This slide begins a substantive discussion of “setting direction” as part of the strategic management process. This discussion begins on page 197 of the textbook. As the slides progress, the title of each slide will maintain consistency, but distinction of subtopics will appear as the subtopics change. Exhibit slides are treated differently. The emphasis on this first slide is the “planning” component of the strategic management process, and that connection should be made clear to students. Also the sequential nature of the four steps should be pointed out, as the numbers indicate that these are not activities to be done in random order.
This exhibit contains many activities and is difficult to put on a slide, however it should be viewable in most classroom settings. The exhibit is animated to permit point-by-point discussion of each component. If you present using the “View Show” mode, then you should review the slide in your office before presenting in the classroom to be sure you understand the mouse actions. The feedback and strategic planning loops require only one mouse click to activate the five loops.
Strategic intent is a subtopic of “Strategic Management Process: Setting Direction” and is the first example of how subtopics are identified in the slides. Strategic intent is an interesting’ topic, since often times “intent” is lost in the translation to “action.” But without intent, action would have no initial guidance, so organizations spend a lot of energy working at this stage in the process.
One thing that some instructors do to illustrate an organization’s mission, is to go on the internet and pull down various mission statements from organizations. Alternatively, the next slide contains the mission statement found on page 199 of the textbook.
Points that can be made here can be drawn from discussions of important aspects of goals such as measurability, specificity and so on. Alternatively, you may decide to concentrate of how goals benefit the organization and give it a strategic advantage. Eight issues addressed by strategic objectives are shown in the following slide, and discussed on page 197 in the textbook.