Strategic Planning and Strategic Management - Essay Example

Strategic management is a broader concept that includes strategic planning as a component of a company-wide analysis of top-level managerial procedures. Other activities that are included as a component of strategic management include the development of policies, allocation of resources, and evaluations of performance related to initially specified goals. Analyses are a key feature of strategic management, as is the inclusion of tactics, finances, and objectives in the formation of a complex but thorough managerial method.

Some of the prominent advantages associated with strategic management are the development of market foresight, quick reactions to unexpected problems, fostering dedication within the company, and the early identification of opportunities for improvement (Leiponen & Helfat, 2010). The type of businesses that would benefit the most from strategic management is those which are relatively stable over long periods. The method produces strategies that are meant to be long-term in scope, but rapidly changing markets and/or operation restrictions could make this goal virtually impossible (Wall, 2010) using traditional strategic management methods alone. However, strategic management is highly valuable where chaos is less of a concern, as it may be the best option to optimize the use of available resources.