Page 337 -

CHAPTER 9 • STRATEGY REVIEW, EVALUATION, AND CONTROL 303
middle- and lower-level managers—and even nonmanagers—should be invited to partici-
pate in the firm’s strategic planning process, at least to the extent that they are willing and
able to contribute.

Conclusion

This chapter presents a strategy-evaluation framework that can facilitate accomplishment
of annual and long-term objectives. Effective strategy evaluation allows an organization to
capitalize on internal strengths as they develop, to exploit external opportunities as they
emerge, to recognize and defend against threats, and to mitigate internal weaknesses
before they become detrimental.
Strategists in successful organizations take the time to formulate, implement, and then
evaluate strategies deliberately and systematically. Good strategists move their organiza-
tion forward with purpose and direction, continually evaluating and improving the firm’s
external and internal strategic positions. Strategy evaluation allows an organization to
shape its own future rather than allowing it to be constantly shaped by remote forces that
have little or no vested interest in the well-being of the enterprise.
Although not a guarantee for success, strategic management allows organizations
to make effective long-term decisions, to execute those decisions efficiently, and to
take corrective actions as needed to ensure success. Computer networks and the
Internet help to coordinate strategic-management activities and to ensure that deci-
sions are based on good information. The Checkmate Strategic Planning Software is
especially good in this regard (www.checkmateplan.com). A key to effective strategy
evaluation and to successful strategic management is an integration of intuition and
analysis:

A potentially fatal problem is the tendency for analytical and intuitive issues
to polarize. This polarization leads to strategy evaluation that is dominated by either
analysis or intuition, or to strategy evaluation that is discontinuous, with a lack of
coordination among analytical and intuitive issues. 19

Strategists in successful organizations realize that strategic management is first and
foremost a people process. It is an excellent vehicle for fostering organizational communi-
cation. People are what make the difference in organizations.

The real key to effective strategic management is to accept the premise that the plan-
ning process is more important than the written plan, that the manager is continu-
ously planning and does not stop planning when the written plan is finished. The
written plan is only a snapshot as of the moment it is approved. If the manager is not
planning on a continuous basis—planning, measuring, and revising—the written
plan can become obsolete the day it is finished. This obsolescence becomes more of
a certainty as the increasingly rapid rate of change makes the business environment
more uncertain. 20

Key Terms and Concepts

Advantage (p. 288) GAAS, GAAP, and IFRS (p. 300)
Auditing (p. 300) Management by Wandering Around (p. 290)
Balanced Scorecard (p. 295) Measuring Organizational Performance (p. 292)
Consistency (p. 288) Reviewing the Underlying Bases of an Organization’s
Consonance (p. 288) Strategy (p. 290)
Contingency Plans (p. 299) Revised EFE Matrix (p. 291)
Feasibility (p. 288) Revised IFE Matrix (p. 290)
Future Shock (p. 295) Taking Corrective Actions (p. 294)