1 What is strategy? Explain some of the major reasons for lack of strategic management in some companies?

Meaning of strategy Reasons for lack of Strategic management Answer: Meaning of strategy The word strategy comes from Greek strategies, which refers to a military general and combines stratus (the army) and ago (to lead). The concept and practice of strategy and planning started in the military, and, over time, it entered business and management. According to Chandler, Strategy is the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of the courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals. According to Andrews, Strategy is the pattern of objectives, purpose, goals and the major policies and plans for achieving these goals stated in such a way so as to define what business the company is or is to be and the kind of company it is or is to be. Reasons for lack of Strategic management 1. Poor reward structure: When an organization achieves success, it often fails to reward its managers or planners. But when failure occurs, the company may punish the managers concerned. In such a situation, it is better for individual managers to do nothing than to risk trying to achieve something, fail and be punished. 2. Content with success: If an organization is generally successful, the top management or individual managers may feel that there is no need to plan and strategize because everything is fine. However, they forget that success today does not guarantee success tomorrow. 3. Overconfidence: As managers gain experience, they may rely less on formalized planning and more on individual initiative and decisions. But, this is not appropriate. Overconfidence or overestimating experience leads to complacency and ultimately can bring downfall. Forethought and planning are the right virtues and are signs of professionalism. 4. Fire-fighting: An organization may be so deeply engrossed in crisis management and fire fighting that it may not have time to plan and strategize. This happens with many companies and is a clear sign of non-professionalization. 5. Waste of time: Some organizations view planning as a waste of time because no tangible marketable products are produced through planning. But they forget that time spent on planning is an investment, and there would be returns, both tangible and intangible, in due course. 6. Too expensive: Some organizations are culturally opposed to spending resources on matters like planning which do not produce instant or immediate results. They feel that spending on planning is a wasteful expenditure. 7. Previous bad experience: Managers may have had previous bad experience with planning, that is, cases in which plans have been cumbersome, impractical or inflexible. There could be experience of failures also. They would like to avoid recurrence of this.