introduction to strategic management and leadership

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Shermeen khan

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Introduction to Strategic Management and

Leadership

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mailto:[email protected]



TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction to Strategic Management and

Leadership………………………………………………05

1.2 Personal development as strategic manager and relation of

Achievement of organization’s

Objectives…………………………………………………..05

1.3 Strategic Development Plan to Address Short, Medium and

Long Term Needs………………………………………………07

1.4 Strategic Leadership and Relationship between Past, Present and Future

Skills and Management……………………………………………………..09

1.5 Factors Affecting Development Plan for the Attainment of the Objectives of an

Organizations…………………………………………………………………09



2.3 Strategic Leadership and Relationship between Past, Present and Future

Skills and Management…………………………………………………….10

2.4 Strategic Manager, Traits and Information Available for Decision Making in

a Globalized Environment…………………………………………………11

2.6 Strategic Management in Suzuki Motors, Core Issues, Data and Strategies: A

Brief Look…………………………………………………………………….12

3.1 Models and Methods to Adjust a Course of Action for Organizational

Improvement……………………………………………………….13

3.2 Strategic Manager, Traits and Information Available for DecisionMaking in a Globalized Environment…………………………………………….16

3.3 Models and Methods to Adjust a Course of Action for Organizational

Improvement………………………………………………………………………...16

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….17

Refrences………………………………………………………………………………….18



1.Introduction to Strategic Management and

Leadership



During 1980, strategic management and leadership emerged and popularized as a

concept which incorporated strategic formulation in a wider rage, implication of such

strategies, and evaluation thereof. Since then the concept of strategic management and

leader pioneered as an integral to the failure or success of a firm or corporation. This is

seen specifically in cases after the technological evolution and its dynamics which are

so rapid that those monitoring, interpretations, analysis, and accuracy of the data

required special strategic and leadership skill which are less required in earlier times.

This concept expands not only to the operations of profiting organizations but also non-

profit associations working at any level. The primary reason is that every organization

needs human resources, intellectual, financial, equipments and other to realize their

objectives. It is understood that all organizations or firms whatever their purpose may be

are created for some particular object or class of objects. To achieve these objects theycollect information to prepare for strategic and effective programs and actions.

However, various objectives of various organizations come in contrast with each other

and these interactions create new situations. Finlay (2000) states that there must be a

body in each organization which could handle these complex issues and such group

must have special training. In this regard, strategic management’s principles provides

for systemic collection of data, organized analysis and strategic actions to keep the

firms performance at optimum and therefore achieve objectives (Harrison, 1998).

1.2 Personal Development as Strategic Manager and Relation of

Achievement of Organization’s Objectives.

Warren Bennis states that “leaders are people who do the right things and managers

are people who do things right. Leaders are interested in direction, vision, goals,

objectives, intention, purpose and effectiveness-the right things. Managers are

interested in efficiency, the how-to, the day to day, the short run of doing things right”

(quoted in Bennis and Townsend, 1995:6). However, Armstrong (1990:165) defined in

terms of “getting things done through people”. He suggests that “when there is an

objective to be achieved, or a task to be carried out, and one more than one person is

needed to do it. All managers thus are leaders by this definition in the sense that they

can only perform what they need to perform with the active support of their team.



Therefore, leadership can also be stated as the quality through which a person can

inspire and encourage masses to act in a team and achieve the pre determined

objectives. Here leadership becomes essential for the primary reasons people need to

be directed to a particular direction and keep motivated.

Strategic management is multifarious and different from other areas of management

sciences and one of most pertinent area for leaders and managers to know in order to

evaluate the impact and relationship of a personal development plan and attainment of

the objectives of organization. Thompson & Strickland (1996) state that the discipline of

strategic management provides:

(1) Direction and guidance in the matters and policy making of environment,

especially in determination of what organization is trying to do and what is to

achieve at different levels.

(2) Phenomenon to keep strategic managers to abreast with the process of change,

dynamism, threats to the process of developments, and new opportunities.

(3) Enable mangers by providing them with understanding and rationale in a

systematic way so that they could meet the financial targets within the allocated

budgets, for instance, in the area of procurements or maintaining human

resources.

(4) In the times of need to create uniform policies with active consultations with the

relevant stakeholders and experts.

(5) Creation of a pro-active management mechanism and if necessitated to

counteract as reactive and defensive.

For strategic management and competitiveness, strategic managers and leaders are

required to create certain value based strategies and vision of their organization. In this

content a strategy means “an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and

actions designed to exploit the core competencies and gain a competitive advantage”

(Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2009:4). The organizations are supposed to choose their



strategies among competing and differing alternatives as set of pathway to their

decision making policy. This factor leads a firm to competitive advantage to implement a

strategy which the strategic leaders find confident to act upon and achieve the desired

goals in the today’s global economy in which there are no bounds to the people, goods,

services, skills.

1.3 Strategic Development Plan to Address Short, Medium and Long

Term Needs

Followings are some of characteristics/traits/qualities and fundamental ingredients

which today’s strategic leaders are supposed to have or acquire in order to give

superior performance.

• Loyalty—effective and power strategic managers always demonstrate an

unequivocal loyalty with visions through their communication and performance.

• Day to Day Knowledge—effective and efficient leaders are always in pursuit to

keep themselves abreast with the day to day functional knowledge both inside

and outside the organization. They acquire the information from multiple sources

in an organized manner.

• Judicious use of Discretion—Strategic leaders always make use of their

discretionary powers in a unique manner which fits to the needs of day to day

situations. They use the tactics in a skillful manner and pursue to get agreement

of their ideas instead of implementing such idea forcefully upon others.

• Wider Outlook and Perspective—Strategic leaders and managers don’t only reply

on the specialty in a narrow sense rather they try to get exposure of variety of

things.

• Motivation and Zeal—Strategic managers always depict a zeal and motivation for

hard work that is usually beyond the money matters. They are generally inclinedto attain their goals with utmost determination and energy.

• Compassion with Subordinates—Strategic leaders always try to listen and

understand the feelings and views of their subordinate staff and try to make

decisions after a due process of deliberation.



• Self Control—One of the most essential ingredient of successful strategic

management is self control and invariable potential to attract and distract and

distributes moods and desires that is they realize and think before their actions.

• Social Networking—The modern day business organizations and their managers

requires superior level of social networking and creating a friendly environment

both inside and outside the firm.

• Self awareness—Strategic managers always have sufficient ability to listen and

appreciate their own emotional balance and moods including its impact on the

co-workers.

• Readiness to delegate and authorize—Strategic leaders are proficient and skillful

at delegation of management and powers. They have adequate information of

the facts of their organization. In this way, they organize work, pace and their

motivation intact.

• Articulacy—It is one of the most essential ingredient of the strategic leadership. It

enables strategic leaders to communicate their vision, which is actually the

visions of organization to other members of the organization.

• Consistency and Reliability—Strategic managers believe in the vision of their firm

and work hard with consistency to make it basics of the culture of their

organization.

It can therefore be concluded keeping in view the above mentioned elements of a

successful strategic managers/leaders as the person who can create their own unique

visions, communicate their visions and translate their actions in the light of such vision

until the accomplishment of their objectives, any manager or leader can create a viable

plan for personal development to address short, medium and long term issues.

1.4 Factors Affecting Development Plan for the Attainment of the

Objectives of an Organizations



Corporate managers and entrepreneurs around the world find exceptional ranks and

intensities of market disorder and vitality. Today, globalization, and freedom of the

markets, of the ex- East-bloc transitioning economies, especially China and Hong

Kong, and the growing assortment of the workforce, the increasing boundlessness of

accredited to Internet are only a number of of the factors inspiring swift change and

achievement of objectives of the firm. Such changes and developments order

responses of individual organizations and businesses but this lay siege to quite a lot of

quires of managers: for instance, “do we need to respond, when should we respond,

and what should be the nature of our response?” Whilst managers and entrepreneurs

have approach up against a state of affairs and alike problems in the what went before,

there is mounting accord that the swiftness of change has revitalized: managers and

entrepreneurs often have not as much of time to act in answer to change (Scribner, S.(n.d.)).

1.5 Strategic Leadership and Relationship between Past, Present and

Future Skills and Management

Strategic leadership is a concept which can be explained by keeping in view the potential

of a manager to elucidate his vision strategic i.e. with reasonable accuracy in relation to

objectives of firm and the ways to achieve it. Further, it also entail the motivation and

persuasion by the managers to get their vision assimilated at other levels of the firm.

Therefore, strategic leadership can be referred to as manager’s potential to utilize

managerial strategy in the management of assets of the firm in an efficient way and

management of firm’s employee in most effective way. Strategic leadership requires

influencing the members of firm to effectuate organizational change according to the

plans which provide for firm’s structure, resource allocation, and strategic vision in an

express way to their work force. In such situations, strategic manager can even be in an

environment which is ambiguous, especially in case of critical and novel issues

influencing the internal and external set up of organizations.

It is to be noted that the basic objective of strategic leadership is to enhance productively

at firm level with a pre defined, however, flexible strategy. Also, the area of strategic



leadership aims to create an environment at firm where managers could foresee the

needs of organization and employees in the context of their job descriptions. In this

context, strategic leaders are suppose to encourage their manpower to come up with

unique and novel ideas as well and in response strategic leaders are always ready to

make use of innovations by using a proper system of rewards and incentive. This

increases quality and productivity of the employees to perform in much better way. This

is also known as functional leadership and strategic management requires perceptions,

inventiveness, proper planning in order to assist the employees to realize firm’s goals

and objective and available resources.

Today, most of the world’s economies are passing through a process of constant change

at every level of their system and institutions. Some of the most pertinent issues includeinflation of high level, shortage of foreign reserves, optimum utilization of capacity, and

raise in poverty level. Therefore, a huge proportion of firms and organization across the

globe are also being affected by these problems whether directly or indirectly. These

challenges and the consequent developments are one of the biggest sources of anxiety

in these firms and organization. Leadership with transformational qualities has arisen out

with massive followers with their own awareness of issues of organizations which is

creating new vision of organizational directions and structures. Therefore, to cope up and

even facilitate these organizational changes and dimensions, strategic management and

transformational leadership have emerged as key tools of appropriating the assets and

objectives of modern day organizations.

3.3 Strategic Manager, Traits and Information Available for Decision

Making in a Globalized Environment

Modern day business relations have been revolutionized by the principles of strategicmanagement which provide some of the basic as well as advanced principles of

effective and strategic leadership and provide through detailed analysis the implications

of such processes. It views leadership as one of the key area of strategic competence,

one of the valuable source of competitive advantage, stability and sustained of visions



of the organization, and commitment to attain such objectives. Following are the models

are of strategic management and leadership:

3.4 Strategic Management in Suzuki Motors, Core Issues, Data and

Strategies: A Brief Look

Suzuki Motors is facing serious issues and challenges as to its products. It is proposed

that the policies of strategic management can fit to this Japanese based company to

come out of the troubles. In the past decade, especially 1990’s onward, Suzuki Motor

has been performing well. Its leadership has been following the concept of Total Quality

Management (TQM) as a fundamental of the philosophy of their organization. This has

resulted into Business Excellence, not only to Suzuki motors but also to other

automobile companies. The premier standard of the quality and fitness of the productsof an organization awarded through Deming Prize.

The strategic management of such automobile companies including Suzuki Motor, more

often is focused on the following factors:

(I) Growth and Sustainability

While keeping in view the satisfaction of stakeholders, this principle provides for some

of most cherished principles of strategic management. This principle is aimed to cater the needs and satisfaction of business allies, staff, customer, and society overall.

(II) Creative Strategies

Creative strategies by the strategic leaders and manager enable the organization to

invent method and processes which imply maximum value for the relevant stakeholder,

primarily the customer. When catering for the customer’s need at priority, it enables the

commencement of such process which help in efficient resource allocation.

By adopting the strategic methods and applying, Suzuki Motors can come out of the

trouble some situations.



3.5Models and Methods to Adjust a Course of Action for Organizational

Improvement

Leadership and Clarity of Strategy: It has been stated overwhelmingly commented by

the world leading quality management institutes include the European Foundation for Quality Management that “the behavior of an organization’s leader should create…

clarity and unity of purpose within the organization, and an environment in which the

organization and its people can excel” (EFQM, 1999).

Tannenbaum and Schmidt Model : Tannenbaum and Schmidt’s Authoritarian /

Democratic Leadership Model to determine leadership qualities of a strategic manager

provide for continuum keeping in line with the leadership attitude which may fluctuate

and vary from time to time, primarily as a response to the day to day dynamics. In thisscheme, there are two ends i.e. higher and lower end. At higher end, boss-entered

management and leadership is found with prescription, control, power and authority,

whereas at the other end there is low power distanced with subordinate level of

management and leadership, particularly in big multicultural organizations. Followings

are some other layers of transactional leadership and strategic management. These are

the approaches known as operation centric, task centric, result centric, performance

centric versus resources oriented and operation oriented.

Transactional Approach of Leadership: This transactional approach has many layers

which at the core suggest that strategic leaders must behave relevant to the given

situation which in other words implies the followings:

• Apply the mechanism of strategic planning and analysis to understand and

diagnose the demand or nature of the given situation.

•

Apply the processes of formulation of strategy, decision making and strategicoptions to exploit, manage and to employ or deal with the situation faced by the

organization.

• Evaluate and analysis the likely or probable response of the intended group of

the organization by applying strategic options and decisions by the leadership.



• Under the true competence of such groups and organize the take performance

and their levels in the process of implementation of the strategy.

• Point out and evaluate the relevant degree of persons, group of person, and key

personnel of the organization and their commitment to perform the takesallocated to them.

• Employ the blend or combination of various skills of leadership that are likely to

bring about the contrasting elements or matching elements to accomplish

successfully the objective in its own situational context (Modern, 2007: 341)

Effectiveness and efficiency of the leadership mandates the leader to be able to take

on and carry his style and idea to day to day dynamism of the modern day business

organization and business culture, conditions and surrounding situation. Further,

strategic leader must have enough skills to make choices and decisions within the

given circumstances and times and contingencies altogether.

3.1 Core Marketing Concepts Relevant to the Role of Strategic Manager

Followings are some of the models of strategic management to direct the marketing

strategy of organization on the road to successes.

• PESTLE ANALYSIS: Pestle analysis employs multiple techniques catering for

the factors including but not limited to environmental, political, legal, institutional,

social, and other technical issues in the prevailing market system. Both at firm level

and market level, this method equips the analyst to systematically draw the trend of

contemporary market and the relevant industry.

• PORTER’S 5 FORCE MODEL: This model is unique in the sense it aim to

identify the degree of relevant competitive forces in market and industry. This model

provides an in depth mechanism to allocate substitutes, identify relatively new

competitors, anxiety at the end of supplier and demand of the consumer.

Technically, Peter’s 5 Force Model enables the corporate and strategic managers to

understand and develop strategies to address the aforementioned factors.



• VALUE CHAIN: This is the mechanism which aims to provide for the techniques

which could assemble the factors relevant for the purposes of fabrication of the

product, selling of the product and analyzing what is profit margin. (McNamara,2008). Thus, this process enables the researcher and analyst to indentify much of

rudiments so as to reduce the cost and cope with the competitors tactfully.

• BRANDING: The concept of branding suggests the customer’s version of

product. In other words, branding and its relevant system of information provide

knowledge of the perception of customer. Strategic manager must see in depth as to

how the customers of his brand and the relevant brand look at the project. In the

light of such information, firms need to develop their branding strategies.

• CULTURE: The firm’s culture also plays a vital role in strategic organization of

the firm. The researchers could collect and analyze the data from people’s

interaction, especially as to their country of origin etc. This is necessary for almost

every multinational firm. Information as to cultural values is always necessary so that

work force’s trend can be recognized and in the light of such trends, suggestions can

be advanced. However, it must be noted that such cultural analysis should not focus

on belief system and should not bump into them.

• DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS: The models of sound distribution channels always

suggest the presence of interlink from purchase of raw material, manufacturing of

the product and selling to the end consumer. Strategic managers need to learn such

distribution channels in depth so as to comprehend from where to purchase the raw

material, manufacture goods, and distribute them to customers at their demands.

• CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR (ADOPTION MODEL): This model provides a

decision making strategy for the corporate and strategic manager. This is also one of

the basic element of transactional and strategic leader. It involves collection,



assessment, utilization, and placement of the manufactured goods. These factors

involves an optimum level of decision making, especially in the context of following

questions:

(i) How organizations make decisions to use of what they buy?

(ii) When, why, where, and how they purchase it? and

(iii) How often they make use of it.

• STP CONCEPT: This models entails selection, targeting and positing of the idea

as to market where the organization intends to sell its product. Second, to whom it

intends to sale its products? Thirdly, how and to what extent they want to sell a

product.

• 4PS: It is one of basic and tested method of modern day marketing. The concept

of 4Ps provide for production, pricing, placing and promotion which enables the

market leaders and strategic managers to plan what should be the product itself,

what should be its price, and where should the organization place to sell and attract

customers.

The above mentioned testing is also important when strategic manager, their

subordinates and come up with innovative marketing strategies. These models help the

strategic leader to analyze the probability of success of the new processes intended to

be employed by the firm. It is to be noted that there is always fair degree of

miscalculation in under these models. In such situations, strategic managers are always

required to be vigilant enough to check the outcome at periodic level both in the short

rum and long run. This check mechanism helps the managers to balance anymiscalculations and ultimately provide for cures and adjustments, most probably in

improved forms. In conclusion, this is only the way that strategic managers could

develop enduring strategies.

3.2 Methods to be used to Identify and Agree an Increase in Staffing Level



Main issues affecting the strategic plans of modern day organizations and firms are

numerous. For instance, for a firm or corporation dealing in manufacturing of

automobiles as to their basic to advanced designs, technology, cost of manufacturing,

the advertisement and marketing and selling the automobiles. Moreover, there are so

many factors that have arisen out of the policy making of modern economic regimes

around the globe and market specifications. Some of main reasons includes economic,

political, societal, cultural, environmental, and day to day changing environment. It is

seen that the emerging corporate world, particularly the industrial sector, unlike past

are opening to new changes constantly and one of the most effective method to cope

with the situations is the tool of strategic management, a sub-discipline strategic

management of organizations. Modern day, organizations can utilize these techniques

for multiple purposes which include brining on agreement with the staff, improving oncompetence, and innovation, and making the staff to understand tactical operations of

the firm.

3.3 Methods or Processes to Assess, Evaluate, the Performance of Others and to

Support Performance improvement

Strategic management provides comparatively developing and flexible set of systems to

access, evaluate and appreciate the performance of other members of the organization

to continue with the vision of the company. In most of the cases there are trend in

common to analyze the performance of the staff and other officials of the company.

However, certain units of the organization may be found to sick to be rehabilitated. In

this context, many of the organizations and firms are converting themselves to

knowledge oriented enterprises, aimed to apply the techniques of strategic

management. Recent studies in performance and strategic management indicate that

the optimum level of performance is not achieved only in the cases where there is clash

in vision or goal of the organization and its ability to achieve it. The organizations must

realistically frame their targets. The level of performance of the workman and the output

of the company hard to fix and evaluate in the globalized market, so firm are advised to

focus on every aspect of their performance leveler which include vision, strategy, and



overall culture of the firm. Further, the organization need to set their strategic directions

through the control of hierarchy and operation.

Conclusion

The discipline of strategic management has evolved has one the most critical element

of management and the consequent survival and management of the modern day

organizations. Studies suggest that from most successful organization to medium sized

thriving organizations, the framework of strategic management is playing a very vital

role, especially in pulling to one particular direction which is usually pre defined however

the achievement of the objective entails a very dynamic system i.e. a system which

could cater for each day changes. In this way, the most vital things which include

financial resources and human resources are pulled and employed effectively andefficiently to achieve the firm’s objectives. Therefore, the frameworks of strategic

management are occupying every corner of firm management where it need to set up

organizational directions in each day changing needs. In this process, at every point of

challenge, management is constantly scanning and responding to the challenges as is

required in most effective manner possible. It also raises the importance of vision and

systemic and periodic checks and balances for every potential peril and the issues

which could hamper the achievement of the objectives of the firm. One of the most

important key factor in this purview is also the availability of leadership with

transformational qualities at higher level of management of the firm or the organization

with most efficient sources of information and data management.

References:

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Available at: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategic-leadership.htm

accessed 18 October 2011.

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2. Finlay P. 2000. Strategic Management, Prentice Hall

3. Harrison S. J (1998); Foundations In Strategic Management, South Western

College Publishing 45 Hussey E.D (1997); Rethinking Strategic Management,

John Wiley and Sons

4. Scribner, S. (n.d.) Introduction to Strategic Management. Available at:http://www.lachsr.org/documents/introductiontostrategicmanagement-EN.pdf accessed: 18 February 2011.

5. Modern, T. 2007. Principles of Strategic Management. Ashgate Publishing

Company. USA.

6. Hitt, MA. Ireland RD. Hoskisson, RE. 2009. Strategic Management:

Competitiveness & Globalization, Concepts. CengageBrain.

7. McNamara, C. 2008. Strategic Planning (in nonprofit or for-profit organizations)

Available

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accessed 18 october 2011.

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and Cases, Irwin

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