Strategic Management

This course is about ‘strategic management’. The emphasis in this course is unashamedly on getting managers, and would-be managers,  to ‘think’ about their business institution and their work – rather than simply finding ways to reach out to more people in faster ways. The first part provides an overview on ‘strategic management’. Strategic management is the process of specifying an organization’s objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources to implement the policies and plans to achieve the organization’s objectives. The second part is about organizational development. Any group committed to human development needs to build supportive structures and patterns of working with people that are consistent with their overall aims. The third part explores what is meant by change management. In the fourth part we will be examining some important ways in which a business can align itself to the standards that characterise world-class operations. The fifth, and final, part concerns how to carry out a strategic planning exercise. If CPI, (continuous process improvement), is more concerned with the immediate improvements one wants to see in an organization, such as a business, then a strategic planning exercise is concerned with the long term improvements. 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course has been designed to: 

Introduce students to concepts of strategic management and its practices

• To offer some practice in defining and working out strategic management problems related to innovation and corporate technology management.  
• To develop an understanding of the “state of the art” of the strategic management of technology and innovation.
• Identify and explain a company's mission and vision statement and relate and critique these statements to the company's strategic direction.
• Demonstrate the knowledge and abilities in formulating strategies and strategic plans
• Describe the practical and integrative model of strategic management process that defines basic activities in strategic management
• Introduce business institution and their work

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course unit students should be able to;

• Have an overview of strategic management.
• Describe the process of specifying organizations objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve those objectives.
• Discuss resource allocation for implementing policies and plans to achieve the organizations objectives.
• Appreciate the idea of Commitment to human development needs, to build supportive structures and patterns of working with people that are consistent with overall aims of organizations.
• Explain the concept of change management.
• Examine some important ways which a business can align itself with standards that characterize world class operations.
• Conduct a strategic planning exercise.