In the coming years, strategy making must be thought of as aninnovative process, as rich in impulsiveness and delightful as any other art. Strategy making eventually leads to strategy management. Strategic Management is the process of building capabilities that allow a firm to create the value for customers, shareholders and society while pursuing in competitive markets. It is a tool undertaken by the managers to locate and monitor the activities within their control that will enable an organisation to achieve its desired objective.
SCOPE:

Today, emerging economies are the worlds growth engines and India is playing an increasingly significant role in taking it forward on a larger scale. So, the strategic management process requires competent individuals to ensure its success. Many companies have embraced strategic management. A number of companies have reformulated their mission and objectives. Expanding opportunities and growing competition have been making companies embrace corporate and competitive strategies. The path to success in a highly competitive and fast-growing global market is filled with innumerable barriers. The challenge for leaders is to identify,produce and prolonga competitive advantage in a globally-connected environment. Class leaders are those who can move strategy from concept into reality, develop the management capacities of the top team and beyond, and drive change while remaining cautious about countermeasures adopted by the competition.

GROWTH:

In our increasingly organised world, the need to expand and maintain competitive advantage by pursuing rapid growth has never been more acute.But to attain that growth, senior leaders must make strategic choices along two critical dimensions: avenues of growth” (such as innovation, consolidation, or diversification) and modes of growth” (internal development and alliances or acquisitions, for example).Strategic growth platforms are long term initiatives for high scale profit increases. Broad examples of commonly selected strategic-growth platforms include pursuing specific and new product areas or entering new distribution channels.For a business to flourish, it needs to incorporate high growth strategies that consistently allow you to expand sales and profit margins. High growth can be an impelling force to encourage future growth and expansion going ahead. The tactical areas to consider are product development enhancing brand reputation, market penetration, and strategic diversification followed by goodwi
ll from revenue generated. In the coming years, growth of strategic management will be phenomenal as it will strengthen our ability to think and act strategically and build the organisation to participate, grow and be successful.

SKILLS:

Anticipate – Conduct market research and business simulations to understand competitors perspectives, evaluate their likely reactions to new initiatives or products, and predict potential disruptive offerings.

Challenge – They challenge their own and others assumptions and encourage differentpoints of analysis. Only after careful manifestation and assessment of a problem through many angles they take influential action. This requires persistence, nerve, and an open mind.

Interpret – Leaders who challenge in the right way invariably extractcomplex and contradictory information. Thats why the preeminent ones are also able to interpret. One need to distinguish patterns, push through uncertainty, and seek new insights.

Decide- Strategic thinkers insist on multiple options at the outset and dont get prematurely locked into simplistic go/no-go choices. They dont discharge from the trendy but pursue a disciplined process that balances diligence with speed, considers the trade-offs involved, and takes both small and extensive goals into account. In the end, deliberate leaders must have the courage of their convictions informed by a strong decision process.

Align – Strategic leaders must be proficient at finding common ground and achieving buy-in among stakeholders who have unlike views and agendas. This requires active outreach. Success depends on upbeat communication, trust building, and frequent commitment

Learn – Strategic leaders are the focal point for organisational learning. They encourage a culture of investigation, and they search for the training in both successful and unsuccessful outcomes.

JOB OPPURTUNITIES:

Strategy jobs are viewed as some of the most desirable in a large corporation because they provide access to the overall picture, the visualisation and the main issues that establish value in an organisation. The strategy leaders need to be in frequent contact with senior management and get the opportunity to see how decisions really get made.At the entry stage, one would work as a strategic planning associate or manager or would work on assignments directed by more senior members of the group. The role would focus on collecting facts, putting together presentations, talking to members of the organisation to understand a problem. With experience, one will get more opportunity to direct strategy and to interact with senior management that provides assignments to ones group.Strategic planners can often work on specific assignments as internal management consultants. Job designation would be to understand the market carefully, working with confinedadministration and to propose a strategy to revitalise growth.

ELIGIBILITY:

The course is aimed at post graduates who are interested in pursuing a career in the area of business analysis and development, including industry consulting, as well as candidates who seek a pathway to a research degree in the field of international management and comparative studies.The course focuses on real business issues and how to solve them with a thorough understanding of business analysis and development and the key skills of business consulting.

REMUNERATION:

Strategic Management is an immensely rewarding profession and competent individuals who rise in terms of skills and expertise canearn around Rs. 25,000 – Rs 30,000 in the beginning and with few years of experience down the line, they can take homemore than Rs 50,000-Rs 1, 00,000 per month.

The author is Professor (Dr.) Sanjiv Marwah, director of JK Business School (JKBS), Delhis top Industry anchored B-School (Emerging Management AICTE-CII Survey 2013).

Also read: Careers in demand-2022