Strategic Management Process: Initial Posts and Analysis

This discussion post delves into the intricacies of strategic management, a crucial process for organizations to achieve their goals. The assignment begins with an introduction to strategic management, emphasizing its role in planning, analyzing, and assessing organizational activities. The student's initial post explores the core concepts, including the importance of strategic frameworks like SWOT analysis, Ansoff Matrix, and Balanced Scorecard. The post highlights the significance of understanding both internal strengths and weaknesses and external factors like market trends and competition. The assignment then presents a series of colleague's initial posts, each addressing different aspects of strategic management in various contexts, such as finance, housing construction, art schools, and car dealerships. These posts offer diverse perspectives on strategic planning, including discussions on vision statements, customer satisfaction, and the alignment of strategies with organizational goals. The student then summarizes the key takeaways from the discussion, emphasizing the need for innovation, ethical business practices, and adaptability to market changes. Finally, the assignment concludes with a reflection on how the study of strategic management can enhance the student's personal and professional life, particularly in future business endeavors. The assignment showcases a comprehensive understanding of strategic management principles and their practical application across various business scenarios.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
My initial post..................................................................................................................................2
Colleagues initial post......................................................................................................................3
Initial Post 1:....................................................................................................................................3
Initial Post 2:....................................................................................................................................4
Initial Post 3:....................................................................................................................................4
Initial Post 4:....................................................................................................................................5
Initial Post 5:....................................................................................................................................6
Summary post 6...............................................................................................................................7
How this study can improve my personal and professional life......................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference list...................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Strategic management is a process of planning, maintaining, analyzing and assessing every
decisions and activity taken within an organization to achieve its objectives and goals. From
making proper decisions in the business to changing organizational structure, strategic
management is the key to achieve success. Analyzing current strengths, weaknesses, positions;
developing strategies, deploying them and analyzing them to assess its success, everything is a
part of strategic management. SWOT analysis, balanced scorecard method, others are various
strategic management frameworks. The study aims to understand strategic management, initial
post on that topic, commenting on colleague's posts and reflecting on personal improvement.
My initial post
Hello Everyone
Every business organization needs a strong and future proof strategy to follow within their
everyday operations. Whether the company is based on manufacturing or they are from
marketing segments, everyone needs proper planning about their business. Strategic management
is a core framework used in every organization for the successful operation of the business. From
decision making to assessment of every action taken within the organization, strategic
management is I think the most important part of an organization. From employee’s end to
higher officials, understanding business goals is equally important for everyone. Taking proper
business decision needs proper understanding about the business including its strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Cascade, 2019). Besides these internal factors, external
factors life outside influence on the business is equally important for the organization. Every
company is a part of society and economy; their everyday activities directly effects on the
society and economic condition of that country. Political conditions, environmental conditions,
technological advancements are also external influences on the business. Various frameworks
like SWOT Analysis, Ansoff Matrix, Balanced Scorecard method, and others can be used to
properly develop strategic management decisions within the business. Every organization needs
to understand their customers, their employees, their market position, their future goals and other
factors to achieve successful business operation and achieve success in the business. Aligning
employee’s activities with the organizational goals, mitigating weaknesses of the organization,
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developing new opportunities for better revenue collection from the market, providing something
new something innovative every time to the customers to maintain interest among the consumers
about the company are an essential part for the success of a company (Rouse, 2019).
Ref:
Cascade. 2019. 5 of the Best Strategy Frameworks for your Organization. Available at:
https://www.executestrategy.net/blog/best-strategy-frameworks [Accessed on: 26.11.19]
Rouse, M. 2019. Strategic management. Available at:
https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/strategic-management [Accessed on: 26.11.19]
Colleagues initial post
Initial Post 1:
Good day!
Strategies are playing an important role in terms of giving a long-term direction to the
organization. As per the post, logical and international strategies are important for ensuring that
the organizations differ from other competitors. The strategy is discussed about the finance
company, where you are working right now, and have contracts with several banking institutions
for offering better customer service outcome and secured the payment procedure. However, there
is not mentioned any form of ethical guidelines, which is presently followed the organization, by
which the payment option security or confidentiality of the shared documents can be analyzed.
The organization is mainly focusing on customer satisfaction boosting up.
The organization is adopted the key strategy for boosting the customer satisfaction outcome and
offering different promotional offers for attracting them and make them satisfied. The
promotional offers do not comply with the vision and mission statements as they are not started
there. Treating the customers equally and customers satisfaction is the main aim of the visions
and mission statement. However, employees Personal Development Plan (PDP) is not linked
with the overall strategy of the organization, which impacts the regular operations of
organization as well as the performance level of employees (Abrahams, 2017). Practically,
linking the PDP with the business strategy is necessary for ensuring that all the vision and
mission statements are compiled properly.
Reference
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Abrahams. Z., 2017. Why You Need to Make a Personal Development Plan. Available at:
https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/why-you-need-make-personal-development-plan
[Accessed on: 27.11.19]
Initial Post 2:
Good afternoon
There is plenty of information provided in the post which is essential for every organization to
understand what strategic management is. Porter’s strategies are very popular among
organizations and can be used in various organizational frameworks. The four strategies of Porter
are very important and can be utilized in various aspects of business (Rothaermel, 2017). These
strategies can help organizations to maintain optimum performance in their daily business
operations. However, there are similar, or different strategies are available which are also
important and can be utilized in the business for better result. The post mentioned strategy for the
housing construction organization can be a game-changer. One of the most important points of
being a successful organization is that they need to understand how they can improve their
existing work quality without taking more amount of time. The mentioned strategy is to innovate
new ways to deliver housing solutions without compromising quality. Performance management
reviews is another crucial strategy used in various organizations to assess the performance of
their employees to improve their overall company’s output (Lasserre, 2017). These strategies are
important for a housing organization, but they are not enough. Competing with the market and
staying ahead of the crowd need more than that, the company also have to study the market,
external influences and competencies to take better strategies of their business success.
Ref:
Rothaermel, F.T., 2017. Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Initial Post 3:
Have a nice day!
Developing a proper strategy is extremely beneficial as it gives a boost for inducing financial
development as well as the customer satisfaction paradigm. As per the post, you are working in a
private school of art in Moscow, where strategic objectives are divided into two groups including
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financial development and customer printed (Engert et al. 2016). The net profit gets increased
after the financial strategies, where customer satisfaction is also gets developed. The vision
statement of the school and strategic objectives is almost the same such as getting high student
retention rate, which ensures that the school can get more students, where better performance
from the employees are required initially. There is a sheer relevance between the strategic
objectives, vision and mission statement by the one key point of engaging in more students in the
schools, as this the preliminary requirement. However, some considerations need to be taken into
account such as complying the strategic objectives, vision or mission statements completely for
ensuring that they are utilizing all the necessary and valuable resources completely. To do that,
the employees need to be highly-qualified to cope up with the better service providing capacity
and increasing the retention rate of students.
Ref:
Engert, S., Rauter, R. and Baumgartner, R.J., 2016. Exploring the integration of corporate
sustainability into strategic management: a literature review. Journal of cleaner production,
112(2), pp.2833-2850.
Initial Post 4:
Very good morning!
There are three types of business strategies discussed in the post including business, operational
and cooperate. As per the corporate strategy, availability football in the community and
identification of different areas to grow is necessary. The corporate strategy and operational
strategy are a way more different from each other due to their different attributes and specialized
areas. Improving every day as a player and winning football games is the main aim for you have
mentioned earlier. A strong foundation club is developed complied with various corporate
strategies and a new strategy is also developed named “unite communities”. As per this clear
strategy the time frame is presented and for identifying strategic positions (Aguinis et al. 2017).
However, there is no relevance present in the strategies positioning for developing the vision and
mission statements completely. The strategy is mainly covering the mission statement, but not
complied with the vision statement. The strategic objectives for upgrading the pitch for better
performance and attracting individuals for showing the match is possible due to the combination
of operational strategy and corporate strategy. All the strategies are furthermore, developed the
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persona development plans by which the situational strategy can get developed for inducing their
future goals and having an aim in life to become more confident about what they are doing right
now. Different community events are also organized for school visits and events in different
schools.
Ref:
Aguinis, H., Edwards, J.R. and Bradley, K.J., 2017. Improving our understanding of moderation
and mediation in strategic management research. Organizational Research Methods, 20(4),
pp.665-685.
Initial Post 5:
Hello!
Sufficient stages are always required indeed for ensuring that the business is not on the right
track and increasing its business profitability, where customers satisfaction is another paradigm,
which they need to fulfil. The competitive advantage and unparalleled management are
necessarily playing a key role in mitigating the risk related to competitors. However, some of the
negative procurements are also often shown including misjudgment mistaking objectives and
others. The core vision is opposed to the actual strategy as you are working at a car dealership in
SME, regarding the organizational change, for development plans and expansion. A great
influence is shown in the technology, industry demands a consumer lifestyle changes are dealt
with the opposing with actual strategy (Zhao et al. 2017). However, continuous improvement in
an organization always needs to be present for ensuring that the company can grab better
opportunity and maintaining its competency level in the global market. The meeting held by the
manager ensured that the goals are meet up. However, those are not enough as knowledge of
continuous improvement they need to learn. Becoming FCA approved, proper training is given
to the credit advisors for ensuring that there is no fallout from them to work with low deposits
growth by 0% in a saturated market.
Ref:
Zhao, E.Y., Fisher, G., Lounsbury, M. and Miller, D., 2017. Optimal distinctiveness: Broadening
the interface between institutional theory and strategic management. Strategic Management
Journal, 38(1), pp.93-113.
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Summary post 6
Strategic management is a business framework used in understanding various factors related to
business. From external influence, customer condition to internal strengths and weaknesses,
everything is a part of strategic management. SWOT analysis, balanced scorecard method,
Ansoff matrix are various frameworks to understand strategic management in different
companies. Proper decisions are essential for the growth and success of the company and similar
to that bringing change to the system (Steiss, 2019). The market is a constantly evolving system,
and with that every organization needs to adapt to the market trend. Improving productivity is
not a complete solution for companies to meet the increasing demand. Innovative thinking,
bringing new products and services, adopting with the new market trend is equally important for
the companies to stay ahead of the crowd and make a profit from the market (Johnson, 2016).
Financial performance and strategies are also important for companies to keep making a profit
from the market. Business ethics is a part of a company which keeps the company to do what is
right and keep them distant from the don'ts. Aligning with core strategy with the current daily
business operations are also important for every organization to keep them aligned with their
own goals.
Ref:
Johnson, G., 2016. Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.
Steiss, A.W., 2019. Strategic management for public and nonprofit organizations. Routledge.
How this study can improve my personal and professional life
Study on strategic management can be very beneficial for everyone who is planning to be a
manager or any business-related designations in future. As per my own opinion, I think studying
strategic management and discussing this topic with my peers will help me understand the topic
properly. I want to be a successful business person in the future, and my goal is to be in a
managerial post in renowned companies. I even planned to start my own business in the future
when I am experienced enough in this field. Now this study can help me in this plan. Strategic
management is a topic which must be known to the people who want to be in any managerial
posts in their academic life. How core business operations work, how decisions are made in the
business, how external and internal factors influence on the daily activities in the business can be
understood by understanding strategic decision making (Noe et al. 2017). I want to be a manager
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who wants to communicate with the employees, help them in their job and push them to reach
their optimum limit in their performance. I have learned that improving productivity is not
enough to be successful in the business; quality also has to be improved over time so that
customers cannot get unsatisfied or frustrated from the product or service offered by the
company. Another factor what I learned that external environment such as economic conditions,
political influence, social structure and its influence and others could not be avoided by the
company (Trigeorgis and Reuer, 2017). So, as a manager, I have to create a balance between the
company in which I will be working and these external factors so that these factors can not harm
the company or make any significant risks for the company.
Reference:
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J.J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
Management Journal, 38(1), pp.42-63.
Conclusion
From the above study, it has been concluded that strategic management is a core part of business
which points the business in the proper direction. Understanding customers, market, internal
influences, internal citations, own workforce and other factors of an organization is crucial. To
achieve a good balance in both innovation and bringing change to the existing system is
necessary for every organization and here comes the importance of strategic management. Being
a manager, it is a duty to keep the company ready for any situation and to achieve that every
company and their officials have to understand the market conditions. Taking decisions and
keeping the business from risks, strategic management is essential for every company.
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Reference list
Abrahams. Z., 2017. Why You Need to Make a Personal Development Plan. Available at:
https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/why-you-need-make-personal-development-plan
[Accessed on: 27.11.19]
Aguinis, H., Edwards, J.R. and Bradley, K.J., 2017. Improving our understanding of moderation
and mediation in strategic management research. Organizational Research Methods, 20(4),
pp.665-685.
Cascade. 2019. 5 of the Best Strategy Frameworks for your Organization. Available at:
https://www.executestrategy.net/blog/best-strategy-frameworks [Accessed on: 26.11.19]
Engert, S., Rauter, R. and Baumgartner, R.J., 2016. Exploring the integration of corporate
sustainability into strategic management: a literature review. Journal of cleaner production,
112(2), pp.2833-2850.
Johnson, G., 2016. Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.
Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2017. Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Rouse, M. 2019. Strategic management. Available at:
https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/strategic-management [Accessed on: 26.11.19]
Steiss, A.W., 2019. Strategic management for public and nonprofit organizations. Routledge.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J.J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
Management Journal, 38(1), pp.42-63.
Zhao, E.Y., Fisher, G., Lounsbury, M. and Miller, D., 2017. Optimal distinctiveness: Broadening
the interface between institutional theory and strategic management. Strategic Management
Journal, 38(1), pp.93-113.
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