1. Introduction
When we look closely at the concept of strategy, we will realize that the idea of accurately developing and implementing any strategy does not guarantee great long-term performance (Moore & Wen, 2007). As there are many examples of this in organizations and large companies that have been well managed, but some internal management problems have occurred for short periods due to adverse circumstances that have exceeded the ability of management to foresee or respond quickly. Hence the importance of this field, as strategic management is a relatively new discipline that has gradually begun to emerge on the scene over the past twenty years.
Many theories have been developed in this field that deal with research topics that explain the reasons for the success of business goals and administrative improvements through the strength and accuracy of the strategies laid down and the importance of strategic management, but all of these research topics neglected the most simple and important point, which is the definition of the foundations of the strategy and how to form it and its causes in a smooth and simplified manner, especially for those interested in this field without previous experience in this field, whether at the level of professional or academic experience.
Hence the importance of this research paper, as it is important to know how to build a good and flexible strategy in a smooth and simplified manner in order to provide successful performance in the long term through which we can address some unexpected external factors that will affect the basic strategy of the company, which in turn will affect the achievement of objectives the work.
2. Research Methodology
This paper gathers the conclusion of a comprehensive results from the insights gained that were referred to in several previous academic articles, as they were conducted through consultative sessions with planning managers from the public and private sectors. Where the basic foundations and rules in the strategic management process and its impact on managers are listed in a simplified way, and different types of basic ideas regarding types, levels and methods of implementation were presented, all of which are explained in this paper. This is, of course, because there has been a growing interest in strategic management research over time and globally, as many research methods have been considered in the concept of strategic management over the years, but few of them can communicate the idea and principles of strategic management clearly to anyone who is not a major in management sciences more General and planning in particular.
3. Literature Review
This research study used a literature review to identify published articles on models of strategic management and the factors influencing them. The readings of referenced literature and published journals have been used and these authoritative articles have been found through search engine platforms such as Google Scholar, international business and management journals and other popular websites.
The literature review revealed that strategy formulation is one of the most important steps in order to make a remedial and practical approach to problems within companies and in order to reach the goals to be achieved in a scientific, realistic and smooth manner. In this research, the essence of the strategy was determined, how to formulate it in a simple way, as well as its relationship to the different levels of strategies, which would improve the culture of the organization, internal efficiency, then customer orientation and finally improving the financial situation.
The Dimond of Strategic Management Process
In the beginning, we must know that the process of strategic management is a continuous assessment carried out by the company to exceed its competitors in the market (Whelan & Sisson, 1993). Although this may seem simple, it is a complex process. It consists of as illustrated in Figure 1.
This figure shows that the Strategic Management Process consist of:
1) Beginning of the strategic plan (Environment Scanning):
· A future vision must be formulated.
· Select the message to access the vision.
· Determine the main objectives that will lead to the delivery of the message.
2) Formulating the strategy
· Conducting organizational assessment in the work environment.
· The importance of considering other previous strategies.
· Comprehensive strategic analysis.
· Start developing different strategies.
· Preparing the basic strategic plan and finding alternatives to it in emergency situations.
3) Strategy Implementation:
· Preparing the new strategy for its implementation.
· Develop the final structures of the strategy.
· Check the status of behavioral and functional implementation management.
4) Strategy Evaluation
· Job performance evaluation.
· Control.
· Reframing the strategies that can be used.
But let’s explain it in detail.
In the first step which we call it the strategic intent step it contains: Vision & Mission Statements.
The importance of creating a vision and a mission for your organization or company lies in its powerful and effective impact on the entire planning process. As the development of any vision and mission is one of the most important factors for the success of any business project from a strategic point of view in the long term.
These two statements as shown in Figure 2 usually express your organization’s aspirations in a concise manner, and they help your organization focus on what’s important and provide foundations for developing other aspects of your strategy.
· Whereas the vision statement as shown in Figure 3: Prepared as the strategic planners say, “Your vision is yours dream”. It’s all about what you think you can reach.
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Figure 1. Strategic management process. (Source: Theintactone, 2002).
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Figure 2. Mission and vision template. (Source: GSE: Global Service in Education).
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Figure 3. Vision & mission statement. (Source: bmc blogs, 2020).
You can talk about your organization’s dream by seeing it, which are usually short sentences that convey your organization’s hopes for the future.
· While the mission statement: is the second part of the planning process, which is working to transform the vision into a reality based on practical foundations. Hence the task. It is an accurate description of what the organization will do and why it will do it.
Missions are just like visions in that they also look at the whole picture. However, it is realistic and obviously.
· Finally, we have an important factor called objectives: by setting these objectives, the mission statement can do specific performance objectives that everyone works on. Because objectives act as metrics to track the performance and progress of the organization. Preferably the set of goals should include a short-term and long-term vision scope.
Strategy Formulation
The first thing we have in formulating the strategy is an important step which is to make a business analysis called SWOT Analysis.
The definition of SWOT Analysis: It is a business analysis that is divided into 4 sections that represent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is used to assess the competitive placement of the organization in the market for the development of strategic planning both internally and externally (Adams & Maine, 1997). Therefore, he evaluates the internal and external factors which will affect the organization.
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Figure 4. SWOT analysis. (source: https://kimbia.com/fundraising-organization-swot-analysis-2014/).
As shown in Figure 4, strengths are what an organization excels at. Such as its brand, strong budget, use of modern and different technologies, and so on. While the weaknesses are the areas in which the organization needs to slow down its performance and work to improve it, such as high turnover, low quality, or weak brand name and so on.
There are also opportunities, which refer to the external factors that can give the enterprise a competitive advantage such as, lack of dominant competition, new markets or new technology. On the contrary, there are threats, which are factors that can harm the institution, such as, new increased competition, insurance plan changes or economic slowdowns.
Then there are levels of management strategies, which must be known and optimum selection for the organization
Where modern management researchers have tried to branch out many strategies with the aim of facilitating the process of strategic management, and they have already reached four levels of strategic planning that will help organizations achieve long-term goals.
1) Collaborative Strategy (Corporate Strategy): It is considered one of the highest levels in making a good strategy in any organization as it cares a lot about the whole growth of the business especially within the organization and it also provides direction for the organization specific to the type of business in which it should invest. This strategy depends on knowing:
· The position of your organization today in the market.
· Where do you want her to be in the future?
· How to reach this goal.
2) Business Strategy: We can say that this strategy is a strategy that can be easily implemented on the ground for organizations (Amit & Schoemaker. 1993), especially that have different businesses, and each of them requires working with a separate strategy. The goal of this strategy is usually to winning the competitive advantage in fixed markets (Figure 5).
3) Functional Strategy: It is the execution of organizations and business strategies. These strategies are the steps taken for the efficient execution of the highest level of strategies as they deal with a comparatively restrictive plan which provides objectives for a specific function (Dixit & Skeath, 1999).
They can either be non-quantifiable measures such as customer satisfaction or they can also be quantifiable measures such as the number of orders placed or delivered in a day.
4) Operational Strategy: Operational strategy includes determine the organization’s business strategy and improving the strategic led and operational plans, with the purpose of enabling organizations to successfully implement the whole strategy of their business.
After formulating the strategy, the role of implementing the strategy comes
And the implementation of the strategy is about transforming the desired plans that were formulated in the previous step into reality to reach the desired goals. We can say that the success of any organization depends on its ability to implement and implement decisions efficiently and productively.
There is a specific cycle as shown in Figure 6 based on which the strategy is implemented, and it consists of:
· Strategy Mapping: It render as a convenient ground for improving the financial and non-financial balanced scorecard metrics that can be used to observe strategy implementation and performance.
Strategic maps can also be used as a detach tool for characterizing strategic management process that aligns organizational and individual goals and initiatives with a specific mission and desired strategic outcomes as illustrated in Figure 7 as follows as a sample of the strategic map.
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Figure 5. Levels of management strategies. (Source: https://www.iedunote.com/levels-of-strategy).
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Figure 6. Strategy implementation cycle. (Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Strategy-Implementation-Diagram_fig2_325368714).
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Figure 7. Strategic mapping Sample (Source: Strategy Maps|A Brief Guide for Mapping Your Goals).
· Strategy Alignment: Strategic alignment is what guarantee the functioning of a distinct structure for the organization in addition to the use of all resources that upholding the strategy. 1) Successful results also require sensibility of the broader environment. 2) It improves performance through business improvement (Figure 8).
· Strategy Cascade: We can say that it is the process by which we can spread the overall strategy of the organization internally throughout the organization as well as to create supportive strategies across the entire value chain of activities in the organization to ensure that the full implementation takes place.
· Strategy Refinement: Refining in general it is the process of freeing something from unwanted material (Andrews, 1971). For a strategy, the unwanted materials are the hurdles to consistent and effective execution and the hindrance to improved outcomes. Whether it be for a metal or some other material, filtration is a very important stage in turning raw materials into something available for business-like use.
The efficacious strategy refinement process will examine the decisions made about the strategy and this including the thinking that went into the strategy, the process for executing the strategy and the results and new information gained because of the execution.
· Strategy Development: Strategy development is the process of looking for and recognizing the strategic options, selecting the most favourable and taking the decision of how resources will be assigned over the organisation to achieve its goals.
Finally, evaluation of strategic performance is the last step in the strategic management process
With it the idea of planning on its own without using any kind of control would of course have little functional value; Therefore, planning always requires a practical control process (De Wit & Meyer, 2004). The strategic process changes all the time, but not at a constant rate. Thus, there must be constant adjustment and re-evaluation.
After implementing the steps of the strategic management process, it is important to continue with it periodically to keep pace with the external and internal challenges that appear from time to time.
The idea of Continuity of the Strategic Management Process
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Figure 8. Strategic alignment. (Source: Bizzdesign, 2019).
It is well known that strategic management tasks always require a continuous assessment and critical decisions of the current situation or to make current or future changes because the process of strategic management is always continuous.
It is worth noting that the strategic management process is a process rich in continuous movement and permanent changes in the status of the organization, whether internally or externally.
The idea of the continuing estimating performance and making the necessary adjustments is to ensure the success of estimating external challenges and internal emergency events. It is always the duty of management to push for the better.
Such adjustments usually include good detour (Dixit & Nalebuff, 1993), but when such adjustments grow from important external Conditions and sometimes by a decline in the internal performance. Therefore, strategy managers must stay close to the situation to discover when these circumstances require an immediate strategic reaction.
Eventually, we can’t ignore that the idea of the continuity of the strategic management process is usually linked to the identity of the implementer of that process. Hence the importance of strategic managers.
But Who Are the Strategic Managers?
In the late 1990s, all the planners and risk leaders who made strategic plans in any business were called strategic managers. They also oversee and develop company strategies to support business growth and stability.
The strategic manager is in question of check out the organization’s strategy to recognize its strengths and weaknesses and to implement potential improvements. They usually lead and manage several organizational departments to address the internal and external challenges (Densetz, 1982), for example, human resources and marketing departments.
In most companies there are commonly four levels of strategic managers:
· The CEO and other senior executives who have a significant level of responsibility and authority to make strategic decisions that will affect the organization.
· Managers who are responsible for the departments which concerned with profit and loss.
· Managers of key operational departments who have conclusive responsibility for developing the strategic efforts in their fields and implement the comprehensive strategic plan.
Strategic Managers Roles usually are:
1) Planning
2) Risk Management
3) Performance management
4) Coaching
5) Collaboration
6) Data analysis
7) Crisis management
8) Creative problem solving
9) Ethics development
Hence, we can understand that for the growth of any organization depends on identifying the individuals who are charged with advising on the best ways to achieve these goals by carefully formulating, planning, and supervising the strategies, they are the strategic managers. These professionals assess and define those goals, and work with the organization’s executives to formulate actionable plans to achieve those goals.
4. Conclusion
Over the years, business in institutions has become determined whether they are high-performance or not based on their distinct strategy that relies on initiative and leadership, not response and defence, and this is a very good thing, as the constant pursuit of a creative strategy would push the company to a leadership position, which helps Ali paves the way for its services to become the industry standard in the marketplace.
Strategic management is extremely important because it can provide managers with a systematic and comprehensive means to analyze the organization’s internal and external environment, assess strengths and weaknesses, both internally and externally, and identify opportunities through which they can develop and exploit a competitive advantage.
It is also known that the strategy implementation process includes six basic steps, which are: strategy mapping, strategy alignment, strategy cascade, personal & process alignment, strategy refinement and strategy development support.
Hence, we can say that the main role of any strategic manager will be basically in developing, implementing, and managing the long-term business strategy.