Role, responsibilities, and degree of involvement in the Strategic Management of

Board of Directors
Every company always set a defined mission, vision, goals, and objectives in order to
measure their growth and achievement as an organization. One of the management tools that
help them create a specific and achievable organizational goal is the application on strategic
management. This process refers to the strategic use of a company’s resources to reach
entity’s goals and objectives. Strategic management involves strategic planning wherein the
company’s desired goals are being identified and strategic thinking which refers to the
recognition of the different needs of the organization to achieve the goals being identified in
strategic planning. Based on these definition, it can be seen that strategic management is
helpful for every company who desires to accomplish their target and intentions. As the day
goes by, the organization will continue to assess some changes in the environment and in the
market so that they will be able to update their strategies for success.
In an organization, there are certain individuals and group who has roles and
responsibilities when it comes to the entity’s strategic management. One of this is the group of
Board of Directors. The board of directors or sometimes called as “the board”, is an elected
group of individuals that represents the shareholders. As elected individuals, they set
organizational policies and oversight its implementation. When it comes to strategic
management, the board of directors together with the managers work hand in hand throughout
the process. Between the two of them, it is the board of directors that is mainly responsible for
strategic planning.
The role of the board of directors in strategic management is that they are the ones who
establish, develop, and implement the strategic plan of the organization. Part of their role is to
assess the overall direction and strategy of the business and to hire the suitable and qualified
CEO for the company. As they are the once who are assigned to strategic planning, they also
find and allocate resources so that the plan will be executed to the organization. As part of their
role, the look ahead to the future and figure out some possible negative impacts in so that they
can immediately mitigate it.
Another role of the board is to maximize their connection in different fields such as
political, business and industry. With this connection, they can recognize different opportunities
and respond immediately to emerging threats. For the board of directors to effectively execute
their role in strategic planning, they should expand their knowledge and keep their selves
updated with the current trends in the industry. They must make sure that they still provide the
management with relevant and helpful plan that will enhance the moral and confidence of the
organization.
If we look at the bigger picture, the most important responsibility of the board of directors
is to set the ultimate direction for their corporation. Part of their obligation is the review and
assessment of the strategies planned and proposed. They must consider every material factor
that may affect the application of these proposals that may lead to ultimate failure. In order to do
this, they have to understand every aspect of the strategic project before giving their approval.
The board of directors are also expected to have enough knowledge about the company so that
their decision is aligned with the objectives and goals of the entity. It is their responsibility to
maximize the strengths, upgrade the weaknesses, grab every opportunity, and be more
competitive against the threats. These are all possible with the right and accurate strategic
management. They also oversee the implementation of the plan to make sure that everything is
going smoothly. Also, with the rapid changes in the environment and other factors, they make
some evaluations and employ adjustments so that the same outcome will still be accomplished.
After all, the main goal of every corporations in having a strategy is to achieve success.
Since it is the board that identifies and priorities goals and objectives of the organization,
they are largely involve in strategic management particularly in strategic planning. They use
their knowledge, experience, and expertise about the company so that they will come up with a
definite and fitting strategic plan. But even though it seems that the boards are doing everything
related to the company’s strategies, the CEO also plays its part. This is where the line is drawn
between the involvement of the board of directors when it comes to strategic management. The
CEO together with the other executives are the ones who evaluate the potential of the
organization. They are assigned with the day to day operation of the company that is why they
are familiar with the dynamics around it. With this familiarity, they will be able to help the board
in evaluating the struggles and challenges of strategic management and find ways to overcome
it. Most of the shareholders rely on the board of directors to take firsthand approach in setting
strategic plan. This will serve as their weapon as most of the organizations face many
challenges.
In conclusion, the Board of Directors are very important when it comes to strategic
planning. It is in their hands to set the ultimate direction of the corporation by establishing,
developing, implementing, and evaluating strategies that will serve as a steppingstone of the
organization to achieve its goals. It is also important for them to have enough knowledge of the
organization so that every decision that they will make is in line with what the entity needs. With
these knowledges, they will be able to assess their growth and determine the action needs in
facing challenges in the organization. We can say that Board of Directors pay an active role in
strategy formulation of the company and if they will be able to perform their roles,
responsibilities, and involvement in the strategic management process, the entity has a higher
chance to achieve its goals and objectives.

GE Ecomagination Strategic Initiative (2005): A Reaction Paper

 In 2005, General Electronics or GE has launched its new strategic initiative called
“Ecomagination”. This project refers to the commitment of GE to address different challenges
related to the environment. This serves as their green action in order to promote cleaner and
greener environment through their products. Based on GE’s history, they are known to be as
one of the worst contributors of pollution in the world. They polluted the Hudson river for almost
three decades after World War II. But with Ecomagination, GE tried and eventually succeeded
to be an advocate of a green and clean environment.
Based on the articles I have read related to GE and its horrible past as a polluter, I have
realized that they pushed to continue this initiative because they want to clean their reputation.
They want to appeal to their consumers that they learned and that they will make a way to make
things proper. Since we are now discussing strategic management, I have seen that GE applied
the basics of strategic planning. They considered important factor coming from different
companies of various industries through their “Dreaming Sessions” project. They have gathered
different perspective from different consumers about what they imagine about the future and
what products do they need from GE. I believe that this process became one of the factors why
GE succeeded with Ecomagination. Based on the answers that they have gathered, they
established a strategic plan that caters all these needs.
After a decade, in 2015, GE became one of the world’s top global green brand. What
makes it amazing for me is that I have realized how powerful and effective strategic planning
and management is especially if everything goes according to plan. All the money that has been
spent towards this project became worth it and at the same time a cleaner energy was being
offered by GE. It is like hitting two birds with one stone. They were able to achieve their goal
without compromising the benefit that they will gather. While reading the case of Ecomagination,
I was able to visualize how strategic management is being done. It is all about the ways and
process on how to achieve your defined goals and strategy. It is true that strategy is easy, but
execution will always be difficult but the good thing about GE is that they never gave up on their
plan. Some companies have tried to execute the same initiative, but they sadly failed because
they cannot afford to lose large amounts of money.
Aside from the case being given, I have searched other articles in order to understand
more how GE rotated its reputation. I have read that they put their focus on how they should be
doing business in the future. This is a nice move because they put their investment in the future
considering the long-term benefit that they will gain. They catered the needs of every
consumers while going to the process of offering a cleaner and eco-friendly product. They have
captured the interest of the people that is why they are being patronized. This project also
became possible because of the help of the top management like the CEO. Knowing this fact, I
am able to understand why the CEO, Board of Directors and managers are referred to as
teammates when it comes to formulating, evaluating, and implementing strategic plan. I have
also learned that one of its driving force for their massive change is the generation of support
from all levels of the organization. A strategic plan can only be possibly executed if every level
in the organization will cooperate. I am more convinced that GE really pushed this green
initiative because they are aiming for change. This change became possible because the
people behind it also wanted to have change within the organization.

Overall, this GE Ecomagination strategy has enlightened me on how strategic

management is helpful and powerful in real life. Having a plan is just the beginning of a long
journey for a strategy to be effective. It needs to be executed in a way that is defined and
accurate. It also shows that if the company make something that is based on what their
consumers need, they will be able to capture their purchasing power. This success made by GE
can also influence other brands to communicate their own strategy to the general market. GE
has proved that having a strategy with a relevant message can be heard by everyone. I can say
that GE has paved the way for the other companies who are in still in the process of
establishing their strategic plan.