Taylor moved to Midvale Steel, Philadelphia, in 1878 as a common laborer. Taylor rose from laborer to clerk, to machinist, to gang boss of the machinists, to supervisor of the machine shop, to master mechanic and to chief engineer, all in six year. Realizing that he lacked a scientific education, he enrolled in a home study. He obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering through series of correspondence courses at the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1883. His twelve years at Midvale were years of experimentation that provided the basis for Taylor ideas about shop management.

When Taylor became supervisor at Midvale, he set out to determine what the workers ought to be able do with their equipment and materials. This became the beginning of what was to be named scientific management, that is, the use of scientific fact finding method to determine empirically the right ways to perform tasks.

Time study became the foundation of the Taylor system. Taylor's time study had two phases:

1. Analytical phase: Each job was broken into as many simple movements as possible, useless movements were discarded. The quickest and best methods for each elementary movement were selected by observing the most skilled worker at each, and the movement was timed and recorded. To the recorded time, percentages were added to allow for unavoidable delays and for rest period.
2. Constructive phase: This phase involved building a file of elementary movement and times to be used wherever possible on other jobs or classes of work. Further, this phase led to consideration of improvements in tools, machine, methods and the ultimate standardization of all elements surroundings and accompanying the job.

In his 1895 paper, Taylor proposed an incentives plan for paying labor. Under Taylor's plan, a rate-setting department planned the work and set rate or standard for each task. This rate moved the measurement of job performance from guesswork and tradition to a more rational basis. Once the standard was set, the incentive payment rate worked two ways: those who did not meet the standard received and ordinary rate of pay, and those who did attain the standard received an extraordinary pay.

Taylor married Louise Spooener in 1884, and in 1890, he left Midvale to become general manager of the Manufacturing Investment Company (MIC), a converter of wood products into paper fiber. In 1893, Taylor resigned with a contempt for fanciers who were interested only in “making money quickly” and had”no pride of manufacture”. But fortunately, he realized his short coming in accounting. With his newly acquired knowledge and his engineering background, Taylor decided to become a consulting engineer for management. Some of his clients were Simonds Rolling Machine Company, Steel Motor Company (Johnstown, Pennsylvania), and Bethlehem Steel Company (South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania).

Frederick and Louis Taylor were unable to have children of their own. In 1901 they adopted three children, Kempton, Robert and Elizabeth.

Taylor demonstrated his talents as an inventor and engineer at Midvale and Bethlehem. He invented a process for cutting metal with high speed with Maunsell-White. The Taylor-White process was patented in 1900, and Taylor's share of royalties amounted to some $50.000, before the patent was nullified in 1909.

In 1906 Taylor became the president of the prestigious American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and he was asked to teach scientific management at Harvard in 1908. He was never entirely happy about teaching his system in a class room because in his opinion, his system could be learned only in the shop. For all his lectures, Taylor never accepted a penny of reimbursement, not even for traveling expenses. Taylor also found his system getting some extra ordinary free publicity.

Taylor died in the hospital one day after his fifty-ninth birthday because of pneumonia. His grave site at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, bears this epitaph: “Frederick W. Taylor, Father of Scientific Management”.

Organizations were being reshaped by the demand of heavy infusions of capital. Conflicts occurred between agricultural workers and industrial society. Workers were unskilled, children and women work at night shift. These early management pioneers proposed solutions for coping with the growing factory system

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Robert Owen was a paradox in the turbulent era of the Industrial Revolution. He had a vision of a new industrial society that was to be a combination of agricultural and industrial commune and hardened back to the lost days of more primitive people.

Philosophically, he viewed people as powerless, held in the grips of revolutionary forces of the new age of machinery, which destroyed moral purpose and social solidarity. His struggle was a long and frustrating one and he appears in history as a King Canute ordering the waves of progress to recede.

Owen at the age of eighteen founded his first factory in Manchester, England. In 1794 or 1795, he established a new partnership, the New Lanark, Scotland, venture. At New Lanark, he encountered the ubiquitous problem of scarcity of labor. The children worked thirteen hours per day.

Owen continued to employ children but tried to improve their living conditions. Owen began to form new ideas about the welfare of society. The economic and social problem was to develop agriculture to use intensive methods of cultivation to feed more people. He therefore prepared a plan:

1. To cultivate soil with spade instead of plough.
2. To make such changes as the spade cultivation requires, to render it easy and profitable to individuals and beneficial to the country.
3. To adopt a standard of value, by means of which, the exchange of the products of labor may proceed without check or limit, until wealth shall become abundant, that any further increase to it will be useless, and will not be desired.

Owen's spade husbandry plan of 1821 would create jobs, enabling more people to be employed, thereby increasing their ability to consume products of industry. To create new factory ethos, he tried to use moral suasion rather than corporal punishment. He developed or particular unique device, the silent monitor to aid discipline.

Owen chided his fellow manufacturers for not understanding human element. He charged that they would spend thousands on the best machines, yet buy the cheapest labor. He held that human were creatures of their environment, relatively incapable of escaping it without a moral rearmament through education. Owen felt that character developed solely if the material and moral environment was proper.

In 1813, he proposed a factory bill to prohibit the employment of children under the age of ten, and oppose night work for children. This bill became a law in 1819.

A biographer suggested that Owen frustrated in his attempt to reform the society. Failing to achieve his goal in England, he bought thirty thousands acres in Posey County, Indiana, United States of America. He renamed it New Harmony, and set out to achieve his social reforms.

Among the settlers in New Harmony, there were those who had heard that New Harmony was a place where you could work a little, and the society would still feed, clothe, and house you. Owen try to reorganize this society but gave up and leaving in 1827.

After New Harmony, Owen found himself both financially and emotionally broken. In 1834, Owen led the British Trade Union movement, a working class movement based on the idea of collective action to control the means of production. He failed. Robert Owen, a Utopian socialist, sowed the first seeds of concern for the human element in industry.

Andrew Ure (18 May 1778 - 2 January 1857)

Andrew Ure was a Scottish professor of chemistry and natural philosophy. Ure gained fame by his speeches and writings that advocated the great benefits of industrial capitalism.

He deeply concerned with industrial education. The principle of the factory system was the substitution of mechanical science for hand skill, and to provide for the graduation of labor among artisans. Ure sought an automatic plan to prevent individual intractable workers from stopping work as they pleased and thereby throwing a whole factory into disorder.

According to Ure, workers had to recognize the benefits of mechanization and not resist its introduction. To establish this automatic plan, management had to arrange and connect manufactures to achieve harmony of the whole. In every establishment there were three principles of action: the mechanical; the moral and the commercial.

Mechanical referred to the techniques and processes of production; moral referred to the condition of personnel and commercial referred to sustaining the organization through selling and financing.

His book "The Philosophy of Manufactures” was published in 1835, played an important role in molding a public opinion on the factory system amid critical debates on factory reform and new poor laws. This set out the basis of the factory system of production. It also defended the working conditions of factories during the Industrial Revolution in Britain.

Charles Babbage (26 December 1791-18 October 1871)

Charles Babbage was an English mathematician, philosopher, and mechanical engineer who originated the idea of a programmable computer. He theorized and applied a scientific approach to management long before the scientific management era began in the United States. He demonstrated the world's first practical mechanical calculator, his difference engine, in 1822.

As early as 1933, he conceived his analytical engine that could in effect, scan stream of instruction and put them into operation. Babbage's computer had all basic elements of modern computer such as memory (store), arithmetic unit (mill), a punch card input system, external memory storage and conditional transfer. Babbage also created an apparatus for printing on paper.

He limited his research to developing a computer program to play tick-tack toe and chess, but he saw that the machine, that he called automaton, could be programmed to make the best possible combination of position and moves, including anticipation as far as three moves in advance.

Inevitably, Babbage's inquisitive mind led him to write of management. His most successful book was "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures", Published in 1832. As a management scientist, Babbage was interested in machinery, tools, the efficient use of power, developing counting machines to check quantity of work, and economy in the use of raw materials; these he called the mechanical principles of manufacturing.

On the human side, Babbage attempts to show the mutuality of interest between the worker and the factory owner. Babbage's profit sharing scheme had two facets: that a portion of wages would depend on factory profits and that the worker should derive more advantage from applying any improvement he might discover.

Babbage saw a number of advantages in his proposal: each worker would have direct interest in the firm's prosperity; each would stimulated to prevent the waste and mismanagement; every department would be improved; and it would be the common interest of all to hire only the most skillful workers.

Pierre Charles François Dupin (1784-1873)

Pierre Charles François Dupin was a French Catholic mathematician. Dupin was the second individual who pioneered in industrial education. For twelve year, he taught geometry and mechanic to the workers in order to develop prosperity across the country.

Hoaglund reported that by 1826, Dupin's material on management had been presented in ninety-eight French cities to five thousand or more workers and supervisors. Dupin also demonstrated a rudimentary grasp of the concept of time study and the need to balance work loads after labor was divided: When the division of work is put into operation the most scrupulous attention must be exercised to calculate the duration of each type of operation, in order to proportion the work to the particular number of workers that are assigned.

Dupin also recognize worker uneasiness over the introduction of mechanization into French industry. He encouraged workers and managers to recognize the benefits of mechanization to them and to society.

For Dupin, Mechanization created job rather than destroyed them. He called for widespread industrial training to permit the agrarian and unskilled worker to share the prosperity of industrialization.

Similarly, many of these firms have trained and developed their people before sending them to foreign assignment. However, in some cases the personnel are not totally prepared to deal with the day to day cultural challenge because they lack field experiences. This is where the cultural integrator enters the picture.

The integrator is responsible for helping handle problems between the subsidiary and the host cultures. Among other things, the person advises management of the consequences of those actions that can negatively affect its position in the host country and market, and works with the management in developing appropriate response.

Some companies send the cultural integrator from the home office. Many choose a host country national who has intimate knowledge of the multinationals culture and can view operations from both sides. Quite often the individual hold a staff position and ca only advise and recommend course of action; the person has no authority to demand implementation of such actions.

For these reason the integrator needs proficiency in both conceptual and human relation skills. He or she must be able to envision the relationship between the Multinational Company and host country that will result in the best fit for both. At the same the individual must be able to persuade the line managers to accept his or her point of view.

Apple decided to enter Japanese market in 1989 and in three years have over 5 percent share. Apple estimates that this will rise to 10 percent by 1996, which translate into a $ 1 billion annual market for Apple. What account of this success? One answer is the company's effort in product development, which resulted in the NTX-J printer, which can handle kanji, Japan pictogram based writing system. Apple also developed Powerbook, the powerful notebook computer. The firm has prided itself on its ability to get Japanese software developer to design products for Apple computers. Beside developing new products, Apple has launched very unique and successful marketing campaigns, which has range from sponsoring Janet Jackson's Japanese rock tour to hosting a MacWorld Expo in Tokyo, which drew over 50,000 visitor.

In order to keep the current momentum, Apple will have to continue rolling out additional products that are easy to use and can quickly attract costumers. One product that clearly shows this ability is the popular MacWrite II-J word processing program. Importantly from an international management perspective, this program is specially designed for the Japanese culture by allowing users to list terms or numbers in the middle of the text and to create tables. Another feature is amikake formatting, in which a shaded box is placed over text for highlighting. MacWrite II-J has been so well developed that is now the most popular Macintosh business application in the country.

For future, Apple has decided to develop additional offerings that will allow it to continue gaining market share. Fr example one product that is scheduled to release in the near future is a series of interactive children's story on compact disc. This software run on the Macintosh and equipped with sound, and animated drawings appear on the screen with text in Japanese. Clicking a hand held mouse at the characters causes the words to be read aloud. Apple believes that this product will help it gain a foothold among young children, who, of course are future costumers. The firm also intends to develop scholastic software, including a word processing program for the elementary and secondary school markets. At the same time, the company continue to scout for other programs that can be developed for the Japanese market. Included in this considerations are new notebook models and software for small business. Apple realizes that there is a large untapped market for computer applications in Japan, and by the turn of the century the company may be one of the largest multinationals in Japan.

There are a number of reason that help explain this declining percentages. One it that the European governments that are member of the consortium have contributed generously to the research and development needed to design and build state of the art equipment. A second is that these governments now purchase Airbus aircraft while in the past years their purchase are almost always from the U.S aircraft manufacturers. A third is that the U.S Government is cutting back on its own purchases of military aircraft, thus denying Boeing and McDonnell Douglas what used to be guaranteed orders as well as the funding for developing airplanes that would later be modified for commercial use. A fourth is that new aircraft must be researched and designed to replace the aging fleet now in existence worldwide. The cost of bringing these aircraft to market will run into the billion dollars, and Boeing and McDonnell lack the needed research and development funds.

As a result of these developments, Airbus is continuing to increase its market share. However, the U.S government is trying to reduce the political risk and, through effective negotiations convince the consortium members to stop providing such large annual subsidies to Airbus. If these efforts are not successful, McDonnell Douglas is likely to go out of the business or have to sell more of its ownership to foreign investors, such as it recently did to Taiwan, who can provide the necessary capital to keep the firm going. The same will eventually happened to Boeing, since without new product development the company will have great difficulty competing against Airbus. In any event, the U.S dominated commercial airliner manufacturing industry has seen the entrance of a major competitor in Airbus. The industry has also seen an increase in the political risk facing established competitors and which will face Airbus as well, if the governments involved are unable to resolved their differences.

As the Japanese, South Korean and European continue to expand their economic horizons, increased employment opportunities will be available worldwide. Is it a good idea to work with foreigners? Those who have done so have learn that there are both rewards and penalties associated with this career choice. Here are some useful tips that have been drawn from experiences of those who have worked for foreign Multinational companies.

First, although most American are taught to make fast decisions, most foreign managers take more time and vie rapid decision making as unnecessary and sometimes bad. In the United States we hear the cliché that “The effective manager is right 51 percent of the time”. In Europe this percentage is perceived as much too low, which helps explain why European managers analyze situations in much more depth than do most United States managers. American working for foreign owned firms has to focus on making slower and accurate decisions.

Second, most Americans are taught to operate without much direction. In Latin countries managers are accustomed to giving a great deal of direction, and in Far Eastern firms there is little structure and direction. American has to learn to adjust to the decision making process f the particular company.

Third, most American go home around 5 p.m. if there is more paperwork to do, they take it with them. Japanese managers, on the other hand, stay late at the office and often view those who leave early as being lazy. Americans have to either adapt or convince the manager that they are working as hard as their peers, but in a different physical location.

Fourth, many International firms say that their official language is English. However, important conversations are always carried out in the home country's language. So it is important to learn the language.

Fifth, many foreign multinational companies make use of fear to motivate their people. This is particularly true in manufacturing work, where personnel are under continuous pressure to maintain high output and quality. For instance, those who do not like to work under intense conditions would have a very difficult time succeeding in Japanese auto assembly plants. Americans have to understand that humanistic climates of work may be the exception rather than the rule.

Finally, despite the fact that discrimination in employment is outlawed in the United States, it is practiced by many multinational companies, including those operating in the United States. Women are seldom given the same opportunities as men and top level jobs are almost always reserved for home office personnel. In many cases, Americans have accepted this ethnocentric (nationalistic) approach, but ethics and social responsibilities are a major issue in the international arena, and the challenges must be met now and in the future.

In contrast to Western firms, many Japanese companies use what is called a target cost approach. Like another multinational firms, Japanese companies begin the new product development process by conducting marketing research and examining the characteristics of the product to be produced. However, at this point the Japanese take a different approach.

The traditional approach used by multinational companies around the world is to next go into designing, engineering, and supplier pricing, and then determine if the cost is sufficiently competitive to move ahead with the manufacturing.

Japanese manufacturers, on the other hand, first determine the price that the consumer most likely to accept, and then they wok with design engineering and supply people to ensure that the product can be produced at this price. The other major difference is that after most firms manufacture a product, they will engage in periodic cost reductions. The Japanese, however, use a kaizen approach, in which thee are continuous cost reduction efforts.

The critical difference between two systems is that the Japanese get cost out of the product during the planning and design stage. Additionally, they look at profit in terms of product lines rather than just individual goods. So a costumer product that would be rejected for production by an American or European firm because its projected profitability is too low may be accepted by a Japanese firm because the product will attract additional costumers to other offerings in the line.

A good example is provided by Sony, which decided to build a smaller version of its compact personal stereo system and market it to older consumers. Sony knew that the profitability of the unit would not be as high as usual, but it went ahead because the product would provide another market niche for the firm and strengthen its reputation.

Also a side benefit is that, once a product is out there, it may appeal to an unanticipated market. This was the case with Sony's compact personal stereo system; the unit caught on with young people and Sony's sales are 50 percent greater than anticipated. Had Sony made its manufacturing decision solely on stand alone profitability, the unit would never have been produced.

These approaches are not unique to Japanese firms. Foreign companies operating in Japan are catching on and use them as well. A good example is Coca-Cola Japan. Coke is the leading company in the Japanese soft drink market, which sees the introduction of more than a thousand new products each year.

Most of these offerings do not last very long, and cost accountant might well argue that is not worth the effort to produce them. However, Coca-Cola introduces one new product a month. Most of these sodas, soft drinks, and cold coffees survive less than 90 days, but Coke does not let the short term bottom line dictate the decision. The firm goes beyond quick profitability and look t the overall picture.

Result: Coca-Cola continues to be the leading soft drink firm in Japan, despite competition that is often vigorous than in the United States.

Japanese managers tend to stay with one company for their entire work career. So when they are transferred overseas, they go to a company affiliate and continue working there until they are transferred to another affiliate or brought home. Their experience are limited in that they only know how their firm works, but the managers also gain a solid understanding of the inner workings of the firm's international operations. American managers, on the other hand, often use their overseas experience as basis for moving to another company that is looking to strengthen its international position.

Another interesting contrast is loyalty to the firm. Many Japanese managers stay with the firm because they believe it is wrong to accept a position with anyone else. They feel a strong bond of commitment to the company. American managers tend to have stronger loyalty to themselves than to the firm, and if a better job comes along they will take it.

A third contrast in styles provided by the job security issue. Japanese managers, in the main, are looked after by the firm. Their job are ensured, their salaries and benefits are guaranteed. American managers, on the other hand, are more likely to be let go if the firm starts running into trouble. As a result, while Japanese managers rely on the firm to take care of them, American managers rely heavily on their own knowledge and skills to ensure their security.

Finally, if business does slow down Japanese firm typically use this time to train their employees and prepare them for the expected economic upturn. In contrast, American firms cut back on training during poor economic times.

These examples help explain why managerial values and perspectives of the Japanese and American are quite different. These examples also help explain why it can be difficult to transfer managers from one of these counties to a subsidiary in the other country. Their values, beliefs, and management styles are often quite different from those of local managers.

Integration Strategies

Integration strategies allow a firm to gain control over distributors, suppliers, and/or competitor. There are three types of integration strategies: forward, backward and horizontal.

Forward integration strategy

Forward integration strategy involves gaining ownership or increased control over distribution and retailers. For example, Coca-cola has bought domestic and foreign bottling companies in order to increase its production and distribution efficiency. An effective means of implementing forward integration is franchising. Business can expand rapidly because cost and opportunities are spread among many individuals.

Backward integration strategy

Backward integration is a strategy of seeking ownership or increased control of a firm's suppliers. This strategy can be especially appropriate when the firm's current suppliers are unreliable, too costly or cannot meet the firm's needs.

Horizontal integration strategy

Horizontal integration refers to a strategy of seeking ownership of or increased control over a firm's competitors. Mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers among competitors allow for increased economies of scale and enhanced transfer of resources and competencies.

Intensive Strategies

Market penetration, market development and product development are sometimes referred to as intensive strategies, because they require intensive effort to improve a firm's competitive position with existing products.

Market penetration strategy

A market penetration strategy seeks to increase market share for present products or services in present markets, through greater marketing efforts. This strategy includes increasing the number of sales person, increasing advertising and promotion.

Market development strategy

Market development strategy involves introducing present products or services into new geographic area. Although there is no guarantee of success, in many industries, it is going to be hard to maintain a competitive edge by staying close to home.

Product development strategy

Product development is a strategy that seeks increased sales by improving or modifying present products or services. Product development strategy usually entails large research and development expenditures. Large expenditures in product development strategy are a major reason why automotive and computer firm do not own their distribution or dealers

Diversification Strategies

Although it is very difficult to manage diverse business activities, but sometimes diversification is still appropriate and successful strategy. There are three general types of diversification strategies: concentric, horizontal and conglomerate.

Concentric diversification strategy

Adding new but related products or services is widely called concentric diversification strategy. An example of this strategy is the recent entry of Bell Atlantic Corporation, a telephone company, into the video programming business.

Horizontal diversification strategy

Adding new, unrelated products or services for present costumer is called horizontal diversification strategy. This strategy is not as risky as conglomerate diversification strategy, because a firm should already be familiar with its present customers.

Conglomerate diversification strategy

Adding new, unrelated products or services is called conglomerate diversification strategy. General Electric is an example of a firm that is highly diversified. GE makes locomotives, light bulbs, and refrigerators. GE manages more credit cards than American Express. GE owns more aircraft that American Airlines.

Defensive Strategies

In addition of integration, intensive and diversification strategies, organizations could also pursue defensive strategies. There are four types of defensive strategies: joint venture, retrenchment, divestiture and liquidation.

Joint venture strategy

Joint venture is a popular strategy that occurs when two or more companies form a temporary partnership or consortium for the purpose of capitalizing on some opportunity. This strategy can be considered defensively only because the firm is not undertaking the project alone. This strategy allows companies to improve communication and networking, to globalize operation and minimize risk.

Retrenchment strategy

Retrenchment occurs when an organization regroups through cost and asset reduction to reverse declining sales and profits. This strategy is design to fortify an organization's basic distinctive competence. In some case, bankruptcy can be an effective type of retrenchment strategy. Bankruptcy can allow a firm to avoid major debt obligations and to avoid union contracts.

Divestiture strategy

Selling a division or part of an organization is called divestiture. Divestiture is often used to rise capital for further strategic acquisitions or investment. This strategy is also useful to rid unprofitable activities in a firm.

Liquidation strategy

Selling all of company's assets, in parts, for their tangible worth is called liquidation. Liquidation is a recognition of defeat and consequently can be an emotionally difficult strategy. However, it may be better to cease operating than to continue losing large sum of money.

What is Strategic Management?

Strategic management can be defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives. As this definition implies, strategic management focuses on integrating management, marketing, finance or accounting, operation, research and development, and computer information system to achieve organizational success.

Stages of Strategic Management:

Strategic management process consists of three stages: strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation.

1. Strategy Formulation:

   Strategy formulation includes developing a business mission, identifying an organization's external opportunities and threats, determining internal strength and weakness, establishing long term objectives, generating alternatives strategies, and choosing particular strategies to pursue (strategies that will benefit the firm most).
   
   Mission statements are enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business with other similar business. A mission statement identifies the scope of a firm's operation in product and market terms.
   
   External opportunities and threats refer to economic, social, cultural, political, technological and competitive trend and events that could significantly benefit or harm organization in the future.
   
   Internal strengths and weakness refer to any controllable activities within an organization that are performed especially well or poorly.
   
   Long term objectives can be defined as specific results that an organization seeks to achieve in pursuing its basic mission.
   
   Annual objectives are milestones that organizations must achieve to reach long term objectives.
   
   Strategy formulation decisions commit an organization to specific products, markets, resources, and technologies over an extended period of time. Strategies determine long term competitive advantages.




2. Strategy Implementation:

   Strategy implementation means mobilizing employees and manager to put formulated strategies into action. Strategy implementation requires a firm to establish annual objectives, devise policies, motivate employees, and allocate resources so that formulated strategies can be executed. Strategy implementation includes developing a strategy supportive culture, creating an effective organizational structure, redirecting marketing efforts, preparing budgets, developing and utilizing information systems, and linking employee compensation to organizational performance.

3. Strategy Evaluation:

   Strategy evaluation is the final stages in strategic management. There are three fundamental strategy evaluation activities:
   
   Reviewing external and internal factors that are the bases for current strategies.
   
   Measuring performance.
   
   Taking corrective actions.
   
   Strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation activities occur at three hierarchical levels in a large organization: corporate, divisional or strategic business unit, and functional. By fostering communication and interaction among managers and employees across hierarchical levels, strategic managements help a firm function as a competitive team.

Integrating Intuition and Analysis:

The strategic management process can be described as an objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization. Intuition is essential to making good strategic decisions. Intuition is particularly useful in making decision in situations of great uncertainty or little precedent. Some managers and owner of business profess to have extraordinary abilities for using intuition alone in devising brilliant strategies.

Although some organization may survive and prosper because they have intuitive geniuses managing them, most are not so fortunate. Most organization can benefit from strategic management, which is based upon integrating intuition and analysis in decision making. Analytical thinking and intuitive thinking complement each other.

Adapting to Change:

The strategic management process is based on the belief that organization should continuously monitor internal and external factors so that timely change can be made as needed. To survive, all organization must be capable of astutely identifying and adapting to change. The strategic management process aimed at allowing organization to effectively adapt to change over the long run.