Principles of Strategic Management

The strategic issues facing the organisation and its response to them will call on the organisation's skills in strategic management – its ability to recognise and deal successfully with strategic issues. In the public sector, these will include:

• Addressing the needs of the citizen, not the convenience of the organisation
• Greater efficiency and value for money
• Improved and innovative service delivery to the public
• Joined-up policy making
• Increased communication with customers and partners
• Greater local-central government coordination
• Improved performance and the implementation of Public Service Agreements
• Realisation of the government's e-government strategy (an enabling framework of key principles such as interoperability and supporting technical standards)

Although the strategy process may incorporate timetabled events which fit in to the wider management processes – such as the cycles of financial planning in the public sector – strategic management is a continuous process. Managers at all levels in the organisation may need to make decisions on business issues at any time, and some of these decisions could be regarded as 'strategic' – even though they may not appear so at the time. Any business-focused strategy must be flexible enough to accommodate the demands of continuous change.

Stakeholders in Strategic Management

Key Stakeholders are:

• Senior executives and business managers - they need to seek out opportunities for new ways of working that will help the organisation to realize the agenda for change in the public sector; they also need to be aware of the implications of realignment if the strategic direction is changed.
• Senior management responsible for reviewing and redefining the requirements for delivery of core services, and for acquiring the means to deliver them.
• Staff responsible for developing and reviewing the business strategy in their organisations; they need to appreciate the wider business context partners and other stakeholders affected by the strategy.