Management - Vikhanskiy OS

Chapter 3 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION

Strategic planning has

It's not about future solutions, but

Future decisions taken today.

Drucker

In the face of tough competition and a rapidly changing situation, firms should not only focus on the internal state of affairs, but also develop a long-term strategy of behavior that allows them to keep up with the changes occurring in their environment. In the past, many firms have been able to function successfully, focusing primarily on daily work, on internal problems associated with improving the efficiency of resource use in current activities. Now, although the task of rational use of potential in current activities is not removed, it is extremely important to implement such a management that ensures the adaptation of the company to rapidly changing business conditions. Acceleration of changes in the environment, the emergence of new requests and changing the position of the consumer, increasing competition for resources, the internationalization of business, the emergence of new unexpected business opportunities, opened by the achievements of science and technology, the development of information networks that make it possible for lightning to spread and receive information, Technologies, changing the role of human resources, as well as a number of other reasons led to a sharp increase in the importance of strategic management.

There is no strategy unified for all companies, just as there is no single universal strategic management. Each company is unique in its kind, therefore, the process of developing a strategy for each company is unique, because it depends on the firm's position in the market, the dynamics of its development, its potential, the behavior of competitors, the characteristics of its products or services, the state of the economy, cultural Environment and many more factors. At the same time, there are some basic points that allow us to talk about some generalized principles for developing a strategy of behavior and implementing strategic management.

In this section, three critical issues of strategic management will be considered: how to understand strategic management, what its essence and content are; What is the strategy of the firm and how it is developed; The strategic line of the company's orientation toward the consumer and the role of marketing in the implementation of this line of behavior.

1. General characteristics of strategic management

1.1. The essence of strategic management

The term " strategic management " was introduced at the turn of the 60-70's. In order to reflect the difference between the top-level management and the current management at the production level. The need for such a distinction was caused primarily by changes in business conditions, which were mentioned earlier. As the leading idea reflecting the essence of the transition to strategic management from operational management, the idea was to shift the focus of attention of top management to the environment in order to react appropriately and in a timely manner to the changes occurring in it, to respond promptly to the challenge thrown by the external environment.

Strategic management can be defined as the management of an organization that relies on human potential as the basis of the organization, directs production activity to the needs of consumers, implements flexible regulation and timely changes in organizations that meet the challenge from the environment and allows to achieve competitive advantages, which together allows the organization To survive and achieve its goal in the long term.

Although strategic management is the most important factor for successful survival in a growing competitive environment, one can always observe the lack of strategic action in the actions of the organizations, which often leads them to defeat in the market struggle. The lack of strategic management is manifested primarily in the following two forms.

First, organizations plan their activities, proceeding from the fact that the environment either will not change at all, or there will not be any qualitative changes in it. With non-strategic management, a plan of concrete actions is drawn up, both in the present and in the future, a priori based on the fact that the final state is clearly known and that the environment will not actually change. Drawing up long-term plans in which it is prescribed what and when to do and search in the initial period of decisions for many years ahead, the desire to build "for ages" or to acquire "for many years" - all these are signs of non-strategic management. The vision of a long-term perspective is a very important part of management. However, this should in no way mean extrapolating existing practice and the existing state of the environment for many years to come.

In the case of strategic management, at each given moment, it is recorded what the organization should do at present to achieve the desired goals in the future, proceeding from the fact that the environment and the conditions of the organization's life will change, i.e. With strategic management, a view from the future to the present is as it were. The organization's actions are currently being defined and implemented, providing it with a certain future, rather than developing a plan or a description of what the organization will have to do in the future. At the same time, it is characteristic for strategic management that not only the desired state of the organization is fixed, but also this is the most important task of strategic management, the ability to respond to changes in the environment that allow achieving the desired goals in the future is developed.

Secondly, with non-strategic management, the development of an action program begins with an analysis of the organization's internal capabilities and resources. With this approach, everything an organization can determine on the basis of an analysis of its internal capabilities is how much product it can produce and what costs it can incur. The volume of production and the cost of the answer to the question of how much the product created by the firm will be accepted by the market - how much will be bought and at what price, will determine the market.

Along with obvious advantages, strategic management has a number of shortcomings and limitations in its use, which indicate that this type of management, as well as all others, does not have the versatility of application in any situation for solving any problems.

First, strategic management by its nature does not, and can not give an accurate and detailed picture of the future. Formed in the strategic management of the future, the desired state of the organization is not a detailed description of its internal and external situation, but rather a qualitative wish to what the organization should be in the future, what position to occupy in the market and in business, what organizational culture to have , To enter into which business groups, etc. At the same time, all this in the aggregate should be what determines whether the organization will survive or not in the future in a competitive struggle.

Secondly, strategic management can not be reduced to a set of routine procedures and schemes. He does not have a descriptive theory that prescribes what and how to do when solving certain tasks or in specific situations. Strategic management is, rather, a certain philosophy or ideology of business and management. Every individual manager understands and realizes it in a significant way in his own way. Of course, there are a number of recommendations, rules and logical schemes for analyzing problems and selecting a strategy, as well as implementing strategic planning and practical implementation of the strategy. However, in general, strategic management is a symbiosis of intuition and the art of top management to lead an organization to strategic goals, high professionalism and creativity of employees, ensuring the organization's connection with the environment, updating the organization and its products, and implementing current plans, and finally, the active inclusion of all employees In the implementation of the organization's tasks, in the search for the best ways to achieve its goals.

Thirdly, it takes tremendous effort and time and resources to ensure that the organization begins to implement the process of strategic management. It is necessary to create and implement strategic planning, which is fundamentally different from the development of long-term plans that are mandatory for implementation in any conditions. The strategic plan should be flexible, it must respond to changes inside and outside the organization, and this requires very great effort and high costs. It is also necessary to create services that track the environment and enable the organization on Wednesday. Marketing, public relations, etc. Acquire exceptional importance and require significant additional costs.

Fourth, the negative consequences of mistakes in strategic foresight are sharply increasing. In the conditions when absolutely new products are created in a short time, when the directions of investments radically change, when new opportunities for business suddenly arise and before the eyes disappear the opportunities that existed for many years, the price of payment for incorrect foresight and accordingly for the mistakes of strategic choice becomes Often fatal for the organization. Particularly tragic are the consequences of a wrong prediction for organizations implementing an uncontested way of functioning or implementing a strategy that can not be fundamentally corrected.

Fifthly, when implementing strategic management, often the main focus is on strategic planning. In fact, the most important component of strategic management is the implementation of the strategic plan. This implies, first of all, the creation of an organizational culture that enables the implementation of a strategy, the creation of motivation and labor management systems, the creation of certain flexibility in the organization, and so on. At the same time, with strategic management, the implementation process has an active feedback on planning, which further enhances the significance of the implementation phase. Therefore, the organization in principle will not be able to shift to strategic management if it has, even if very well, a strategic planning subsystem, and there are no prerequisites or opportunities for creating a strategic execution subsystem.