Understanding Strategic Management, Strategic Planning and Steps in the Strategic Planning Process for a Competitive Advantage in today’s Business Organisations
Kwaghgba Wuese
Sports Management
Bereau of Sports and Youth Development, Headquarters, Makurdi
Email: kwaghgbawuese@gmail.comAbstract: In any human organisations, particularly business and public organisations there are risks and uncertainties which no manager, no matter how well experienced or informed require planning which is the most important function of management. Without its dynamism its goals cannot be achieved. In this paper, the purpose is to create an understanding about strategies, a system of thought which will help to accomplish defined and desired goals that will be put in place for the manager towards the greater openness in the political and economic environment requiring different set of perspectives to attain constancy in performance in the competitive work organisation, both public and private. At the onset, the paper points out the drilling down to uncover a company’s core objectives which have several phases. First, assessing the landscape within which the company will operate and formulation of its roles within that landscape. This is commonly called mission statement. Also establishing objectives to answer some unmet needs, taking both long and short term view of what the organisation can offer. This is known as vision statements, usually in terms of financial and strategic objectives. These are the initial actions that follow strategic plans upon which the writer explicitly explained in this work, which are mainly strategic management, strategic planning and the steps in the strategic planning process. In conclusion, the advantages of available information to create best possible plans, the distinction between strategic management and planning rests primarily on whether one gets to the end of the process or the emphasis are put on particular part of the process. It was therefore recommended that, emphasis on the literature which is mostly devoted to private sector be shifted to the public sector which overtime has failed as a result of strategic management and strategic planning to avert the resultant failure in government institutions
