construction contract

What is strategy?
Strategy is a subject that has exercised the minds of political, military and business leaders for centuries. The earliest recorded attempts to define strategy emanate from Roman military commanders who sought to document the strategic options available on the battlefield. The acceptance of the need for strategic behavior in business is evidenced by the volume of literature dedicated to the subject. Much of the knowledge base has been developed by researchers and theorists; practitioners have had to apply critical judgments on how such theories can be applied to their own industry. This is particularly so in the construction industry where little material in the strategic management field has been available despite the efforts of authors such as Newcombe, Channon and Grinyer who have done much to bring strategic management theories to the attention of construction management practitioners.

What is strategic management?
Strategic management is a systematic approach to major and increasingly important responsibility of general management to position and relate the firm to its environment in a way which will ensure its continued success and make it secure from surprises.
Strategic management is concerned with deciding on strategy, and planning how that strategy is to be put into effect. It can be thought of as having three main elements within it. There is strategic analysis, in which the strategist seeks to understand the strategic position of the organization. There is strategic choice which is to do with the formulation of possible courses of action, their evaluation and choice between them. Finally there is strategic implementation which is concerned with planning how the choice of strategy can be put into effect. The three elements of the the strategic management are often seen as sequential in traditional texts, but actually they overlap and interact so that partial implementation may modify strategic choices for example.

The concept of strategy and the nature of strategic decisions
There are common themes in the definition of strategy. Strategy is concerned with the means to meet ends, that is it is concerned with achieving objectives. A strategy is also a set of rules for guiding decisions about organizational behavior. Strategies may be explicit or implicit., kept within the senior management team or pervading the organization to produce a sense of common direction

Two views have emerged on the nature of strategy:

The first perspective views strategy as planning mod. A strategy is worked out in advance, is explicit and managers develop a systematic and structured plan to meet objectives.
The second perspective sees strategy as an evolutionary mode. From this viewpoint strategy evolves over time, is not thought out and planned but is a stream of significant decisions.