Introducing a Strategic Management Process to Your Team

If you’ve been looking for a way to future-proof your business, it may be time to introduce a strategic management process to your team. Strategic management refers to the continuous process of planning, monitoring, analyzing, and assessing every component that is necessary for your organization to meet its goals and objectives. Strategic management helps create a clear vision for an organization that helps to identify both predictable as well as unpredictable contingencies. Keep reading to learn how to formulate and implement strategies that can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. 

• What is the strategic management process?
• Why is strategic management important?
• 5 steps of the strategic management process
• How to introduce a strategic management process to your team
• Examples of strategic management

What is the strategic management process?

Strategic management refers to the ongoing process of setting high-level goals, developing action plans, and effectively allocating the resources required to meet specific goals and objectives. The strategic management process is a comprehensive approach that organizations use to plan, execute, and evaluate these long-term goals. This process typically consists of many steps, including defining the organization’s mission and vision, performing an environmental analysis, formulating and implementing a strategy, evaluating the strategy, and making continuous iterations. Following a strategic management process allows organizations to better allocate their resources and align their efforts with their long-term goals, increasing the likelihood of future success.

Why is strategic management important? 

• Encourages engagement
• Boosts productivity
• Improves hiring decisions
• Improves decision making

1Encourages engagement

A lack of direction means a lack of engagement. Strategic management defines the organization’s mission, vision, and long-term objectives. When employees understand the organization’s long-term goals and how their work contributes to the organization’s success, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated. This clarity fosters a sense of purpose and accomplishment, increasing employees’ overall happiness, motivation, and engagement. An organization that provides stability and clarity is more likely to have a team that is willing to commit to its success. 

2Boosts productivity

Overall, strategic management provides a roadmap that everyone within the organization can reference to optimize resources, capitalize on strengths, and address weaknesses, leading to a more productive, agile company that is ready to pivot and adapt. Additionally, strategic management provides a structured framework that helps allocate resources, processes, and efforts accordingly. Proper resources allocation ensures that all resources—like time, money, and human resources—are invested appropriately, making the entire organization run more efficiently. 

3Improves hiring decisions

Strategic management allows the human resources or recruitment team to ensure that hires are made with the organization’s end goals in mind. This helps the hiring team choose candidates whose skills, experience, and expertise align with the organization’s long-term requirements. This also means the organization can focus on candidates whose skills fit with the company culture as well as candidates who have what it takes to grow with the organization. It’s important to not only hire for immediate skill but also for future potential. Choosing candidates that can contribute to the organization’s future growth and success is imperative. 

4Improves decision making

With a strategic management process in place, decision making becomes methodical and calculated, equipping decision makers with the knowledge necessary to make data-driven decisions that are more likely to lead to successful outcomes. The data derived from the strategic management process—like customer insights and market trends, for example—make it possible for decision makers to identify deviations and take corrective actions immediately, ensuring decisions are made with the organization’s end goals in mind. This data also enables decision makers to respond quickly to emerging opportunities and threats, ensuring the organization is able to make timely adjustments. 

5 steps of the strategic management process 

• Identify your goals
• Analyze your current situation
• Form your strategy
• Implement your strategy
• Evaluate your process

1Identify your goals 

The first step in the strategic management process is identifying your goals so you can later determine how you’ll achieve them. This step will act as your foundation for upcoming strategic decisions. 

2Analyze your current situation 

After you’ve determined your goals, you must take the time to understand where you are currently. During this step, you can create a SWOT analysis to get a better understanding of your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

3Form your strategy 

During this step, you’ll begin to formulate a plan that details where you are, where you want to go, and how you will get there. 

4Implement your strategy 

During this step, take the time to implement your strategic management process. This step will take a long time; it’s important to understand that this step is a long-term investment in the future of your organization and you may not see results overnight.

5Evaluate your process 

Now it’s time to sit back and evaluate your process. Did the changes you implemented pay off? Have you identified areas for future improvements? Taking the time to evaluate your process will help you make impactful changes that may lead to future success. 

How to introduce a strategic management process to your team 

• Communicate your vision
• Explain your purpose
• Share your objectives
• Perform an internal strategic analysis
• Perform an external strategic analysis
• Explain how you will track OKRs

1Communicate your vision

Communicating your vision when you begin to introduce the strategic management process to your team will help foster alignment, motivation, and direction. If your team has a clear understanding of your vision from the get-go, it will be easier for everyone to align their efforts with the overall strategic direction of the organization. A clear vision will also give your team a sense of purpose and motivation. 

2Explain your purpose

Explaining the purpose behind your strategic management process will provide your team with the necessary context to understand why changes or improvements are being made. This will help them understand the bigger picture while learning how their contributions will play a role in the organization’s long-term goals. Additionally, when team members understand the purpose, they are more likely to buy into the long-term strategy—this means you can expect a cooperative team that takes ownership of its work. 

3Share your objectives

Similar to communicating your vision and explaining your purpose, sharing your objectives with your team is crucial for alignment. Making your objectives known during the introduction of the strategic management process helps establish a clear purpose and provides your team with a framework for success. These objectives will serve as a framework as your team members work on their priorities, while ensuring everyone’s efforts are directed towards tasks that directly contribute to the organization’s strategic goals. 

With the Objectives tab in Fellow, you can link your objectives with a team meeting, making it easy to review progress, resolve challenges, and keep all objectives and key results (OKRs) on track. Each team member can create private or public OKRs or create team-wide objectives. Fellow makes it easy to create new objectives, specify key results, track progress, and update contributors.

4Perform an internal strategic analysis

It can be difficult to introduce a strategic management process to your team if you haven’t taken the time to first perform a SWOT analysis. Performing an internal strategic analysis (or SWOT analysis) will provide you and your team with the information necessary to build a solid foundation. Identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats will ensure everyone is aware of where your organization currently stands. Consider using this SWOT Analysis Meeting Template to examine your organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. 

5Perform an external strategic analysis

Performing an external strategic analysis will ensure that the strategic management process is operating with external factors in mind, helping to set the foundation for a successful and adaptive strategy. By recognizing the unique value proposition and competitive advantages, your team will be able to focus on creating a competitive advantage while carving out a distinct market position. Essentially, performing an external strategic analysis will equip your team with the knowledge necessary to understand the external environment and position the organization strategically.

6Explain how you will track OKRs

In addition to sharing your objectives, it’s important to explain to the team how you will be tracking your OKRs. Objectives and key results provide measurable outcomes that can be used to evaluate the success of the strategic management process. They serve as benchmarks for tracking progress and determining whether the team is on track to achieve its goals. Educating your team on how you will be tracking your OKRS will ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes time to gauge success. With the Objectives tab in Fellow, you can clearly define and track the progress of your OKRs. You can also use this tool to seamlessly review your objectives during your team meetings, making sure everyone is aligned and on the same page. 

Examples of strategic management 

• Talent management
• Digital transformations

1Talent management 

Organizations may leverage strategic management to attract, retain, and develop top talent. This may involve offering competitive compensation packages, providing professional development opportunities, or creating a positive work environment. 

2Digital transformations 

To keep up with technological advancements, an organization may leverage strategic management to transform its processes and operations. This may include embracing cloud-based technologies, leveraging AI to improve internal systems, or embracing e-commerce–first solutions. 

Are you ready to introduce a new strategic management process to your team? 

It’s important to note that strategic management is always changing. This is an ongoing process that will require leadership, dedication, iterations, and continuous improvements. Considering the tips outlined in this article will ensure you’re equipped with the knowledge you need to introduce a new strategic management process to your team.