Strategic Management 662q4s

Why strategy implementation often is considered the most difficult stage in the strategic-management process? "Strategy implementation requires a firm to establish annual objectives, devise policies, motivate employees, and allocate resources so that formulated strategies can be executed. Often considered to be the most difficult state in strategic management, strategy implementation requires personal discipline, commitment, and sacrifice. Successful strategy implementation hinges upon managers' ability to motivate employees, which is more an art than a science." Why is it so important to integrate intuition and analysis in strategic management? "The strategic-management process can be described as an objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization. Yet strategic management is not a pure science that lends itself to a nice, neat, one-two-three approach. Based on past experiences, judgment, and feelings, most people recognize that intuition is essential to making good strategic decisions. Intuition is particularly useful for making decisions in situations of great uncertainty or little precedent. Analytical thinking and intuitive thinking complement each other." Show in a diagram the strategic Management?

Compare and contrast vision statements with mission statements in of composition and importance. "Mission statements are enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business from other similar firms. A mission statement identifies the scope of a firm's operations in product and market . It addresses the basic question that faces all strategists: "What is our Business?" A clear mission statement describes the values and priorities of an organization. Developing a business mission compels strategists to think about the nature and scope of present organizational activities and to assess the potential attractiveness of future markets and activities. A mission statement broadly charts the future direction of an organization." (Concepts of Strategic Management, Fred R. David, 2nd Edition, page 10) "A Vision Statement is a written statement of what the organization should look like in a certain number of years. This Vision Statement is the "guiding light" that provides the organization with an image toward which to strive. It should be developed collaboratively and should reflect the primary direction of the organization. In other words, "What should our organization look like five years from now?" The Vision Statement should be based upon the collective values and beliefs of the of the organization. It should represent the best projections of the future and what that future means to the organization. It assumes that all the resources required to implement the vision can be secured. The Vision Statement should be idealistic, but realistic, i.e. it should be sufficiently realistic to be attainable and should be based upon the best knowledge base available. The Vision Statement drives the goals of the organization."