1. Describe the strategic-management process.

2. Explain the need for integrating analysis and intuition in strategic

management.
3. Define and give examples of key terms in strategic management.
4. Discuss the nature of strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation
activities.
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5. Describe the benefits of good strategic management.

6. Discuss the relevance of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to strategic management.
7. Discuss how a firm may achieve sustained competitive advantage.
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Strategic management is defined as the art and science of formulating,

implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an
organization to achieve its objectives
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Strategic management in this text is used synonymously with the term

strategic planning
Sometimes the term strategic management is used to refer to strategy
formulation, implementation, and evaluation, with strategic planning referring
only to strategy formulation.
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A strategic plan results from tough managerial choices among numerous good
alternatives, and it signals commitment to specific markets, policies, procedures, and
operations in lieu of other, “less desirable” courses of action.
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The strategic-management process consists of three stages: strategy formulation,

strategy implementation,
and strategy evaluation.
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Strategy formulation includes developing a vision and mission, identifying an

organization’s external opportunities and threats, determining internal
strengths and weaknesses, establishing long-term objectives, generating
alternative strategies, and choosing particular strategies to pursue
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Deciding what new businesses to enter,

What businesses to abandon,
How to allocate resources,
Whether to expand operations or diversify,
Whether to enter international markets,
Whether to merge or form a joint venture
How to avoid a hostile takeover.
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Strategy implementation requires a firm to establish annual objectives,

devise policies, motivate employees, and allocate resources so that
formulated strategies can be executed and is often called the action stage
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Strategy evaluation is defined as reviewing external and internal factors that

are the bases for current strategies, measuring performance, and taking
corrective actions
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Strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation activities occur at three

hierarchical levels in a large organization: corporate, divisional or strategic
business unit, and functional
Strategic management helps a firm function as a competitive team
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Most organizations can benefit from strategic management, which is based

upon integrating intuition and analysis in decision making

Intuition is particularly useful for making decisions in situations of great uncertainty

or little precedent
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Competitive advantage is anything that a firm does especially well compared

to rival firms
Strategists are the individuals who are most responsible for the success or
failure of an organization.
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The Vision statement answers the question “What do we want to become?”

and is often considered the first step in strategic planning
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Mission statements are enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one

business from other similar firms.
It identifies the scope of a firm’s operations in product and market terms
and addresses the basic question that faces all strategists: “What is our
business?”
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External opportunities and external threats refer to economic, social,

cultural, demographic, environmental, political, legal, governmental,
technological, and competitive trends and events that could significantly
benefit or harm an organization in the future
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• Availability of capital can no longer be taken for granted.

• Consumers expect green operations and products.
• Marketing moving rapidly to the Internet.
• Commodity food prices are increasing.
• Political unrest in the Middle East is raising oil prices.
• Computer hacker problems are increasing.
• Intense price competition is plaguing most firms.
• Unemployment and underemployment rates remain high.
• Interest rates are rising.
• Product life cycles are becoming shorter.
• State and local governments are financially weak.
• Turmoil and violence in Mexico is increasing.
• Winters are colder and summers hotter than usual.
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Internal strengths and internal weaknesses are an organization’s

controllable activities that are performed especially well or poorly
and are determined relative to competitors
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Objectives are specific results that an organization seeks to achieve in

pursuing its basic mission.
Long-term means more than one year
They should be challenging, measurable, consistent, reasonable, and
clear
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Strategies are the means by which long-term objectives will be achieved.

They may include geographic expansion, diversification, acquisition,
product development, market penetration, retrenchment, divestiture,
liquidation, and joint ventures.
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Annual objectives are short-term milestones that organizations must achieve

to reach long-term objectives.
They should be measurable, quantitative, challenging, realistic,
consistent, and prioritized
They should be established at the corporate, divisional, and functional
levels in a large organization.
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Strategies currently being pursued by some companies are described in Table 1-1.
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Policies are the means by which annual objectives will be achieved.

They include guidelines, rules, and procedures established to support
efforts to achieve stated objectives
Policies are guides to decision making and address repetitive or
recurring situations
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These are three important questions to answer in developing a strategic plan:

Where are we now?
Where do we want to go?
How are we going to get there?
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The framework illustrated in Figure 1-1 is a widely accepted, comprehensive

model of the strategic-management process.12 This model does not guarantee
success, but
it does represent a clear and practical approach for formulating, implementing, and
evaluating strategies.
Relationships among major components of the strategic-management process are
shown in the
model, which appears in all subsequent chapters with appropriate areas shaped to
show the particular
focus of each chapter.
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Historically, the principal benefit of strategic management has been to help

organizations formulate better strategies through the use of a more systematic,
logical, and rational approach to strategic choice
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Figure 1-2 illustrates this

intrinsic benefit of a firm engaging in strategic planning. Note that all firms need all
employees on a
mission to help the firm succeed.
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Businesses using strategic-management concepts show significant improvement in

sales, profitability, and productivity compared to firms without systematic planning
activities

High-performing firms seem to make more informed decisions with good

anticipation of both short- and long-term consequences
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It allows for identification, prioritization, and exploitation of opportunities.

It provides an objective view of management problems.
It represents a framework for improved coordination and control of activities.
It minimizes the effects of adverse conditions and changes.
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It allows major decisions to better support established objectives.

It allows more effective allocation of time and resources to identified opportunities.
It allows fewer resources and less time to be devoted to correcting erroneous or ad
hoc decisions.
It creates a framework for internal communication among personnel.
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• Lack of knowledge or experience in strategic planning—No training in strategic

planning.
• Poor reward structures—When an organization assumes success, it often fails to
reward
success. When failure occurs, then the firm may punish.
• Firefighting—An organization can be so deeply embroiled in resolving crises and
firefighting
that it reserves no time for planning.
• Waste of time—Some firms see planning as a waste of time because no
marketable product
is produced. Time spent on planning is an investment.
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• Fear of failure—By not taking action, there is little risk of failure unless a problem
is
urgent and pressing. Whenever something worthwhile is attempted, there is some
risk of
failure.
• Overconfidence—As managers amass experience, they may rely less on formalized
planning. Rarely, however, is this appropriate. Being overconfident or overestimating
experience can bring demise. Forethought is rarely wasted and is often the mark of
professionalism.
• Prior bad experience—People may have had a previous bad experience with
planning, that
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Using strategic planning to gain control over decisions and resources

Doing strategic planning only to satisfy accreditation or regulatory requirements
Too hastily moving from mission development to strategy formulation
Failing to communicate the plan to employees, who continue working in the dark
Top managers making many intuitive decisions that conflict with the formal plan
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Top managers not actively supporting the strategic-planning process

Failing to use plans as a standard for measuring performance
Delegating planning to a “planner” rather than involving all managers
Failing to involve key employees in all phases of planning
Failing to create a collaborative climate supportive of change
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Table 1-3
summarizes important guidelines for the strategic-planning process to be effective.
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A fundamental difference between military and business strategy is that

business strategy is formulated, implemented, and evaluated with an
assumption of competition, whereas military strategy is based on an
assumption of conflict

Both business and military organizations must adapt to change and constantly
improve to be successful
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War is a matter of vital importance to the state: a matter of life or death, the road
either to survival or ruin. Hence, it is imperative that it be studied thoroughly
Know your enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be
defeated.
Skillful leaders do not let a strategy inhibit creative counter-movement