STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING Strategic management is a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of activities involved in a business process. Organizations use strategic management to plan and align the resources available at their disposal with the long term mission and objectives of their company. Strategic management activities actualize a strategic plan into a workable process through strategic performance feedbacks to decision making. Strategic planning and management are inter dependable but are separate aspects. While strategic management is the art and science of formulating, evaluating and implementing decisions that enable the organization achieve its aims and objectives, Strategic planning are organizational management activities that are used to define and set priorities. Such activities include aligning employees and other stake holders with the company’s objectives, strengthening of current operations and the assessment and adjustment of the organizations position and policies in relation to a changing environment. In strategic planning there are different frameworks and methodologies used in achieving the desired result. While there is no defined framework for strategic planning, there are basics which serve as a guide. The first step of strategic planning involves analysis and assessment of the current internal and external factors. The second step involves the strategy formulation, where a detailed documentation of the basic organizational strategic plan is made. The third step is the execution of the strategy. Execution is the turning of the documented plan into a feasible and practical process. After the execution, evaluation of the implemented plan is conducted to refine the performance, communication, data reporting, and other strategic management processes. A good strategic plan should have the following characteristics: •
It should be designed with the end result in mind
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Change management should be incorporated and leadership development in order to increase the performance of the organization
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It should be able to provide actionable performance information towards a better decision making process
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It should have strategic planning initiatives included to focus on the important performance improvement projects
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It should have a flexible and scalable process, from the techniques employed, the steps, concept and tools.
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The strategies and the company culture should be aligned and focus on the drivers of results
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Integrate existing organization systems and align with the organizations around strategy
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It should be clear, direct and easily administrable. It should also deliver practicable long term benefits
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Continuous evaluation to promote long term improvement