Effective Strategic Management

Characteristics of effective strategic management include:

• A clear business strategy and vision for the future.
• A strategic direction endorsed by senior managers, taking account of partners and other stakeholders.
• A mechanism for accountability (to the citizen in meeting their expectations, as well as to the centre in meeting policy targets).
• A framework for governance at several levels (government-wide down to internal reporting arrangements) that ensures you can coordinate everything (multiple goals) even when there are competing priorities and different goals.
• The ability to exploit opportunities and respond to external change (turbulence) by taking ongoing strategic decisions.
• A coherent framework for managing risk – whether it is balancing the risks and rewards of a business direction, coping with the uncertainties of project risk or ensuring business continuity.

Importance Of Strategic Management

Organisation need to be able to respond effectively to challenges – both problems and opportunities – as they arise. For example, the citizen has increasing expectations of service standards and availability. In response, organisations are working towards an outward-focused view of the way services should be provided - a fundamental shift from the traditional focus on internal concerns. At the same time, major opportunities for improvement may arise from developments such as new information and communications technologies, and the availability of additional financial resources such as the Invest to Save Budget. In many cases the response to the problem or opportunity will:

• Require the continuous attention of senior management.
• Affect most or the entire organisation.
• Have long term implications.
• Require substantial resources.
• Be interconnected with other issues and developments.