Strategic Management

“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”, (David, 2012). Most businesses have a plan of action set in place to work towards achieving their goals, that plan is considered strategic management.

Strategic management started in the 1950s, but did not become popular until in between the mid 60s and 70s, (David, 2012). Strategic management, also known as strategic planning was thought to be equivalent to a sports team’s game plan. During this time, companies thought strategic management was the answer to all issues and it wasn’t until the 1980s when all the hype started to fade. In 1990, strategic management’s popularity began to rise again and is still very popular.

Strategic management has been very popular for close to sixty years, but that wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions made by a few influential individuals. Alfred Chandler recognized the importance of including the different aspects of management into one strategy, (Chandler, 1962). Before Chandler’s contributions, all aspects of management had separate strategies and very little strategic coordination. Philip Selzenick also made contributions in 1957 that introduced factors within the organization with the circumstances outside of the organization (Selznick, P. 1957). This concept is now called SWOT analysis. The strengths and weaknesses of an organization are viewed with the opportunities and threats from the external industry environment. Peter Drucker is a third contributor to strategic management. In 1954, Drucker expressed the importance of operating with objectives, (Drucker, P. 1954). He developed a theory of management by objectives, the procedure of setting objectives and watching the progress made to reach them.

The overall concept of strategic management shouldn’t differ from one industry to the next. Every company within any...