Study sheet: Management Foundations and Strategic Analysis

📋 Course Outline

1. Course Assessment and Preparation
2. Management Definition and Evolution
3. Fayol’s Four Management Functions
4. Strategic Management and Its Objectives
5. PESTEL External Diagnosis

📖 1. Course Assessment and Preparation

📝 Essential Points

• The midterm examination takes place on 30 November 2026 and lasts 1 hour 30 minutes.

• The course assessment consists of a written examination and a participation grade.

• Before each class, students must research the topic and prepare a current-affairs item in international entrepreneurship using sources such as BFM Business, The Economist, or an information news feed.

📖 2. Management Definition and Evolution

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Management : the set of techniques and processes used to plan, organize, direct, and control an organization’s human, financial, and material resources in order to achieve its objectives effectively and efficiently

📝 Essential Points

📌 Contemporary management seeks not only economic performance but also employee well-being, engagement, and development.

💡 Memory Hook

Aligning company goals with team aspirations → performance, well-being, and engagement

📖 3. Fayol’s Four Management Functions

★ Must-know

• According to Fayol, management includes four functions:

  • Planning
  • Organizing
  • Directing
  • Controlling

• Planning consists of defining objectives, developing strategies and action plans, anticipating the future, evaluating necessary resources, and setting clear deadlines.

• Organizing consists of distributing tasks, creating teams, allocating resources, and defining reporting lines and communication channels.

• Directing consists of mobilizing, motivating, influencing, and managing a team through communication, leadership, and decision-making.

• Controlling consists of measuring performance, comparing results with forecasts, identifying deviations, and implementing corrective actions when necessary.

Further detail

• The four management functions form a continuous cycle in which control of past actions informs the planning of future actions.

💡 Memory Hook

POCC: Plan, Organize, Command, Control

📖 4. Strategic Management and Its Objectives

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Strategic management : determines an organization’s long-term objectives and develops strategies to preserve its competitiveness in the market

📝 Essential Points

• Strategic management involves planning strategy, identifying priority objectives, developing growth strategies, examining market trends, and anticipating changes to support strategic decisions.

• The objectives of strategic management are to face competition, facilitate decision-making, minimize risks and errors, improve organization, and determine priorities.

• Further objectives of strategic management include:

  • Federating teams around a common goal
  • Developing a competitive advantage
  • Anticipating market changes
  • Identifying opportunities
  • Reducing threats
  • Creating value

💡 Memory Hook

Market anticipation → strategic decisions → competitiveness and value creation

📖 5. PESTEL External Diagnosis

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• PESTEL analysis : an external strategic diagnostic tool that identifies macro-environmental forces capable of influencing an organization’s activity without being directly controllable by it

★ Must-know

• PESTEL divides the environment into six factors:
  • Political
  • Economic
  • Sociological
  • Technological
  • Ecological
  • Legal

📌 PESTEL analysis enables an organization to identify external opportunities and threats that do not depend on the organization itself.

Further detail

📌 PESTEL complements SWOT by analyzing macro-environmental forces that may influence the organization’s activity.

• The Ultima Mobility case study is used to apply PESTEL analysis to a selected city or country.

💡 Memory Hook

PESTEL: Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Ecological, Legal

📊 Synthesis Tables

Fayol’s Management Functions

Function	Main role	Key actions
Planning	Define the future direction	Set objectives, strategies, resources, and deadlines
Organizing	Structure the work	Distribute tasks, create teams, allocate resources, and define authority
Directing	Mobilize people	Motivate, communicate, lead, and decide
Controlling	Evaluate results	Measure performance, compare forecasts, and correct deviations