Strategic Management

Strategic management is essential for the global success of an organization. The “process requires competent individuals to insure its success” (Stahl & Grigsby pg7). Among those competent individuals there are key positions that “anticipate changes in the environment, customer, and competitors” (Stahl & Grigsby pg 7). The men and women who hold these key positions can, together, drive the company towards success or failure. As noted in the article, Strategizing as Lived Experience and Strategists’ Everyday Efforts to Shape Strategic Direction, “A strategy tells you where 'you're going to end up' and like a ship's rudder, steers the organization to some future destination.” (Samera-Fredericks, D. 2003).

When management has a future destination in mind they need to outline the best way to achieve that goal. Depending on how extensive their future plans are will help determine the challenge of implementing that plan. One must always remember that “you have to continue to have milestones out there that are aggressive and challenging” (Ross, J. 1999) in order to make any business a success. The day you lose sight of your goals and desires for a future within your business is the day your business fails to succeed.

Are there challenges within an organization? Absolutely but most distinctly when ideas cannot be agreed upon. When an organization is taking a financial dive the main push for a new direction comes from the stockholders and what they believe is best for them. If the majority stockholders deem the company unfit to operate successfully the board of directors will do what is necessary to change up the management staff; essentially out with the old and in with the new. Changing a company’s structure may take time but it can certainly lead to much success if everyone works together. “A single person can make a difference at times, but even such heroic CEOs as General Electric's Jack Welch