Strategic Management

Tools and Techniques for Strategic Vision Realization

Project Management & Leadership 4.8(73)8h 14m27 lectures2 sections

What you'll learn

Understand what strategic management is and its elements
Analyze the external and internal environment
Write the vision and mission
Write strategic objectives and goals
Choose a strategy from the alternatives
Apply the strategy with policies and procedures
Allocate resources and design the organizational structure
Manage strategic change and resistance to it
Use strategic control and KPI performance indicators

About this course

This course teaches strategic management, which means how an organization sets its goals and plans and turns its vision into real action. It starts with what strategic management is, its elements and why we need it, then studying and analyzing the external and internal environment. After that you learn philosophy, vision and mission, writing strategic objectives and goals, then analysis and matching between strategic alternatives and choosing the right strategy. You move on to carrying out the strategy through policies, procedures and instructions, allocating resources and the organizational structure, and the link between the growth stages of an organization and its strategy. It ends with strategic change and resistance to change, strategic control and KPI performance indicators, and corrective actions, with a workbook to download. The course suits managers, management students, company owners and anyone who works in planning, and needs no previous experience. By the end you will be able to analyze an organization's environment, write its vision and goals, choose a strategy, then apply it and follow it up.

Expected outcomes

Develop and implement effective strategic plans.
Analyze internal and external environments to identify opportunities and challenges.
Formulate policies and plans to guide the organization towards success.
Manage strategic change and achieve organizational goals.

Learner reviews

These reviews are from learners who bought the content and completed at least 50% of it — there are no reviews from anyone who hasn't gone through the material.

4.8

★★★★★

73 reviews

5★

4★

3★

2★

1★

Course content

Strategic Management

26 lectures

Introduction to the CourseIntroduces the Strategic Management course: why it matters under uncertainty, the course goals, who benefits, and its content from external and internal environment analysis and vision, mission, and goals to implementation and control.4:40
Elements of Strategic Management (Part One)Explains the elements of strategic management, a mix of science and art, covering the internal and external environment, strategy formulation through vision, mission, and goals, strategy choice, and its content and results.20:10
Elements of Strategic Management (Part Two)Continues the elements of strategic management with strategy implementation, changing culture, structure, and operations, the relationship between formulation and implementation, how good implementation can rescue a weak strategy, then evaluation and control.11:54
What is Strategic Management?Defines strategic management as decisions taken now for the organization's future success, and explains its stages from formulation and implementation to evaluation, and its link to leadership, culture, and competitive advantage.25:27
Why Strategic Management? (Part One)Explains why strategic management matters for meeting management challenges such as rapid change and unstable markets, the systems approach of inputs, processes, and outputs, and its role in motivating staff through a shared vision, mission, and goals.16:19
Why Strategic Management? (Part Two)Explains the goals of strategic management and its role in aligning mission, goals, and policies, the comprehensiveness of the strategic system, then the drawbacks and obstacles such as time drain, weak external analysis, and skill gaps.22:30
Study and Analysis of the External Environment (Part One)Starts the study and analysis of the external environment to identify opportunities and threats, covering the analysis steps and social variables, then studying competitors and their types: direct, indirect, new, and proactive.14:32
Study and Analysis of the External Environment (Part Two)Continues external environment analysis with primary and secondary sources of competitor information, studying their strategies, pricing, marketing, product quality, and customer satisfaction, and tracking and anticipating their moves.12:00
Study and Analysis of the External Environment (Part Three)Continues competitor study by analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, the traits of the organizational environment in terms of stability and complexity, then the external factor evaluation matrix with weights and ratings, where the weighted score indicates an opportunity or a threat.19:00
Study and Analysis of the Internal Environment (Part One)Starts the study of the organization's internal environment, posing questions to find strengths and weaknesses in structure, marketing, finance, and production, such as distribution, pricing, cash flows, and production costs.14:52
Study and Analysis of the Internal Environment (Part Two)Continues internal environment analysis with questions on production management, purchasing, suppliers, values, and ethics, then applies the internal factor evaluation matrix to a ready-made clothing company example, where the weighted score shows a strength or weakness.12:23
Philosophy, Vision, and Mission (Part One)Explains organizational philosophy as the values and beliefs governing dealings with its environment, then vision with examples from companies like Johnson, Intel, and Google, ways to arrive at a vision, and its criteria, including alignment with the mission.18:53
Philosophy, Vision, and Mission (Part Two)Explains the importance of a forward-looking vision in setting direction and supporting philosophy and values, then the mission and what makes it effective, such as balancing stakeholders, aligning employees' goals with the organization's, and being convertible into clear plans and programs.25:01
Formulating Strategic Objectives and Goals (Part One)Explains how an organization formulates strategic objectives and goals to achieve its mission and vision, the difference between long- and short-term objectives, who benefits from them, and what makes an objective good, such as being time-bound and measurable.20:31
Formulating Strategic Objectives and Goals (Part Two)Covers the traits of good strategic objectives, such as quantitative wording and a set time frame, why sound formulation unifies employees' understanding, methods for setting them like the case study, and documenting candidate objectives to reach a final version.17:11
Analysis and Alignment of Strategic AlternativesExplains analyzing and matching strategic alternatives to choose the right strategy, using SWOT analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, questions for identifying strengths, and examples of analysis matrices.22:13
Choosing the StrategyApplies SWOT analysis in a table to choose a strategy depending on how strengths and weaknesses meet opportunities and threats, explaining offensive, remedial and defensive strategies with examples of each.22:15
Implementing the Strategy (Defining Policies and Procedures)Explains starting to implement the chosen strategy by setting annual objectives, policies and procedures, allocating resources and structuring the organization, with realistic objectives and policies as a way to delegate authority so top management can focus on strategy.25:00
Policies, Procedures, and InstructionsDistinguishes policies, procedures and instructions: policies are flexible guiding rules for recurring situations. Covers the policies and procedures manual and writing policies that support objectives, with examples in sales, HR and R&D.25:19
Resource Allocation and Organizational StructureExplains allocating resources and designing the organizational structure to achieve a strategic objective, common allocation mistakes such as over-allocation, unclear goals and risk aversion, linking resources to strategy, and a brief look at the matrix structure.21:37
The Relationship Between Organizational Growth Stages, Structure, and StrategyExplains the relationship between an organization's growth stages, its strategy and its structure, the features of each stage in control, incentives and management, and why structure, systems, culture and skills must align for the strategy to succeed.20:36
Strategic ChangeExplains strategic change as part of implementing strategy, its reasons and goals such as stronger competitiveness and market share, success conditions like aligning stakeholders' interests, the role of HR and culture, and evaluating change quantitatively and qualitatively.23:01
Types of Strategic Change and Resistance to Change (Part One)Presents the types of strategic change: process reengineering, restructuring, changing organizational culture, and renewal and innovation, explaining each and its effect, and how flexible structures encourage innovation and faster decisions.17:55
Types of Strategic Change and Resistance to Change (Part Two)Covers ways to change organizational culture such as selection, training and promotion, why people resist strategic change, for example fear of the unknown, and how to handle it from coercion to persuasion and gradual change, choosing by situation.17:42
Strategic Control and KPI Performance IndicatorsDefines strategic control as comparing actual performance with targets and finding deviations, their causes and fixes, the value of preventive control, performance standards and KPIs, qualities of a good standard, and the steps to detect and correct deviations.25:53
Corrective ActionsExplains the last step of strategic control, evaluating results and taking corrective action, adjusting targets when assumptions change, reviewing formulation and implementation, types of strategic and managerial control, and traits of an effective control system.17:29