Strategy and Strategic Management

Strategy is a set of complicated tactics formulated by the executives of a company directed towards the achievement of company’s goal (Salmela, 2002). It is about all the path ways that a company would follow to reach its ultimate goal. It is a company’s strategy which helps to identify what it does better than the other companies in the industries, which may be different from what it does best. For successful strategy formulation and implementation, a company should know the needs of customers and should have knowledge of its competitors. Through a good strategy a company would identify that opportunity which makes it different from the others (Thompson, 2005).

Strategy refers to the plan or action taken to achieve organizational goals. When Ellen took over Tufts-NEMC, the hospital was struggling with payroll and scale. Ellen had to focus on meeting payroll, a short-term strategy, and could not focus entirely on the longer term. She took some immediate measures to help cut cost

“The word strategy is used to describe the direction that the organisation chooses to follow in order to fulfil its mission”.

A strategy is a “game plan” that distinguishes the company from its competitors, so that it can attract customers and succeed.

In effect, strategy is the pattern of actions managers employ to achieve strategic and financial performance targets. They suggest that the firm's mission and objectives combine to define "What is a business and what will it be?" and "what to do now" to achieve organization's goals. Therefore a strategy is an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions designed to exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage. It is also an overriding purpose that can align and mobilize all parts of the organization.

Strategic Management is defined as consisting of analysis, decisions, and the actions and organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages. It is concerned with the analysis of the internal and external environment of the organization.

Strategic management is the process in which the top management in a company or organization formulates and implements major goals on behalf of the company owners. This is mainly done by consideration of the resources available at the organization’s disposal and the internal and external environmental factors under which the company exists and competes with other companies (Cole, 1997).

“A strategy is something like, an innovative new product; globalization, taking your products around the world; be the low-cost producer. A strategy is something you can touch; you can motivate people with; be number one and number two in every business. You can energize people around the message .” Jack Welch

Strategic Management, according to the text, involves conducting an environmental scan which includes customers and knowing competition, establishing goals, setting targets, developing an action plan, implementing the plan, and evaluating success (Hubler, 2014, p. 331) This is used to establish a company’s vision or mission. This process helps a company to gain awareness of things that they need to do in order to become more successful than they are or against their competition. This process begins when an organization realizes their need for change or improvement to a more competitive position within their market or when they are seeking some other status such as seeking Magnet status as mentioned in the text. (Hubler, 2014) There are three questions that need to be addressed when a plan is being implemented the questions are about where the company is currently sitting, where they want to go, and how they will get to their end goal. They then need to create an organizational vision or a mission. (Hubler, 2014) Strategic management boils down to being the foundation of the company, the structure, and is the source of power.

Strategy means “consists of competitive moves and business approaches used by managers to run the company”, or in simple term Strategy is a “best course of an a company could take in achieving in business goals” And management action plan, to;

A strategy is a plan for the company, which has to establish a difference with its competitors, and has to preserve it in order to create a greater value. Strategy positioning is choosing different ways to achieve similar activities from the competitors.

Strategic management can be defined as a bundle of decisions and acts which a manager need to do to achieve better performance and a competitive advantage for their organization. Also, strategic management is a continuous process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which an organization is involved. First need to evaluates its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reevaluates strategies on a regular basis to determine how it has been implemented and whether it was successful or does it needs replacement. Moreover, strategic Management gives a broader perspective to the employees of an organization and they can better understand how their job

There are a host of definitions for strategy. Rather than trying to be comprehensive or creating a definition that tries to be the authoritative source, I 'll use a simple definition of strategy for my purposes. Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve outcomes. That 's it. This definition is loyal to best tenants of strategy as well; be flexible, nimble and leave options until you reach the appropriate time or level to add further definition.

According to Tony proctor (Strategic Marketing, 2000) a strategy is a plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies, decisions and sequences of action into a cohesive whole. It can apply at all levels in an organization and pertain to any of the functional areas of management. Thus there may be production, financial, marketing, personnel and corporate strategies.

Johnson, Wittington, Scholes, Angwin and Regnér (2014, p. 3) defines strategy as ‘the long-term direction of an organisation’.