Strategic Management Fundamentals

📋 Course Outline

1. Strategic management concept
2. Strategic management model
3. Strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation
4. Key strategic management terms
5. Competitive advantage and SWOT analysis
6. Benefits of strategic management
7. Why firms avoid planning
8. Pitfalls in strategic planning

📖 1. Strategic management concept

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Strategic management : Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that help an organization achieve its objectives.
• Strategic planning : Strategic planning is treated as synonymous with strategic management in this course.
• Long-range planning : Long-range planning focuses on optimizing today’s trends for tomorrow rather than running the full strategic management cycle.
• Strategic plan : A strategic plan is a company’s game plan created through tough choices among alternatives that commit to specific markets and operating approaches.

📝 Essential Points

• Strategic management uses cross-functional decisions to reach organizational objectives.
• In this course, “strategic planning” matches strategic management, while “strategic planning” can sometimes mean only strategy formulation.
• A strategic plan signals commitment to particular markets, policies, procedures, and operations.

💡 Memory Hook

Strategic management = decisions across functions (formulate→implement→evaluate).