Эссе: Strategic and Managerial Mindset

Strategic planning in commercial organizations is usually associated with competitive market struggles, and in non – profit organizations (such as the Red Cross) - with events occurring in the external environment. The main responsibility for choosing the right strategy falls on the shoulders of top managers and Executive Directors. For a company to succeed, its chief Executive officer must be actively involved in the decisions that define and support the organizational strategy. However, the top management of many large companies requires the ability of middle and main managers to think strategically. Some consider it possible to involve key managers in strategic planning. Strategic thinking is a vision of a distant time perspective and a representation of the overall picture including the organizational and external competitive environment and their interaction. Understanding the concept, levels, and formulations of a strategy, as opposed to implementing it, is an important beginning of strategic thinking.

Strategic management is a series of decisions and actions used to formulate and implement strategies that will ensure alignment between the organization and the external environment in a way that achieves organizational goals. Strategic management involves the following questions: 'What changes and trends are observed in the competitive environment? Who are our consumers? What products or services should we offer? How to do this most effectively?'. Answers to these questions help managers to choose the best way to position the company in the external environment relative to competitors. The achievement of results is not left to chance, but is determined by the choices made by managers. Senior management uses strategic management to determine the main direction of the organization, which becomes its main strategy.