Have you ever wondered why some companies get ahead of the competition? Well part of the reason is that they practice strategic management. They also develop their leaders as strategic thinkers and doers and develop a culture of accountability.

The Strategic Management Process

Strategic Management is a continuous process whereby leaders determine how to accomplish business objectives and lead their people during on-going internal and external change. In simpler terms, strategic management is thinking and behaving in a strategic manner.

Strategic management includes environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation.

1. Environmental Scanning includes collecting and analyzing data to arrive at key assumptions about internal and external factors that affect the company. Given the rate of change, these truths and assumptions need to be reviewed periodically to ensure that the strategy sits on a solid foundation. In our experience, the current financial situation of a company needs to be better understood as part of the Environmental Scan.
2. Strategy Formulation requires that the company defines its strategies and plans at the corporate, business and functional levels, using the conclusions drawn from the environmental scan.
3. Strategy Implementation requires alignment and includes:
   a. Making any process changes required
   b. Adjusting organizational structure, roles and decision-making to align
   c. Implementing the control systems necessary
   d. Proactively managing the change and transition occurring in the company
   e. Aligning the culture of the organization over time
4. Strategy Evaluation includes evaluating the strategy and its implementation and taking corrective actions as needed.

Critical Success Factors

At The Leaders’ Kitchen Inc. we believe there are three critical success factors that contribute to effective strategic management.

1. Management team development, including change and transition learning
2. Having honest, constructive conversations to collectively seek solutions when the plan needs to be adjusted or implementation is sliding
3. Embedding willful accountability in the culture of an organization.

These three factors significantly increase the probability of implementing a plan that takes the company forward.