1. Management is essential for an organized life and necessary to run all types of management.

Good
management is the backbone of successful organizations. Managing life means getting things done to
achieve life’s objectives and managing an organization means getting things done with and through
other people to achieve its objectives.

Strategic Management is all about identification and description of the strategies that managers can
carry so as to achieve better performance and a competitive advantage for their organization. An
organization is said to have competitive advantage if its profitability is higher than the average
profitability for all companies in its industry.

A policy is a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making decisions, especially in politics,
economics, or business. These are the guidelines developed by an organization to govern its actions.
They define the limits within which decisions must be made and also deals with acquisition of
resources with which organizational goals can be achieved.

Strategy is an action that managers take to attain one or more of the organization’s goals. Strategy
can also be defined as “A general direction set for the company and its various components to achieve
a desired state in the future. Strategy results from the detailed strategic planning process”.A strategy
is all about integrating organizational activities and utilizing and allocating the scarce resources within
the organizational environment so as to meet the present objectives.

A procedure is an established method of accomplishing a task, usually with steps that are performed
in a prescribed order. These systems are basically sequential actions that are designed to complete a
task. In the business world, all company operations can be broken down into categories called
processes. These processes are the building blocks for company procedures.

An objective is a goal towards fostering a clear understanding of how to reach the desired outcome.
Objectives are precise actions or measurable steps individuals and groups take to move closer to the
goal. They are specific targets that typically have a time-bound schedule or timeline for completion.

2. Planning - It is the basic function of management. It deals with chalking out a future course of
action & deciding in advance the most appropriate course of actions for achievement of pre-
determined goals. According to KOONTZ, “Planning is deciding in advance - what to do, when to do &
how to do. It bridges the gap from where we are & where we want to be”. A plan is a future course of
actions. It is an exercise in problem solving & decision making. Planning is determination of courses of
action to achieve desired goals.

Organizing - It is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and
developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals. According
to Henry Fayol, “To organize a business is to provide it with everything useful or its functioning i.e.
raw material, tools, capital and personnel’s”. To organize a business involves determining & providing
human and non-human resources to the organizational structure.

Directing - It is that part of managerial function which actuates the organizational methods to work
efficiently for achievement of organizational purposes. It is considered life-spark of the enterprise
which sets it in motion the action of people because planning, organizing and staffing are the mere
preparations for doing the work.

Controlling - It implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and correction of

deviation if any to ensure achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of controlling is to ensure
that everything occurs in conformities with the standards. An efficient system of control helps to
predict deviations before they actually occur.

3. Strategic Management formulation process - refers to the process of choosing the most
appropriate course of action for the realization of organizational goals and objectives and thereby
achieving the organizational vision. The process of strategy formulation basically involves six main
steps namely, Setting Organizations’ objectives, Evaluating the Organizational Environment, Setting
Quantitative Targets, Aiming in context with the divisional plans, Performance Analysis and Choice of
Strategy.

4. Strategic leadership refers to a manager’s potential to express a strategic vision for the
organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that
vision. Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management of employees.
It is the potential to influence organizational members and to execute organizational change.
Strategic leaders create organizational structure, allocate resources and express strategic vision.
Strategic leaders work in an ambiguous environment on very difficult issues that influence and are
influenced by occasions and organizations external to their own.

5. Competitive advantage accrues to a firm when it does something that the rivals cannot do or owns
something that the rival firms desire. For instance, for some firms, competitive advantage in these
recessionary times can mean a hoard of cash where it can buy out struggling firms and increase its
strategic position. In other cases, competitive advantage can mean that a firm has lesser-fixed assets
when compared to rival firms, which is again a plus in an economic.

6. Environmental scanning refers to possession and utilization of information about occasions,

patterns, trends, and relationships within an organization’s internal and external environment. It
helps the managers to decide the future path of the organization. Scanning must identify the threats
and opportunities existing in the environment. While strategy formulation, an organization must take
advantage of the opportunities and minimize the threats. A threat for one organization may be an
opportunity for another.