Why All Managers Need an Understanding of Strategic Management

A strategic orientation encourages far-sightedness in managers. Employees who think in strategic terms tend to understand better how top managers think and why they make the decisions they do. The trend toward greater teamwork and cooperation throughout the planning cycle is eroding the traditional distinction between those who plan and those who implement plans.

Key Dimensions of Strategic Farsight

Five Different Strategy-Making Modes

Strategic Management = Strategic Planning + Implementation + Control

Strategy: Integrated, externally oriented perception of how to achieve the organization’s mission

Strategic Management

The ongoing process of ensuring a competitively superior fit between an organization and its changing environment, includes budget control, long-range planning, and strategic planning, merges strategic planning, implementation, and control to create a dynamic process, Requires a holistic view from a longer-term perspective. 

Thinking and Acting Strategically(Internet and Social Media Strategies)

Synergy: The concept that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts

Types of Synergy

1. Market synergy: Extending products to new markets
2. Cost synergy: Savings from combinations of common-base operations, resources, and facilities
3. Technological synergy: The transfer and application of technologies to new markets
4. Management synergy: Complementary skills that make for more effective overall management