Strategic

ManagementColin White

Jesús Longás Gamarra: 931014-P297

Lê Thị Thu Hoài:

Table of contents

Introduction.................................................3What is good management?.....................................3What is a good manager?......................................4Individual views.............................................6References...................................................7

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IntroductionStrategy within the management is one of the key pillars to

achieve success in business development, every company

needs a well-defined direction and specific objectives,

with a defined implementation plan in order to have an

orderly and profitable growth.

To become a market leader in local market as well as

international one, companies must have their own strategy

not only simply focus on the present or extrapolating what

has happened in the past, but also looks into the future.

In management field, strategy making plays an important

role in forming practising managers. Therefore, to clarify

strategic management concept, this essay will focus on two

main part: Good management and good manager with strategy

concept based on a book “Strategic Management” by Collin

White, first published 2004 by Palgrave Macmillan.

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What is good management?Firstly, “ What is good management?”. The worth thing

should mentioned is aim for a balance between stability and

flexibility. According to author, there is two types of

strategic thinking: vertical (rational) thinking which

deals with convergent problems, that has only one solution,

and lateral (intuitive) thinking which applies for

divergent problems, that has a number of possible

solutions. To be precise, in a fast – paced retail

environment like fashion, CEO should have different

promotion strategy in season, however, it’s necessary to

keep stable in oriented style to maintain their company’s

brand, customer loyalty…

Besides, good management is definitely interactive. In

fact, managers have to big picture of the company, external

and internal environment as well which has a lot of

interconnection between different aspects of business

activities and different problems. Good strategic

management integrates all the functional business

activities: finance, marketing, human resources, marketing,

information systems – and gives them coherence. In this

book, authors also emphasizes that “ the quality of a

strategy reflects the degree to which it takes account of

the strategies of other players – competitors, governments

and co-operators”.

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Additionally, good management is all about good design.

Managers should carry out a strategy is designed to fit

organizational capability with environmental opportunities.

According to Collin, strategy is regarded as a unifying

idea which link purpose and action. It means that to be

successful in market economy, CEO must design an unique

strategy which only fit with their brand, no one from their

competitors can do the similar thing. For further aim, good

design also help to develop stability. For example, IKEA’s

battle plan is “ Keep making furniture less expensive,

without making it cheap”. IKEA opened its first showroom

ten years after its foundation. Initially the growth of

IKEA was steady and gradual. IKEA has plans to accelerate

its rate of expansion and to extend its reach. Currently

IKEA is moving into Japan, however the current crisis in

Japan has created favourable conditions for such an entry,

for example a desire for low-cost furniture and furnishing.

IKEA, having learnt from its American experience, produces

a range of products suitable for the small spaces

characteristic of Japanese home.

Good management also requires a system view. It’s important

to have an orientation to the whole, rather than a focus on

just part of the whole. By this way, managers can find a

new problem as well as answer the old questions of the old

issues.

Finally, Collin White emphasizes that to have a good

management, we have focus on intent. It involves purpose –

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it is not aimless, but has a definite direction. It also

unfolds in a process of discovery or learning which takes

time to complete, if it is ever complete. It inevitably

involves some delay in the achievement of objectives, as

the journey unfolds.

What is a good manager? In this part we answer the question above taking into

account the ideas presented in Strategic Management (Colin

White) book. Accordingly we should rephrase “What is a good

manager?” by “What is a good strategic manager?”, in theory

every manager should be strategist but in order to reducing

the amplitude of the question and to focus in strategic

management concepts we are going to answer “What is a good

strategic manager?”

First of all we should clear what we understand as

strategic manager, we can easily deduce that a strategic

manager is someone who manage an organization following a

concrete strategy. Strategy is “a coordinated series of

actions which involve the deployment of resources to which

one has access for the achievement of a given purpose”

therefore strategy is a combination of human goals and the

organization of human activities to achieve those goals.

Accordingly a good strategic manager could be someone who

manages successfully human activities that are available in

his/her organization to achieve concrete goals, which has

previously established.

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Delving more into the concept of strategist manager. One of

the main skills that a manager should have is the ability

to solve problems quickly but when you are executing a

strategy two types of problems can occur: convergent

problems, those with one solution and divergent problems,

those with a number of possible solutions. Consequently a

good strategist manager should have two skills: first one,

creativity in order to fix divergent problems, taking the

best option or may be mixing different options, resulting

in a new and complete one and the second one, rationality

applied to convergent problems.

According to strategy history, world war and business are

close related, men of war were the first strategists and

today successful managers use their teachings applying them

in their business, for example the book “The Art of War”

(Sun Tzu, 1913) is considered one of the best guides to be

a good strategist, it teaches managers some lessons as: is

almost the same to manage a small group of people than a

big one, the key is the organization, it is important avoid

war with the competitors because it consume a lot of

resource, it is important to think with clarity and speed,

finally for Sun Tzu the key to successfully execute a

strategy is that team should be flexible and must be unity.

Colin White gives the example of successful strategist

manager Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. He was

able to successfully execute a perfect strategy to convert

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a group of 4 guys in pop stars. He planned every aspect of

the group’s success, including a very careful creation of

an attractive and acceptable image. He taught them how to

dress, what kind of music to write and record and the right

combination of live and recorded performance, all with the

aim of creating the most powerful brand name in this

industry.

Finally I consider important to say that a strategist

manager should be a visionary, is important to know what

you want to create and define the correct strategy to

achieve what you have in mind.

Individual viewsIn the following part we answer as an individual reflection

concrete questions according our points of view. The first

paragraph of each of our responses, answer the question

“How can I become good as a manager?” the second paragraph

answer the question “How can I become good as a

subordinate”?.

Lê Thị Thu Hoài opinionIn my opinion, to become a good manager, the most important

thing is that having strong sense of purpose. That means

people must thoroughly understand what they want, why they

want to do that. Unless they have clear answers for these

question, they will have motivation to find out how they

can approach it. Besides, if managers have a good insight,

they will have ability to persuade the talent people

collaborate with them. To get it done, we should set a

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target for week, month, year and usually check the

alrternative between the current result with the old one.

Additionally, people will become a good manager when they

can believe their subordinates. By simple action such as

start the sentence with: “You can do it” or “I know you can

handle it”, “I believe you” .,, managers can give

motivation for their staffs to help them finish work with

high fly colours.

To become a good subordinate, the worth thing should be

mentioned is that you must to set a long term learning

process. The world is changing every minute. It’s necessary

for people to take advantage of technology age and update

the huge knowledge everyday. By this way people can enjoy

their work, then they are willing to set their personal

goal fit with company’s mission. From then on, commitment

would be formed. Besides, good subordinate can have ability

to work in detail by obrseving everything carefully and

have habit to take note key points. It’s also important to

remember that leadership is required criteria. If people

can lead themselves to do task in time, follow schedule,…

they will work effectivelly.

Jesús Longás opinionFor me the main important aptitude that a good manager

should have is learn to obey, is impossible to know how to

command if you have never obeyed. If you become a manager

with out this aptitude your organization probably do not

work, is quite possibly that you do not be aware what you

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demand to your organization, and your employees will feel

misunderstood and led by someone who has not leadership.

Also is important to have the capacity to listen what your

employees suggest, promote good communication inside the

company, be pragmatic and have clear ideas. Of course is

important to have a complete education and the ability to

find solutions where other sees problems.

To become a good subordinate you have to be aware of what

is your job, it is important that your manager define what

is your task within the organization. Once you know your

work you have to have commitment and responsibility, do

your best and always give the best of yourself, have

ability to listen and give feedbacks to your colleagues,

be able to give new ideas to your boss and transmit your

perception of the organization, is important for managers

listen different points of views of the organization. The

most important thing is to not be a problem for your boss

or the organization, is important to find solutions, even

when these solutions can hurt you. Ultimately to become a

good subordinate you should have skills related with

emotional intelligence as motivation, empathy, self-

control, sociability…etc. And no less important is to have

a good manager (boss).

References

Sun Tzu. (1913). The art of war.

White, C. (2004). Strategic management. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

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