This document discusses strategic management and the strategic management process. It defines strategic management as the process of integrating organizational functions and resources to implement strategies that are aligned with the environment to achieve long-term objectives and gain a competitive advantage. The strategic management process consists of four stages: environmental analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation and control. Strong leadership is critical to successfully guiding an organization through strategic change and the implementation of strategies.

1. UNIT ONE
Strategic Management Process

2. The question that strategy answers is why businesses succeed or fail. Proper
Strategic formulation, implementation and control, it is what provides companies
that advantage over their competitors and give value to their clients.
Strategy fundamentally encompasses the interaction between an organisation
and its dynamic, competitive external environment, and constitutes the process
through which actions to compete, survive and prosper are developed and
implemented - actions which are critical to the success of an organisation in its
business context over time.
In this section, strategy and other relevant concepts are defined, and strategic
management as an integrated process explained.
Strategic Management Process
Introduction

3. Strategic Management Process
Defining Strategy
Strategic management can be defined as the process whereby all the organizational
functions and resources are integrated and coordinated to implement formulated strategies
which are aligned with the environment, in order to achieve the long term objectives of the
organization and therefore gain a competitive advantage through adding value for
stakeholders, Lazenby (2018). Lazenby also states that Strategic Management can be
defined as a process whereby the internal and external environments are analysed to
identify strategic goals and develop strategies in line with the organisations vision and
mission, and that must be implemented through a coordinated and integrated effort of
different functional areas to achieve the strategic goals of theorganisation with the ultimate
purpose of gaining competitive advantage.

4. Strategic Management Process
Competitive Advantage Model

5. Strategic Management Process
Strategic Management Process
According to Lazenby (2018) the strategic management process consists of four stages:
Environmental analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy
evaluation and control:
• Environmental Analysis is the responsibility of every manager from top management level
to middle management down to supervisory level. This stage is when all in the levels of
management analyse their internal and external environment and contribute insights to
strategy formulation on the state of business.
• The strategy formulation process involving getting down to business and defining what the
business wants to achieve. It is the responsibility of top management to formulate strategies
according to the results of the environmental analysis.
• The strategy implementation, is often the most challenging one. This is where all the
strategies in the previous stages must all come to life and can only be done through effective
communication by all parties involved – the employees and even other stakeholders. From
this it is evident that strategy is not only the responsibility of the top management, but
filters down throughout the organization.
• The last stage is the strategy control and review process. Here aspects such as total quality
management and the balanced scorecard are tools which can help and improve the
manager’s task of successfully
controlling the strategic management process.

6. Strategic Management Process
The Strategy-Making, Strategy-Executing Process

7. Strategic Management Process
Strategic Management Process

8. Strategic Management Process
Benefit of Strategic Management
There are many benefits of strategic management and they comprise identification,
ranking, and exploration of opportunities. For example, newer products, newer
markets, and newer forays into business lines are only probable if firms indulge in
strategic planning.
Next, strategic management allows firms to take an unbiased
view of the activities being done by it and do a cost benefit analysis as to whether
the firm is profitable.
Just to distinguish, by this, we do not mean the financial benefits alone, but also the
assessment of profitability
that has to do with assessing whether the business is strategically aligned to its
goals and priorities. The keypoint to be noted here is that strategic management
allows a firm to project itself to its market and consumers
and ensure that it is realizing the correct strategy.

9. Strategic Drivers
Strategic Management Process
Industries are dynamic in nature and evolve over time passing through the
identifiable, consecutive stages of inception, rapid growth, maturity and decline.
Driving forces-analysis requires:
(1) Identifying the driving forces,
(2) Assessing how driving forces will impact on industry competitiveness
and attractiveness, and
(3) Determining how strategy needs to be adapted to cope with expected
impacts of the identified driving forces, Lazenby (2018).

10. Strategic Management Process
Strategy and Leadership
The process of implementing a chosen strategy/strategies forces
transformation within an organisation.
Sometimes a small change is sufficient to implement the strategy; often
revolutionary change is more appropriate. The required organisational
change does not happen instinctively, nor does a strategy implement
itself.
Somewhere in the organisation someone must have a vision of an ideal state
and be willing to guide the organisation to the accomplishment of this vision
through successful strategy implementation. Such a person
is a strategic leader. Leadership drives strategic change, and strong
leadership is possibly the most important ‘tool’ that a strategist can have in
the implementation toolkit to give direction and purpose to strategy
formulation, implementation and control. Leadership is important in strategy
implementation, as it is only through effective strategic leadership that
organisations are able to use the strategic management process successfully.