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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
A Workshop Offered on March 12, 2008
At Harris Phillips Life Skills & Learning Center
45A Sobo Arobiodu St., GRA Ikeja, Lagos
By
Yomi Ogunrinola, Y.B.O Management Consultants, USA
Facilitator’s Module
 Strategic management contrary to what people may think is not a box of tricks or
a bundle of techniques. Good case in point is the recently concluded Africa
Nations Cup. Nigeria fielded a formidable team of highly skilled players.
The “box of tricks” was the players
The “bundle of techniques” was the aggregate of their skills
 However, they lacked the right strategy to win many of their matches. Their style
of play was questionable and many wondered if these players felt any patriotic
obligation to do their nation proud.
 Strategic management should have resulted in analytical thinking prior to
committing those players to action.
 Each player should have been coached to perform one or more specific roles
based on a comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of their
opponents. The roles performed by each player once committed to action ought to
then produce a desired result. Some roles could have been nothing more than to
set up another player for success, a selfless and seemingly unfulfilling role given
the narcissistic nature of our people. Here is where TEAMWORK comes into play.
Players = Resources = Potential
Coaches = Analyzers/Managers = Direction
Teamwork = Support = Collaboration
A good blend of all the above = Success
 The tasks of crafting, executing and evaluating business strategies are the heart
and soul of managing any enterprise. A strategy therefore is management’s choice
among several alternatives that might have been considered. One of the top
priorities of management is to ensure that the venture goes about doing its
business in one fashion rather than another, which is what ultimately differentiates
the organization and brings about branding.
 Weak implementation of a well crafted strategy may result in a failed enterprise.
Likewise, the competent execution of a poorly conceived strategy.
 Business Model is closely associated with strategy, but in actual fact is nothing
more than a report card that shows the result of the particular strategy in use. The

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Revenue-Cost-Profit element derived from the strategy is what the Business
Model addresses itself to, so therefore is more narrowly focused to determine
whether the strategy results in a viable company. Strategy on the other hand
relates to a company’s competitive initiatives and approach to business
irrespective of the financial outcome it produces.
Strategy = Approach to doing business
Business Model = Does the strategy provide a viable venture?
 Long established companies that are thriving can be said to have a proven
Business Model, i.e. their strategies give clear evidence of a good Business Model
i.e. the revenues and costs flowing from their strategies indicate profitability.
 A start up company or one that isn’t making money can be said to have a
questionable Business Model, i.e. the end result of the strategy hasn’t produced a
viable venture.
 Setting Objectives. The purpose of setting objectives is to convert managerial
jargon by way of Mission Statements and Strategic Visions into specific
performance targets, i.e. results and outcomes that the organization wants to
achieve.
 Objectives should be realistic and measurable to be of any use. Each objective
should be broken down into one or more tasks that need to be carried out in order
to achieve it.
 Tasks themselves should be assessed to evaluate the amount of time and effort
needed for execution and also graded to indicate their contribution to the
realization of the objective.
 People carrying out tasks should be included in the mapping process and then be
held accountable for its accomplishment.
 When companywide objectives are simplified, broken into tasks and people are
held accountable for achieving them a results-oriented climate develops
throughout the company.
 Two very distinct types of yardsticks must be tracked to sustain a company’s
growth; tracking its financial performance and tracking its strategic performance.
 We concluded earlier that when a company competently executes a well crafted
strategy it is likely to become profitable and have a proven Business Model.
Therefore it is essential to continue to track and evaluate the strategy to ensure its
relevance.

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 At the same time a company needs to be profitable to be able to continue to do
what it does, therefore it becomes vital to track its financial performance. Thus
what we are saying is that financial objectives should be broken into individual
realistic and measurable tasks and designated people made accountable for their
achievement. Financial objectives would serve to ensure economic-value added
and market-value added gains.
 Strategic objectives would serve to strengthen a company’s overall business
position and competitive capability. Using the popular saying, “A means to an
end” as an example, strategy is the means while objectives are the ends.
 Strategy is both deliberate/planned and reactive/adaptive. When crafting one we
need to identify whether we plan on doing something new or we plan to do an
already existing thing in a new way.
 The managerial skill required with strategy execution is being able to figure out
what to do to put the strategy in place, carry it out proficiently and produce good
results. Principal aspects included at this stage are;
1. Hiring the right staff capable of carrying out the strategy successfully.
2. Allocating company resources so that teams and/or business units that are
charged with performing tasks critical towards achieving the strategy have
sufficient people and funds to reach their objective.
3. Establishing strategy-supporting policies and operating procedures.
4. Motivating people in ways that induce them to pursue the objectives with
enthusiasm, and if need be, modifying their duties and job behavior.
5. Tying the reward structure to the achievement of targeted results.
6. Instituting best practices, programs for continuous improvement (e.g. a
360˚ employee roundtable) and installing information, communication and
operating systems that better enable employees to carry out their strategic
roles effectively.
7. Evaluating the strategy to ensure that the most important fits are in place
regarding strategy and the company’s capability, and strategy and the
reward structure.
 The amount of internal change required to execute any aspect of the strategy is
dependent upon how radical the strategy is and how much alignment there is
between the way the organization currently operates and the way it plans to.