Hi, need to submit a 2250 words essay on the topic Business Strategy College.Download file "Business Strategy College Essay" to see previous pages... Effective organizations are tied by means-ends cha

Hi, need to submit a 2250 words essay on the topic Business Strategy College.

Effective organizations are tied by means-ends chains into a purposeful whole. The strategies to achieve corporate goals at higher levels often provide strategies for managers at lower levels. So Strategic management is a stream of decisions and actions, which lead to the development of an effective strategy or strategies to help achieve corporate objectives.

Strategic management is concerned with deciding on the strategy and how the strategy is to be put in to effect. Strategic management allows an enterprise or an organization to base its decision on long-range forecasts. It also allows the firms to take action at an early stage of a new trend and consider the lead-time for effective management. A sound strategic management process helps to ensure that all organizational parts are working to towards the same objective and purpose. Strategic management will never be a cure-all especially for the incompetent management. it can go a long way in improving an organizations long-term performance. Now looking at the importance of strategic management and its relevancy in the present circumstances, the subject strategic management itself is in the midst of an evolutionary process. In the course of its development, several strands of thinking are emerging which are gradually leading to a convergence of views. We now have a wealth of insights into the complexities of strategic behavior- the observable characteristics of the manner in which an organization performs decision-making and planning functions with regard to the issues that are of strategic importance to its survival, growth and profitability. Several persons, among whom are the doyens in the field of strategy, have contributed to the formulation of these perspectives. Indeed the Mintzberg and his associates, from whose writings these perspectives have been adopted here, call them the 10 schools of thoughts on strategic formation (Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J., 1998).

The above-mentioned 10 schools of thought can be classified under three categories as follows:

The Perspective schools: This school contains 3-schools and they are (a) Design school where strategic formation is a process of conception. (b) Planning school where strategic formation is a formal process (c) Positioning school where strategic formation is an analytical process.

(a) The design school, which perceives strategy formation as a process of conception, developed mainly in late 1950 and 60's. The main contributors to the design school are Selznick (1957) and Andrews (1965). Under this school strategy is seen as something unique, which is in the form of a planned perspective. The CEO as the main architect guides the process of strategy formation.

The process of strategy formation is simple and informal and based on judgement and thinking. In this school strategic management has been treated as process of accomplishing match between internal capabilities and external possibilities i.e. (SWOT) of an organization. Senior management is supposed to formulate simple and clear-cut strategies (Prigogine 1984, Kemp and Ashish, 2005). But this system have some shortcomings i.e. this system is not analytical or intuitive. In the time of rapid changes, this system is comparatively more static.

b) The planning school that perceives strategy formation as a formal process, developed during 1960's. The main contributor to the planning school is Ansoff (1965).