Due to specific disadvantages (e.g. over-formalized-process, lack of co-operation between HQ/planners and business units) the concept of strategic planning was advanced to another more comprehensive concept in the 1980s. The comprehensive concept is called “strategic management”. In comparison to the logic-rational elements of strategic planning the following additional elements are considered within strategic management:

There is no doubt that change and change initiatives play an essential role for every organization in our days. An organisation that refuses to change in order to adapt to new situations will most probably fail sooner or later. However, my theory is that organisations can successfully cope with only a limited number and frequency [...]

You can find a huge number of definitions of strategies in theory and practice. In order to explain the term marketing strategy I would like to use this definition: The strategy determines kind, direction, intensity and importance of (strategic) measures. Two major groups of marketing strategies can be distinguished: (a) Strategies, which describe how to [...]

In literature different terms, definitions and descriptions of the “strategic planning” concept can be found (Johnson and Scholes (1999, page 18) describe a basic model of the “strategic management process” that consists of strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategy implementation. Very close to this is the definition of the strategic planning process by Baum et [...]

Today I found an interesting review concerning an economic issue. Well, it is not related to corporate strategy; instead it could be argued that it is more related to an economic strategy. Its title is MINIMUM WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT: A REVIEW OF EVIDENCE FROM THE NEW MINIMUM WAGE RESEARCH by David Neumark (University of California [...]

Often I receive questions concerning interdependencies between strategy and risk management. There is no general answer but at the end of the day we have to accept that our strategic decisions (as well those measures without a decision) have an impact on the firm’s risk situation. For banks in Europe it has become a little [...]

There are a lot of definitions for strategic planning. Also there are a lot of critics and discussion about it; I agree that in general it is not possible organise the generation of insight and synthesis. Other critic factors focus on the ability to forecast future development. But we have to be fair: Most of our [...]

Well, you may be inclined to say both. Henry Mintzberg goes even further with his concept of ‘Four P’s for Strategy’: Path, Perspective (equivalent to objective), Pattern and Ploy. But let’s stay with the path and the objective. Of course, a strategy can describe your objective, i.e. what you want to achieve, and your path [...]

The probably most common way to develop strategies is to ask (and hopefully answer) questions like: Which products do we want to offer? In which markets? How are we going to do that? Do we want to do that on our own or are we looking out for a partner? Such questions are necessary to [...]

I recently came across two very different writings about the problem with strategy and boxes or categories. The first one is from Henry Minzbergs book ‘The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning’ (p 302): “Note that the problem in such planning systems in not any specific category so much as the process of categorization itself. [...]