STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

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Assignment

Answer1

Igor Ansoff

A key pioneer of strategic management theory and corporate planning is Igor Ansoff. He propagated his ideas, by writing several noteworthy books - such as, “Business Strategy”, “From Strategic Planning to Strategic Management”, and “Implanting Strategic Management”. These books are key milestones in this field.

Ansoff assessed the success and failure factors of mergers and acquisitions, and sought to pin down the strategic behavior that leads to success for organizations in turbulent environments. He recognized a need for a practical method for strategic decision-making within a business organization, supported by checklists and processes with meticulous detail. Ansoff saw three main types of decision-making - strategic, administrative and operating - and sought to produce resource allocation patterns that offer the best chance for a company to meet its objectives. He effectively “linked” competitive advantage with strategic planning (Schulz. 2001). In doing so, he identified the generation of choices such as “make or buy?” organic growth or acquisition?

Through the creation and development of a strategic decision-making model, Ansoff's prescriptive approach has now evolved, and he later claimed that each organization should work out its own best solution, with complexity levels balanced with those of the organization's business environment (Quinn. 2010). In addressing the challenges of managing strategic change and the organization's daily profit-driven activities, Ansoff provides, perhaps, the most comprehensive exposition of concepts and practical management techniques in strategic management.

Peter Drucker

A true giant, often referred to as the management guru's management guru, Peter Drucker is responsible for many of the leading management theories of the latter half-century. In establishing five basic management principles, identified as setting objectives, organizing, motivating and communicating, establishing measures of performance and developing people, it would appear that Drucker's theories remain as valid as ever.

Drucker has written over 25 books since his debut in 1939 with “The End of Economic Man.” As an advocate of privatization, he distinguished the role of government as “governing” and not “doing”, as the two were incompatible. His 1954 “The Practice of Management” identified management by objectives as a response to his belief that businesses survive or fall by the bottom line (Miller. 1998). He stressed the role of management in terms of its effective use of human resources as key to a productive and profitable organization.

Drucker identified seven key elements of post-war management development - scientific management as a key to productivity; decentralization as a basic principle; personnel management as a means of “fitting” people into organizational structures; management development to provide for tomorrow; marketing, and long-range planning.

In summing up his contribution Drucker states, he was the first to see that the purpose of a business lies outside of itself - that is, in creating and satisfying a customer. He was the first person to see the decision process as central, that structure has to follow a strategy and the first to see that management has to be by objectives and self-control (David & Joachimsthaler. 2009). His 1973 “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices” is a mammoth piece of work, recommended for any ...