strategic management

Management concerning strategic objectives, the wide-ranging long-term goals of an organization. The concept of strategic management owes a great deal to one of its first proponents, Russian-born, US-based academic Igor Ansof. In his first book, Corporate Strategy (1965), Ansoff addressed the problems facing an organization in terms of the decisions it had to take. Four standard types of decisions were identified: strategic, policy, programmes, and standard operating procedures. While the last three were similar to earlier ideas, strategic decisions were a new concept. Strategic decisions were different because they applied to new contingencies, and so needed to be made each time conditions changed.