Since strategic planning is geared toward the organization’s goals and plans and determines the actions that must be taken to achieve them, good strategic management enhances organizational performance throughout the organization. It is anticipated that if these procedures are followed correctly, the organization’s performance will increase. The importance of strategic management comes into play here because if your strategy doesn’t meet the requirements needed to boost performance, the plans should be revised and rearranged to better suit the needs of your company.
Strategic management: what is it?
Strategic management is the collection of unique decisions, actions, and activities used to coordinate and allocate resources to accomplish an organization’s goals.
Strategic management determines how standards are met, while the company’s strategic plan identifies objectives and benchmarks. How would you proceed, for instance, if your plan for the coming year called for a sharp increase in sales? Recruiting new personnel for the sales division? Or perhaps by giving current employees higher quotas? provide clients with fresh incentives? You can include any or all of these in your strategic plan.
There are so many different frameworks and systems for developing and implementing your strategic plan that any system you can use successfully is good for your organization. Most strategic management systems share several common stages, as followed:
Analyze your current situation
Develop a strategy to improve performance
Break down the strategy into smaller operational and procedural steps
Evaluate your performance after launching the strategy
Strategic planning is a component of strategic management, but they are not the same. Strategic management is a continuous process that determines the direction of the organization, plans continuously, and monitors and tests organizational performance. The strategic plan works toward a goal, and when the goal is attained, the plan is put into action.
The distinction between strategic management and strategic planning must be made at this point. Strategic planning places more emphasis on goal definition and the creation of necessary plans to achieve those goals, whereas strategic management entails an ongoing process to identify and carry out the necessary actions to further the objectives of the organization and enhance performance. As a result, the strategic plans are implemented once the predetermined goals are met, and strategic management continues to specify the facility’s direction and plan for it continuously to accomplish its goals effectively and efficiently by observing and assessing organizational performance.
What is organizational performance?
It can be said that there is no precise definition of organizational performance because it can be measured from several different perspectives. One simple way to define it is economic performance, which is measured in financial metrics such as sales revenue, profits, and return on investment. The other is operating performance, which uses metrics such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, social capital, and competitiveness.
Each organization has different reasons for measuring performance and varies according to the measures that suit your needs. Are you trying to show investors how well you manage their money? Identify strengths and weaknesses to shape your management decisions? Establishing your brand in the market and among competitors?
We can say that there is no one perfect way to measure performance. The most useful method is the one that suits you. You can judge performance by growth, whether you are adapting well to your current environment, and how well you are meeting the needs of investors and other stakeholders.
The importance of strategic management to performance effectiveness and efficiency
The business environment is never static; at any time, new competitors could enter the market, outdated products could stop making sense of the status quo, and the economy could change around you. Metrics can demonstrate that your organization is performing exceptionally well, but surprisingly, this performance is not a necessary condition for success. Therefore, strategic management is a method to consistently achieve peak performance.
The importance of strategic management and its role in performance efficiency and effectiveness:
1 – Make managers more responsive and aware of what is going on in the internal and external environment, which helps in permanent positive improvements.
2- It helps in developing and developing habits of thinking about the future.
3 – Support the accuracy of forecasting the results of strategic plans.
4 – Excellence in financial performance and the development and improvement of the overall performance of the organization in the long term.
5 – Unifying and coordinating all efforts in the departments towards unified goals and objectives.
6 – Provide opportunities for the participation of all administrative levels in the operations and reduce the resistance that may occur when implementing any program for change.
7 – Determining future directions… Where to direct the facility.
8 – Help identify future opportunities and avoid expected problems.
Is the organization ready for strategic management?
The readiness of the institution for strategic management is one of the main things that must be considered before starting to develop strategies. The readiness can be measured through the following:
1- Availability of an encouraging climate in the establishment to start strategic planning efforts, such as the presence of experienced managers, the availability of integrated information about the environment, and the willingness of managers to allocate additional time for deliberate strategic planning.
2- Existence of complete enthusiasm on the part of the Chairman of the Board of Directors and all members to make efforts in this field, and this enthusiasm must be accompanied by a good knowledge of the strategic planning process and a full understanding of the role of each person concerned.
3- The existence of introduction and training efforts that the establishment will need to understand strategic management when it is applied for the first time.
4- The participation of all beneficiaries such as customers, suppliers, workers, stockholders, and others.
5- Contracting with experts and consultants specialized in the strategic management process, conducting research, collecting information, and providing the company with reports on the industry and the latest global trends.
Strategic management is a process used by top management to establish long-term goals and performance through careful planning, effective implementation, and ongoing strategy evaluation. To achieve the best results possible, strategic management relies on taking into account all the variables that affect the facility’s internal and external environments and adapting to these changing environmental factors.
The main objective of strategic management is to achieve competitive superiority and reduce the impact of competitors on the company’s share in the market, build a strong competitive position for the company, and increase its value from the point of view of customers, shareholders, and society as a whole, and achieving this depends on increasing overall performance and efficiency, and this is based on the presence of clear strategic management Future vision and the ability to make accurate strategic decisions, which require anticipating future events, anticipating the course of things, and preparing for them. Thus, strategic management allows the organization to prepare in advance for the future, influence various activities, and thus exercise control over its future.
If you need assistance evaluating strategic management in your facility and increasing its link to performance efficiency, do not hesitate to contact Synexcell, a premier consultant expert in the field!
