Strategic planning involves determining organizational strategy and setting priorities to achieve objectives. It is analytical and future-oriented. Strategic management implies a series of decisions to formulate and implement strategies to achieve goals. It is action-oriented and focuses on strategic results. The key difference is that strategic planning identifies actions while strategic management identifies actions, assigns responsibilities, timelines, and implementation approaches. Both are important but strategic planning sets direction while strategic management ensures objectives are efficiently met.

1. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATEGIC PLANNING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Ramya B
Assistant Professor
B.com(PA)
Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science
Coimbatore - 641 006
Tamil Nadu, India
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2. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
• Strategic management is the management of an organization’s resources to achieve its goals and objectives.Strategic
management involves setting objectives, analyzing the competitive environment, analyzing the internal organization,
evaluating strategies, and ensuring that management rolls out the strategies across the organization.Strategic
management is divided into several schools of thought.
• A prescriptive approach to strategic management outlines how strategies should be developed, while a descriptive
approach focuses on how strategies should be put into practice. These schools differ on whether strategies are
developed through an analytic process, in which all threats and opportunities are accounted for, or are more like general
guiding principles to be applied.
• Business culture, the skills and competencies of employees, and organizational structure are all important factors that
influence how an organization can achieve its stated objectives. Inflexible companies may find it difficult to succeed in
a changing business environment. Creating a barrier between the development of strategies and their implementation
can make it difficult for managers to determine whether objectives have been efficiently met.

3. Example of Strategic Management
• For example, a for-profit technical college wishes to increase new student enrollment
and enrolled student graduation rates over the next three years. The purpose is to
make the college known as the best buy for a student's money among five for-profit
technical colleges in the region, with a goal of increasing revenue.
• In that case, strategic management means ensuring the school has funds to create
high-tech classrooms and hire the most qualified instructors. The college also invests
in marketing and recruitment and implements student retention strategies. The
college’s leadership assesses whether its goals have been achieved on a periodic
basis.

4. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATEGIC THINKING AND
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic Thinking Strategic Planning
Purpose The purpose of strategic thinking is to envision
or develop a solution. It is also to enable
brainstorming of approaches that can help to
meet the strategic intent and goals of a specific
project or initiative.
The purpose of strategic planning, on the other
hand, is to conceptualize and create the actual
steps or actions that will result in the project or the
goals to get delivered.
Definition Strategic thinking is a skill. You can develop it,
leverage it or improve it.
Strategic planning is a process. It has to be
conducted or carried out.
Accountability While both can be done by individuals or in
groups, usually strategic thinking is more of
personal or individual competency and attribute.
.Strategic planning involves multiple people or a
team to come together. A leader or manager can do
both – think and plan strategically. But the former
has better results when done alone and the latter
yields greater results when done in a group.

5. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATEGIC PLANNING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
• In the hyper-competitive environment, it is difficult for business houses to survive,
grow and expand in the long-run if they do not have strategic planning. A strategic
planning is an activity, which determines the objectives and considers both internal
and external environment to design, implement, analyze and adjust the strategies, to
gain competitive advantage.Strategic Planning is not exactly same as strategic
management, which implies a stream of decisions and actions taken by the top level
managers to achieve organizational goals.
• It is nothing but the identification and application of strategies, to improve their
performance level and attain dominance in the industry.Many think that the two
terms denote one and the same thing, but there is a difference between strategic
planning and strategic management which explains the article hereunder, take a read.

6. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATEGIC PLANNING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
BASIS FOR COMPARISON STRATEGIC PLANNING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Meaning Strategic Planning is a future oriented
activity which tends to determine the
organizational strategy and used to set
priorities.
Strategic Management implies a
bundle of decisions or moves taken in
relation to the formulation and
execution of strategies to achieve
organizational goals.
Stresses on It stresses on making optimal strategic
decisions.
It stresses on producing strategic
results, new markets, new products,
new technologies etc.
Management Strategic planning is a management by plans. Strategic management is a
management by results.
Process Analytical process Action-oriented process

7. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATEGIC PLANNING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
BASIS FOR
COMPARISON
STRATEGIC PLANNING
STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT
Function Identifying actions to be
taken.
Identifying actions to be
taken, the individuals who
will perform the actions, the
right time to perform the
action, the way to perform
the action.