The Strategic Management process is an approach to business which dictates everything from planning to execution and ensures that strategic thinking is at the forefront of all operations.
If everyone buys into the Strategic Management process, things in the business will align and stand the chance of running much smoother.
What are the 7 Steps of Strategic Management?
Identify the mission statement
One of the first things a business should focus on is developing and building on its mission statement.
The mission statement of the company describes exactly what the company does and offers insight and understanding into the values and essence of the organisation.
As a foundation for all planning, the mission statement acts as the basis for the strategic management process. With a sound statement in place, all planning that follows should be aligned with the mission of the company. This ensures consistency and maintains a steady brand image.
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Think of the vision and the prospective future
A mission and a vision statement should go hand in hand when looking at planning strategically. The mission describes what the company is all about and the vision looks at the future and sets goals and plans for the future.
Strategic management requires a prospective future in order to guide operations. The vision statement takes thinking ahead to what you want the next one, three, five and twenty years of the company to look like. From there, setting realistic objective helps guide the plans and puts strategic goalposts in place to hit.
To fully capture what you want the future of your business to look like, write out a vision statement as a clear, concise one-liner and prioritise that as your base point for all plans, pivots, and projections.
List your core values
The core values should dictate your company’s way of operating. The values, demonstrated by the principal guidelines, direct how the employees work and how the brand engages with the public.
In developing a strategic method of management, it’s essential to outline and communicate and consistently refer to the core values to instil employee habits.
Consider long-term goals and reasonable objectives
Before acting, planning what the goals are is essential in a strategic management process. Over and above goal-setting, it’s important to outline a plan of action to achieve them. When building out a plan, identify strategic ways to attain the results you want to achieve. The long-term goals, which goes with big-picture thinking, are crucial in developing short-term, which refers to the fine details of the company.
Develop a roadmap with detailed timelines
An action roadmap is a helpful way to guide agendas and action plans for your company. With high-level priorities in place, a roadmap can determine when and how things quickly move and puts incentives in place to reach deadlines. Roadmaps also offer a snapshot of past actions, which is helpful in developing future plans and setting realistic deadlines.
Build a communication plan
Internal communication is an essential component in the strategic Operations Management process. How do you communicate internally in your company? It’s important to determine a method of communicating clearly within the company to achieve the most fruitful operations and avoid any wasted resources from unclear messaging.
Establish an execution and implementation plan of action
The final step in developing a Strategic Management process is in the action. To tie the process altogether, the final implementation of planning needs to run smoothly. Using a programme manager or quality director helps ensure that the strategic plans in place are carried out successfully. The entire team involved in the action plan should be prepared and aware of what needs to happen to have consistency in execution.
