9. Strategic Administration

According to Stoner, planning is a concrete form of decision making that approaches the specific future that managers want for their organizations. One of the most important results of the planning process is a strategy for the organization. It is, then that Strategic Administration arises, a specific element of planning.

Strategic Administration consists of the continuous exercise that allows establishing a general program of goals for the organization, as well as the ways to achieve them.

In the planning, specific and measurable goals must be established, with time limits, realistic and achievable.

Goals are important for at least four reasons:

1. They provide a sense of direction.

2. They allow us to focus our efforts.

3. They guide our plans and decisions.

4. They serve to evaluate our progress.

Continuing with Stoner, we have that the mission is created by the founder, board of directors or directing. After it, strategic plans are designed by top-level managers and define the overall goals of the organization. Finally, the operational plans are made by middle and first-line managers, which contain details to put into practice, or implement, the strategic plans in daily activities.

Now a strategic plan represents the establishment of a strategy. Strategic planning is the process of producing such a strategy and updating it.

According to Stoner, the word strategy comes from the Greek, strategeia, which means the art or science of being general. Since the time of the Greeks, the concept of strategy included both a planning component, as well as a decision-making or action component. Together, these two concepts form the basis of the strategic plan.

Given the previous theory, a question arises, what strategies are we originating and implementing in our work or personal activities?

That is, what way, we are deciding to take to reach our goal. As a simple example of our previous question we have the following: our objective is to improve the level of sales by 10% of our product, which are laptops, in a period of 1 year. Our strategy would be to advertise on television, make the design more attractive, promote a gift when purchasing, etc.

Finally Hofer, Schendel and Stoner, tell us that the strategic management process is divided into two:

1. Strategic Planning: setting goals and formulating Strategies.

2. Implementation of the Strategy: Administration and Strategic control.