strategies.
therefore, it can be said that strategy helps to create proper focus and direction in the business.

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