Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Strategic management - Essay Example The mission is the organization's reason for being. It defines what the company has set out to do. It is broken down into objectives or concrete goals that the company has to reach in order to accomplish its mission. Each goal needs a strategy and a strategic plan for implementing and evaluating the level of accomplishment of the plan. In order to make the strategic plan, a study of both internal and external environments need to be conducted to define the company's strengths which can be used to achieve the objectives, take advantage of opportunities, minimize weaknesses and threats; the company's weaknesses which must be addressed or minimized in order not to detract from achieving the objectives; the opportunities in the external environment which can be taken advantage of; and the threats in the external environment which should be addressed so as not to affect achievement of the objectives.This paper conducts a SWOT analysis of Able Corporation's major competitors - Smith & Whit e Corporation and Matakume. It attempts to anticipate these competitor's strategic responses to specific weaknesses by recommending strategies. The SWOT analysis and the anticipated recommended strategies should be helpful to Able Corporation in charting its strategic course of action with regards its major competitors.Strategic management at the business unit level involves defining the mission and objectives, conducting a situation analysis, formulating strategies, implementing them, and controlling the process through measurement and evaluation. Once objectives are specified, the company has to analyze its current to be able to devise a strategic plan to reach the objectives. An environmental scan has to be performed for both internal and external environments. SWOT analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situation analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT framework was introduced in the 1960's by Lear ned, Christiansen, Andrews, and Guth in their book, Business Policy, Text and Cases. SWOT classifies the internal aspects of the company as strengths or weaknesses, and the external factors as opportunities or threats. Internal analysis for evaluating the company's strengths and weaknesses revolve around factors such as company culture, company image, organizational structure, key staff, access to natural resources, position on the experience curve, operational efficiency, operational capacity, brand awareness, market share, financial resources, exclusive contracts, patents and trade secrets. Opportunities and threats may arise due to changes in the external environments. External analysis, therefore, may involve factors such as customers, competitors, market trends, suppliers, partners, social changes, new technology, economic environment, political and regulatory environment (NetMBA 2007). Using SWOT analysis, two companies, Smith and White Corporation and Makatume Corporation, will be analyzed to address specific strategic management concerns. For Smith and White Corporation, a strategy shall be recommended to address one specific weakness, with brief recommendations for implementation and evaluation, as well as notes on ramifications. For Makatume Corporation, a strategy shall be recommended to address the higher voltage issue without proposing a shift to higher voltages production. S&W SWOT Analysis Smith & White Corporation (S&W) is a very large and aggressive domestic manufacturer of a full line of moderate quality professional and consumer tools. It is a multi-national conglomerate that has dominant shares in all the markets in which it operates. S&W's strengths include: (1) Its aggressive company culture. It uses massive amounts of national advertising to maintain and build brand equity which has made the company a multinational conglomer