What Is Strategic Management?

Introduction There is no single, universally accepted definition for strategy. Some understand it as a deliberate plan, drawn up to achieve set goals, others see it more as a process, whereby a company’s decision and actions are made in alignment with opportunities or threats in the industry. Even others define it as a pattern of consistent actions in decision-making and lastly there are those with a military view of strategy, who consider it a manoeuvre to beat and outsmart the competition (Parthasarthy, 2006). By drawing from each of the definitions, one could say that strategy and by extension, strategic management, is constituted of short-term strategies involving managing and planning for the present and long-term decisions and actions, made, taken and implemented by managers to achieve superior competitive advantage, compared to their competitors.
This coursework will highlight the key elements of organisational strategy by means of the POSIES model. The elements relevant for this analysis are POSI (purpose – objectives – strategy - implementation). Parthasarthy (2006) integrates another element into what he calls the strategic management process, namely, the situational analysis, wherein the external and the internal environment are taken into consideration. This assessment of competitive opportunities and threats is set at the same stage than the objectives in the POSIES. Apart from discussing the relevant theory for the different stages of the strategic management process, this coursework will also analyse and relate strategic management theory to the working examples of two companies.
IKEA is one of the world’s top low-cost furniture retailers. IKEA was founded in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17 years old and is now owned by a Dutch-registered foundation, controlled by the Kamprad family. Inter IKEA Systems B.V. is the owner/franchiser of the IKEA trademark and Concept. The company name is a composite of the first letters in his

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