3Strategic Analysis: Understanding the Strategic Environment of the Firm
Jens Leker1 and Manuel Bauer2
1 University of Münster, Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy
2 LEDVANCE, Innovation Management
Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all.
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005), Writer, professor, and management consultant
This chapter deals with analytical methods and concepts in strategic analysis, which form the basis of strategic planning and decision making. Readers are becoming familiar with strategic analysis and enabled to select the relevant technique appropriate to the specific problem in hand. Given the large range of methods and concepts for strategic analysis available, we will focus on what we perceive to be the most useful ones for the chemical industry, while the overall outline of the chapter follows recent developments in the field of strategic management theory.
In the course of this chapter, we firstly define what is really meant by “firm performance” and clarify the role of the firm’s shareholders (owners) as well as other stakeholders relevant to this definition. Secondly, we will introduce various tools for strategic analysis that deal with analyzing the external environment of the company. In so doing, we are giving hints on how to position ...
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