Project analysis and evaluation in strategic management pdf

Project analysis is the assessment of every expense or problem related to a project, prior to the commencement of work on it. After evaluating the profitability of a project, the selection process is undertaken. It is a trend that requirements analysis begins once a project has been selected. The mere existence of a market is not enough for a company or a project to succeed. The company should also be able to sell the product.

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Project analysis and evaluation in strategic management pdf

Content:

• Strategic Management
• What is a monitoring and evaluation strategy?
• What is strategic management and why is it important?
• What is Situation Analysis, and why is it so important?
• How to Evaluate Corporate Strategy
• Strategic Public Management Journal
• Please wait while your request is being verified...
• Strategic Management Process - Meaning, Steps and Components

Strategic Management

No good military officer would undertake even a small-scale attack on a limited objective without a clear concept of his strategy. No seasoned politician would undertake a campaign for a major office without an equally clear concept of his strategy. In the field of business management, however, we frequently find men deploying resources on a […]. In the field of business management, however, we frequently find men deploying resources on a large scale without any clear notion of what their strategy is.

A valid strategy will yield growth, profit, or whatever other objectives the managers have established. An inappropriate strategy not only will fail to yield benefits, but also may result in disaster. In this article I will try to demonstrate the truth of these contentions by examining the experiences of a number of companies. I shall discuss what strategy is, how it can be evaluated, and how, by evaluating its strategy, a management can do much to assure the future of the enterprise.

The influence of strategy can be seen in every age and in every area of industry. Here are some examples:. From the time it was started in as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. Seeing itself in the data-system business at a time when most manufacturers were still preoccupied with individual pieces of equipment, IBM developed a set of policies which resulted in its dominating the office equipment industry.

In , it sold over , cars, compared with about 11, for Cadillac. By it had disappeared as an independent producer. The competence of its managerial leadership is significant as well. Luck can be a factor, too although often what people call good luck is really the product of good strategy.

But a valid strategy can gain extraordinary results for the company whose general level of competence is only average. And, conversely, the most inspiring leaders who are locked into an inappropriate strategy will have to exert their full competence and energy merely in order to keep from losing ground. When Hannibal inflicted the humiliating defeat on the Roman army at Cannae in b. Similarly, when Jacob Borowsky made Lestoil the hottest-selling detergent in New England some years ago, he was performing a similar feat—relying on strategy to battle competition with superior resources.

Strategy is important not only for aspiring Davids who need an offensive device to combat corporate Goliaths. It is significant also for the large organization faced with a wide range of choice in domestic and international operations. For instance, the following corporations are all in the midst of strategic changes, the implications of which are worldwide in scope:.

A strategy is a set of goals and major policies. The definition is as simple as that. In order to develop such a statement, managers must be able to identify precisely what is meant by a goal and what is meant by a major policy. Otherwise, the process of strategy determination may degenerate into what it so often becomes—the solemn recording of platitudes, useless for either the clarification of direction or the achievement of consensus.

Corporate goals are an indication of what the company as a whole is trying to achieve and to become. Both parts—the achieving and the becoming—are important for a full understanding of what a company hopes to attain. For example:. In order to state what a company expects to achieve, it is important to state what it hopes to do with respect to its environment. For instance:. Clearly, a statement of what a company hopes to achieve may be much more varied and complex than can be contained in a single sentence.

The firm is part not only of a market but also of an industry, the community, the economy, and other systems. In each case there are unique relationships to observe e.

A more complete discussion of this point is contained in a previous HBR article. If you ask young men what they want to accomplish by the time they are 40, the answers you get fall into two distinct categories. There are those—the great majority—who will respond in terms of what they want to have. This is especially true of graduate students of business administration.

There are some men, however, who will answer in terms of the kind of men they hope to be. These are the only ones who have a clear idea of where they are going. The same is true of companies. For far too many companies, what little thinking goes on about the future is done primarily in money terms. There is nothing wrong with financial planning. Most companies should do more of it. But there is a basic fallacy in confusing a financial plan with thinking about the kind of company you want yours to become.

Rich in what way? Rich doing what? The other major fallacy in stating what you want to become is to say it only in terms of a product. The number of companies who have got themselves into trouble by falling in love with a particular product is distressingly great.

In fact, these companies were so wedded to this concept of their future that they formed a cartel in order to keep General Motors out of the steam locomotive business. When the diesel locomotive proved its superiority to steam, these companies all but disappeared. The lesson of these experiences is that a key element of setting goals is the ability to see them in terms of more than a single dimension.

Who are these groups? There are many—customers, managers, employees, stockholders, to mention just the major ones. This set of policies, as a pattern, identifies what the company is trying to be. There are a great many rationalizations for this preoccupation with growth. It involves a different way of life, and one which many managers may not be suited for—either in terms of temperament or skills. Companies which are highly profitable at their present size may grow into bankruptcy very easily; witness the case of Grayson-Robinson Stores, Inc.

Starting out as a small but profitable chain, it grew rapidly into receivership. Conversely, a company which is not now profitable may more successfully seek its survival in cost reduction than in sales growth. Chrysler is a striking example of this approach. There is, in the United States, a business philosophy which reflects the frontier heritage of the country. It is one which places a high value on growth, in physical terms.

The manager whose corporate sales are not increasing, the number of whose subordinates is not growing, whose plants are not expanding, feels that he is not successful. But there is a dangerous trap in this kind of thinking. More of the same is not necessarily progress.

In addition, few managers are capable of running units several times larger than the ones they now head. The great danger of wholehearted consumer acceptance or an astute program of corporate acquisition is that it frequently propels managers into situations that are beyond their present competence. Such cases—and they are legion—emphasize that in stating corporate objectives, bigger is not always better.

A dramatic example is that of the Ampex Corporation:. A policy says something about how goals will be attained. A policy should be more than just a platitude. It should be a helpful guide to making strategy explicit, and providing direction to subordinates. Consequently, the more definite it is, the more helpful it can be. What is a fair return? The job of management is not merely the preparation of valid policies for a standard set of activities; it is the much more challenging one of first deciding what activities are so strategically significant that explicit decision-rules in that area are mandatory.

No standard set of policies can be considered major for all companies. Each company is a unique situation. It must decide for itself which aspects of corporate life are most relevant to its own aspirations and work out policy statements for them.

For example, advertising may be insignificant to a company which provides research services to the Defense Department, but critical to a firm trying to mass-merchandise luxury goods. It is difficult to generalize about which policies are major, even within a particular industry, because a number of extraordinarily successful companies appear to violate all the rules.

To illustrate:. In the candy industry it would seem safe to generalize that advertising should be a major policy area. However, the Hershey Company, which is so successful that its name is practically the generic term for the product, has persistently followed a policy of no advertising.

Similarly, in the field of high-fidelity components, one would expect that dealer relations would be a critical policy area. But Acoustics Research, Inc. The first thing to be said about corporate strategy is that having one is a step forward.

Any strategy, once made explicit, can quickly be evaluated and improved. But if no attempt is ever made to commit it to paper, there is always the danger that the strategy is either incomplete or misunderstood. Many successful companies are not aware of the strategy that underlies their success.

It is quite possible for a company to achieve initial success without real awareness of its causes. However, it is much more difficult to successfully branch out into new ventures without a precise appreciation of their strategic significance. This is why many established companies fail miserably when they attempt a program of corporate acquisition, product diversification, or market expansion. One illustration of this is cited by Myles L. Mace and George G. Montgomery in their recent study of corporate acquisitions:.

It soon found that the boat business was considerably different from the manufacture and sale of basic chemicals. Another reason for making strategy explicit is the assistance it provides for delegation and for coordination.

What is a monitoring and evaluation strategy?

Strategic management is defined as a process of specifying the objectives of the organization, developing policies and planning to achieve the objectives, and then allocating resources so that plans can be implemented. Strategic management is considered to be the highest level of managerial activity that the top management of the organization performs and also the executive team. Strategic management normally provides the overall direction of the entire organization. Strategic management is a set of actions and decisions that result to the formulation and implementation of approaches designed to achieve the objectives of the organization. This is a continuous process that is normally involved with the attempt of matching the organization with the changing environment in a manner that is advantageous. Strategic management is extremely critical in the survival of the organization. Organizations are supposed to select the directions in which it will move towards.

What is strategic management and why is it important?

Abstract: Although developing strategic and operational plans is a difficult and complicated process, their successful implementation is much more difficult. Many organizations fail in the full implementation of their strategies. To implement strategies effectively and to develop a comprehensive management system and to improve the performance, Robert Kaplan and David Norton introduced a modern management system which is Balanced ScoreCard. Likewise they introduced five main criteria: leadership, translation, alignment, every day process and ongoing process for a strategy oriented organization. This paper is intended to offer a systematic approach for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of the strategic plan performance. For this study the questionnaire was distributed in a project- orientated service organization and after collection, by the use of statistical. Analysis especially factor analysis the grouping of sub-criteria under the five main criteria was confirmed.

What is Situation Analysis, and why is it so important?

This paper looks beyond more traditional evaluation activities to focus primarily on evaluation up front. It suggests that the early appraisal of an investment case or a project should apply essentially the same evaluation criteria that will be used in ex post evaluation, and thus increase the likelihood of a successful project outcome. However, the initial plan might be altered as result of subsequent analysis, assessment, negotiation, positioning, and the exercise of power. The last part of this paper presents an empirical study of 23 projects, which examines the complexity of processes that occur in the idea- and decision phases.

How to Evaluate Corporate Strategy

What associations does this word bring to mind? Do you see evaluation as an invaluable tool to improve your program? Or do you find it intimidating because you don't know much about it? The purpose of this introductory section is to provide you with some useful background information on evaluation. Evaluation is a process that critically examines a program.

Strategic Public Management Journal

The new PMC design is here! Learn more about navigating our updated article layout. The PMC legacy view will also be available for a limited time. Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Background: Every research project faces challenges regarding how to achieve its goals in a timely and effective manner. Methods: Project evaluation tool to assess structure and resources, process, management and communication, achievements, and outcomes. The evaluation process allowed to highlight strengths and weaknesses and highlighted good coordination and communication between project partners as well as some key issues such as: the need for a shared glossary covering areas investigated by the project, problematic issues related to the involvement of stakeholders from outside the project, and issues with timing.

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The aim of this paper is to identify ways for improvement of the foresight evaluation framework on the basis of analysis and systematisation of accumulated experience in the field of project management. The paper is based on a detailed literature review devoted to an evaluation of foresight and traditional projects. The approaches to project evaluation in the field of project management were investigated, and the main steps of traditional project evaluation process were determined. The most commonly applied steps of foresight evaluation were identified by the analysis of recent foresight evaluation projects.

Strategic Management Process - Meaning, Steps and Components

It is also defined as the process by which managers make a choice of a set of strategies for the organization that will enable it to achieve better performance. Environmental Scanning - Environmental scanning refers to a process of collecting, scrutinizing and providing information for strategic purposes. It helps in analyzing the internal and external factors influencing an organization. After executing the environmental analysis process, management should evaluate it on a continuous basis and strive to improve it.

Strategic analysis is essential to formulate strategic planning for decision making and smooth working of that organization. With the help of strategic planning, the objective or goals that are set by the organization can be fulfilled. In a constant strive to improve, organizations must periodically conduct a strategic analysis which will, in turn, help them determine what areas need improvement and areas that are already doing well. For an organization to function efficiently, it is important to think about how positive changes need to be implemented. Strategic analysis is essential if a company has a goal and a mission for themselves. All leading organization who are well known for their achievements have years of strategic planning being implemented at various stages.

In the field of management , strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization 's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization operates. Michael Porter identifies three principles underlying strategy: [10]. Corporate strategy involves answering a key question from a portfolio perspective: "What business should we be in?