Which of these benefits are still missing in your organization? 1.

Taking an organization-wide, proactive approach to a changing global world 2. Building an executive team that serves as a model of cross-functional or horizontal teamwork 3. Having an intense executive development and strategic orientation process 4. Defining focused, quantifiable outcomes measures of success 5. Making intelligent budgeting decisions 6. Clarifying your competitive advantage 7. Reducing conflict; empowering the organization 8. Providing clear guidelines for day-to-day decision making 9. Creating a critical mass for change 10. Singing from the same hymnal throughout the organization 11. Clarifying and simplifying the barrage of management techniques 12. Empowering middle managers 13. Focusing everyone in the organization in the same overall framework 14. Speeding up implementation of the core strategies 15. Providing tangible tools for dealing with the stress of change Strategic management includes strategic planning, implementation and review/control of the strategy of an organization. All most all the modern organizations engage in strategic management to ensure that they achieve the desired level of performance. There are many benefits that an organization can obtain by engaging in strategic management and they can be described as follows:

Sets the strategic direction to the firm-

Strategic management process clearly defines the desired level of performance (mission/goals/objectives) and it sets the direction so that everyone in the organization knows where they are heading towards. Strategic management act as a road map to everyone in the organization and it clearly defines the way to get to the final destination/desired level of performance.

Focus on critical factors of the organization-

Strategic management identifies the critical factors that are strategically important to the organization. When critical factors are identifies company can analyse and take relevant measures to ensure satisfactory performance in those areas.

Understanding the changing environment-

Strategic management predicts the future changes that can take place. Predicting future changes that can take place will help the organization to be proactive and take necessary steps to manage change with contingency planning and change management strategies.

Obtaining sustainable competitive advantage-

This is the most important and the most critical benefit of strategic planning. By a successful strategic management process company should be able to build a competitive advantage over other competitors which can be sustained overtime without being imitated or outperformed by its competitors. Strategic management identifies the competitive advantages that can be generated through strengths of the organization and take necessary steps to effectively obtain it.

Lead to better performance-

The successful strategic management should ensure that the company performs very well and generates profits for its owners. When the competitive advantage is built company can thrive on that to make profits and record good performance.

Ensure the long term survival in the market place-

Strategic management identifies opportunities and threat that influence the organizational performance. It makes use of opportunities and minimizes threat to make sure that company can survive in the market by outperforming its rivals.

Simplifies complex scenarios and develop suitable strategies-

Current business world is too complex, volatile and dynamic. A firm without strategic management finds it hard to interpret the complexities faced by the organization. In contrast firm with strategic management makes the business complexities simple, predict future dynamics and take proactive steps to minimize threats and make use of opportunities Strategic management allows and organization to be more proactive than reactive in shaping its own future; it allows an organization to initiate and influence activities and thus to exert control over its own destiny. Small business owners, chief executive officers, presidents and managers of many for-profit and non-profit organizations have recognized and realized the benefits of strategic management. Historically, the principle benefit of strategic management has been to help organizations formulate better strategies through the use of the more systematic, logical and rational approach to strategic choice.

Financial Benefits:
1. Improvement in sales. 2. Improvement in profitability. 3. Improvement in productivity.

Non-Financial Benefits:
1. Improved understanding of competitors strategies. 2. Enhanced awareness of threats. 3. Reduced resistance to change. 4. Enhanced problem-prevention capabilities.