DMBA401 Unit - 14
DMBA401 Unit - 14
DMBA401 Unit - 14
DMBA401
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT & BUSINESS
POLICY
Unit 14
Challenges in Strategic Management
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
The strategic management model deals with the planning, analyzing, and assessing different
factors and inputs critical for production. It also entails the evaluation, allocation, and
exploitation of available resources to achieve specified business objectives. The corporate
culture, internal structure, and skills of human resources influence the strategy development
process of an organization.
This chapter will explain in detail the use of strategic management in various situations in
the organization. From the formation to the implementation and evaluation of the strategy,
the organization faces many challenges and hurdles which need the strategic manager’s
immediate attention. Strategic management’s implications and challenges will be discussed
in further detail.
Because of its importance to the business or company, strategy is often seen as the highest
level of management responsibility. Strategies are usually obtained from the company's
senior management and are presented to the board of directors to ensure that they meet the
expectations of the company's stakeholders. This is especially true of public companies,
where profit and an increase in the number of shareholders are the company's main goals.
The results of the chosen strategy are also very important. This is reflected in achieving high
levels of strategic alignment and consistency in relation to the external and internal
environment. In this way, the strategies enable the company to maximize their internal
efficiency while gaining the highest potential in the external environment. Strategic
management is the art and science of making, implementing and evaluating collaborative
decisions that enable an organization to achieve its long-term goals. It includes clarifying the
organization's purpose, vision, and objectives; developing policies and programs to achieve
these goals, and allocating resources to implement these policies and programs. Strategic
management aims to coordinate and integrate the activities of the various functional areas
of the company to achieve the long-term goals of the organization.
Strategic management is the process by which managers make efforts to ensure a long-term
familiarity with them organization in its environment. Strategic management is not an easy
process; it is complicated.
• Strategic management involves making decisions about the future: The future is
uncertain. The manager cannot be sure about the future. Therefore, strategic
management involves a high level of uncertainty.
• Managers in different departments in the organization have different priorities:
Managers must reach an agreement to ensure an integrated approach. Strategic
management requires an integrated approach, which is difficult to achieve.
• Strategic management involves major changes in the organization: It adheres to
changes in organizational culture, leadership, organizational structure, reward system,
etc. All of this makes strategic management more complex.
Technology is the main external force that calls for the management of organizational
change.
The rate of technological change is better today than at any time in the past and technological
changes are responsible for changing the nature of jobs working at all levels in the
organization. Example Google, Apple etc.
• Ensures competitive advantage over competitors, as due to its proactive approach the
organization will always be aware of the changing environment of the market.
Strategists always consider the internal and external environment of the organization
so that a competitive edge can be generated.
• Strategic management makes communication and goal implementation organization-
wide. A cohesive organization which is working in unison towards a goal is more likely
to achieve that goal. It smoothens communication and also brings clarity to the
organization about the employee’s roles.
• It is all about looking forward towards the future of the organization. When managers
do it consistently, they become more aware of the industry challenges and trends. With
the help of strategic management, strategic planning and thinking, managers respond
to future challenges in a better way.
• Provides better leadership across the organization by utilizing the strategy in the
management of the employees. Strategic management facilitates the organization to
execute effective strategies to achieve the objective of the organization.
• Makes managers more aware of the winds of change, new opportunities, and emerging
threats in the external environment of the organization. In strategic management, an
analysis of environment and ecosystem of the organization is being made; in that case,
it helps the organization to be aware of change, of its opportunities, threats, strengths
and weaknesses.
• Provides the management with reasons for analyzing conflicting budget requests for
investment funds and new employees. Money as a resource is a big challenge for the
organization; in this case, strategic management helps in providing a concrete way to
analyze budget and demand as per the requirement and also to utilize all the available
resources efficiently and rationally.
• Helps to coordinate multiple strategic decisions about management across the
organization. When an organization launches many strategies at the same time,
Strategic management plays a keen role in coordinating multiple strategic decisions
and allocating tasks to the employees to maintain efficiency.
• Creates an effective proactive management environment. It is important for the
organization to be aware of any kind of change or disruption which can harm the
progress and growth. Strategic management helps the organization to be ready and to
formulate strategies which can assist in managing unwanted change or crisis.
Self-Assessment Questions - 1
1. Competitive advantage can best be described as:
A. Increased efficiency
B. What sets an organisation apart
C. A strength of the organisation
D. Intangible resources
2. The primary focus of strategic management is:
A. Strategic analysis
B. The total organisation
C. Strategy formulation
D. Strategy implementation
3. A strategy is a company’s game plan to outsmart competition (True/False)
4. Which of the following is not an advantage of strategic management?
It provides organisations with a clearer sense of direction and purpose.
It helps improve the political, economic, social and technological
environment of the organisation.
It helps orientate management decisions to relevant environmental
conditions.
It helps organisations be proactive rather than reactive.
• Strategic vision: The strategic manager points out the organization in a certain
direction. The manager plans an orderly strategic course to follow. He then conveys the
idea of a strategic plan down the line to the senior management and staff. This has a
dynamic value. When strategic managers can identify an encouraging picture of a
company’s strategic vision, they can stimulate a dedicated organizational effort.
• Strategic leader and decision-maker: Strategic leaders use the strategic management
process to help the company achieve its vision and mission. They are determined and
committed to nurturing those around them. They create customer value and profits for
shareholders and other stakeholders. Changing external circumstances and priorities
for new strategies requires new leadership strategies. It is necessary to use the
information better to make good decisions.
• Creating higher performance and competitive advantage: In the business sector, high
performance is often considered as profitable for one company compared to other
companies in the same type of business or industry. The company's profits can be
compared to the profits it makes in a business capital. The return on investment earned
by the company is defined as its profit rather than the capital invested in the firm.
• Adaptive to change: Strategic management believes that organizations should continue
to monitor internal and external events, trends, and disasters in order to make changes
in a timely manner where necessary. The scale and magnitude of changes affecting
organizations are growing exponentially. This requires strategic managers who allow
organizations to adapt to changes over time.
• Managing economic crisis: In an economic crisis, strategic management plays a huge
role. Strategic managers develop promising new strategies during recession, business
cycles or economic downturn. Strategic managers develop strategies that can survive
today and compete tomorrow.
• Globalization: Strategic management is constantly evolving with global trends and
changes. Globalization increases opportunities and challenges. One of the challenges
for firms is to understand the need for culturally sensitive decisions when
implementing strategic management processes and to anticipate ever-changing
difficulties in their decisions and activities. Globalization also affects the construction,
production, distribution and supply of goods and services.
• Creating a learning organization: Strategic management plays a crucial role in helping
an organization to operate successfully in a complex and dynamic environment. It helps
the firms to become less bureaucratic and more flexible to be competitive in constantly
changing environments. Strategic management helps the organization to become a
learning organization by catering, acquiring and transferring skills and knowledge. By
adapting to change, fostering creativity and remaining competitive, strategic managers
create learning organization.
• Considering the overall mission of the organization: The primary role of strategic
management is thinking through the overall mission of the organization. This will help
in setting the objective and developing of strategies. Mangers consider the roadmap to
achieve the objective of the organization in which strategic management helps.
Self-Assessment Questions - 2
8. Which individuals are most responsible for the success and failure of the
organization?
A. Strategists
B. Financial planners
C. Personal directors
D. Stakeholders
Competition Globalisation
Strategic
Management
Implications
and Lack of Individual
Challenges Poor Communication Ownership and Joint
Channel for Accountability
Communicating Strategy
Lack of Involvement
Time Consumption
Environmental
Analysis
• Impact of e-commerce:
a) Increasing usage of the internet is forcing organizations to transform their operating
ideas. Conversion of networking with customers, suppliers, investors and partners is
taking place electronically.
b) New channels are transforming marketing and branding styles, which is leading to
disintermediation of traditional distribution channels.
c) The balance of power is shifting to the side of the customers. As customers have
numerous options on the internet, they have choices to switch from one product to
another. This is a challenge for strategic management as strategies are also supposed
to be strategic and need to be revised as and when required.
• Technology: Technology is one of the big challenges for strategic management. There
is a continuous change in technology and to adapt that it always comes up with two-
fold challenges: to upgrade employees about it and financial expenses. The challenge
is not only to integrate the technology in the strategy but also to do it faster than one’s
competitors.
• Competition: Competition is huge in every single product. Firms are technology
driven, and traditional firms are struggling with using the internet to become
innovative and efficient. In this case, it emerges as a challenge for an organization to
survive and at the same time to create a competitive edge. Many times, strategists fail
to understand the expectations of the customers and to predict the move of their
competitors. As the only challenge is not just to survive and provide the best services
to customers but also to analyze the competitors.
• Globalization: As organizations aim to offer their product in the international market
or globally, it is a challenge to frame a strategy in a way which can suit the international
markets. The challenge of globalization for an organization is the global product
structure, being competent in working across cultures, in different working
environments and across countries, which challenges strategists to design a strategy to
cope with all such challenges.
• Poor communication channels for communication strategy: Even when the
strategy is good in all possible ways, if it is not communicated with the employees in
the desired framework, the strategy will be a waste. The challenge of not only framing
the strategy but also communicating it to the employees is also extremely important.
Many times, this creates issues in the organization, and organization fails to perform
after bad communication and poor understanding.
• Lack of individual ownership and joint accountability: Until and unless the
employees own the goals and the strategies to achieve those goals, the organization will
not survive. This is a big challenge for the organization.
Self-Assessment Questions - 3
9. Strategic management includes a process by which organizations analyze and
learn from their internal and external environments. (True/False)
10. One benefit of strategic management is a sharper focus on what is strategically
important. (True/False)
11. Which of the following is not a recognized element of corporate strategy?
A. Competitive strategy
B. Closure
C. Acquisition
D. Divestment
12. Which of the following is a key external factor that should be taken into
account by a strategy?
A. Economic conditions
B. Political conditions
C. Legal environments
D. Competition
5. SUMMARY
• Strategic management is the planned use of business resources to achieve the
company's goals and objectives. Strategic management requires ongoing evaluation of
procedures and processes within the organization and external factors that may affect
the performance of the company.
• Strategic management requires setting company goals, analyzing performance by
competitors, reviewing the internal structure of the organization, reviewing current
strategies and ensuring that strategies are implemented across the company.
• Strategic management helps managers choose the best strategy option. After that, it can
be internal or external growth of the organization.
• Strategic management helps the organization to select the best possible strategy to
achieve the organizational goal.
• There are certain challenges for strategic management as it is based on few
assumptions; if these assumptions remain good, then the strategy will work, otherwise
it will be failure.
• Many a times organizations fail to analyze the environment; for the success of strategic
management, the right analysis of the internal as well as external environment is
important.
• As employees become comfortable in their working zone, they may resist change or the
level of commitment of the employees may decrease, which is a challenge for the
managers.
6. GLOSSARY
• Globalization: The spread of technology, information, products and services across
national borders and cultures.
• Implication: Something that is implied or suggested which is to be understood or
inferred naturally.
• Leadership: A process of social influence, which can maximize the efforts of others or
of followers for the growth of the organization.
• Learning: The acquisition of skills and knowledge through experience, study or being
taught.
• Operations: Activities that happen within a company to keep it running and working.
• Proactive approach: A behavior which involves acting in advance for a future
situation, rather than reacting after something happens.
7. CASE STUDY
Strategic Maneuvers at Bharti Enterprises
The Indian telecom market is one of the fastest growing for mobile telecommunication
services. Every three months, a few million subscribers are added to the burgeoning base of
telephone service users. For instance, more than 14 million new subscribers were added
during January–March 2006, taking the total number of subscribers in India to over 90
million. That number, in a country with a billion-plus population, is less than 10% of the
total population, indicating the huge market potential that would exist for quite some time.
The mobile telecom industry in India is highly competitive with one of the lowest average
revenues per unit in the world, thus making it a strategic challenge for the best of companies
to operate successfully. Among the market leaders in Bharti Airtel, a company belonging to
the Bharati Enterprise group. In 2007, it is the market leader, having a slight edge over the
government telecom service provider BSNL and the private service provider Reliance.
Bharti's Airtel brand claims to have nearly 32 million subscribers. The businesses at Bharti
Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBUs): mobile
services, broadband, and telephone services, and enterprise services.
The group corporate office of Bharti Airtel will focus on the overall business strategy, provide
support to the Airtel management board, and conduct periodic reviews and governance.
Four of the functional roles at the president's office, i.e., finance, HR, legal, and networks, will
be functionally reporting to the corporate office. The corporate strategy of Bharti Enterprises
seems to be of strategic alliances with global companies for rapid growth in sunrise
industries through access to finance and established market brands. For instance, Bharti
Airtel has strategic alliances with Singtel and Vodafone as investors. Ericsson and Nokia are
mobile network equipment partners. Other equipment suppliers include Siemens, Nortel,
and Corning. There is an information technology alliance for group-wide information
technology requirements with IBM, and for call center technology requirements with Nortel.
In late 2006, Bharti Enterprises announced its foray into retailing in Alliance with Walmart,
where the latter will provide backend logistic support involving sourcing and Bharati will
handle the frontend retail aspect the setting up stores across India
ii. Mission > Vision > Goals > Objectives > Plans
iii. Plans > Vision > Mission > Goals > Objectives
iv. Goals > Vision > Mission > Objectives > Plans
a. i)
b. iii)
c. iv)
d. ii)
Answer (a)
8. TERMINAL QUESTIONS
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
Q2. Discuss any three strategic management challenges faced by managers in the 21st
century.
9. ANSWERS
SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. A. Increased efficiency
2. B. the total organization
3. True
4. B. It helps improve the political, economic, social and technological environment of an
organization
5. A. do not differ greatly for different size and type of organizations
6. C. Forecast; know
7. B. Proactive
8. A. Strategies
9. True
10. True
11. A. Competitive strategy
12. D. Competition
TERMINAL QUESTIONS
Answer 1: Strategic management is the set of managerial actions and decisions which
determine the performance of an organization in the long run. It includes environmental
scanning, strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation and control. That is why
strategic management emphasizes the monitoring and evaluating of external opportunities
and threats in the light of organization's strengths and weaknesses.
Answer 2: Strategic management assists the organization to attain its objective. It helps to
minimize the negative effects of adverse conditions and changes. It creates a framework for
Strategic management helps in gaining a competitive edge. In the market where workplaces
are being disrupted continually through technological innovation, strategic management
helps to deliver value. Developing a strategic vision requires an understanding of global
trends and the competitive landscape by the manager. When an organisation is clear about
its mission and objectives, strategic management creates strategic intent, formulates
strategy, implements it and evaluates it.
Financial gain: When organizations use strategic management concepts, they become more
successful than those organizations that do not. Firms who use strategic management
register a significant improvement in sales, profitability and productivity.
Strategic management helps in identifying and exploring opportunities for the business. It
provides solutions to many management problems. When there is shortage of resources in
the organization, it assists the organization to survive.
Answer 2: The three main challenges being faced by the managers in the 21st century are
as follows:
• Technology: It is one of the foremost challenges which managers come across. The
speed and pace at which technology is progressing has changed everything about
business and life. When organizations try to pin down a strategy for success in the long
haul, it is impossible to know what technology innovations will enable and also how
others may capitalize on innovations to better their businesses.
• Globalization: As the organizations aim to offer their product in the international
market or globally, it is a challenge to frame a strategy in a way which can suit the
international markets. When an organization targets any product in the global market,
then strategy should be made as per the international market demands; it is sometime
a challenge for the organization to frame and implement this strategy fruitfully.
• Environment: The success of strategic management depends on the right analysis of
the internal and external environments. It is a challenge for the organization to analyze
the environment in detail and to always be precise. The internal and external
environment of the organization should be understood and then the strategy should be
molded as per the changes in the environment.
REFERENCES:
• Strategic management.
https://www.bizeducator.com/benefits-of-strategic-management-to-
organisation(viewed on 23 June 2021).
• Strategic management.
https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/strategic-management(viewed on 23
June 2021).
• Strategic management,
https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/strategic-
management#:~:text=Strategic%20management%20is%20the%20ongoing,assess%
20their%20strategies%20for%20success(viewed on 21 June 2021).