Strategic Management Process

Strategic Management Process

Sarah Martin

MGT 498

September 14, 2011

Stephen Larson

Strategic Management Process

“Strategic management is the process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy” (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009, p. 8). “Strategic management is a set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation” (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010, p. 5). This paper will discuss the components of a strategic management process and indicate why a strategic management process is needed for a company. A description of how General Electric (GE) uses strategic management process in their company will also be discussed.

“Strategic management is a continuous process that appraises the business and industries in which the organization is involved; appraises its competitors; and fixes goals to meet all the present and future competitor’s and then reassesses each strategy (Management Study Guide, 2011, para. 1). A strategic management process has four steps: environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and evaluation and control.

“Environmental scanning is the monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating of information from the external and internal environments to key people within the corporation” (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010, p. 16). A SWOT analysis is a great way to accomplish this. SWOT is used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business. the internal environment includes the strengths and weaknesses while the external environment includes opportunities and threats.

“Strategy formulation is the development of long-range plans for the effective management of environmental opportunities and threats, in light of corporate strengths and weaknesses. It includes defining the corporate mission, specifying achievable objectives, developing strategies, and setting policy guidelines” (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010, p. 17). A business’ mission...