Elisha Stephens & Brice Martin 
Business Policy and Strategic Management 

The knowledge of business policy and techniques of strategic management is the need of the hour to prospective business managers. The present competitive environment has brought several drastic changes in policy making and strategic management. Hence, there is necessity of theoretical understanding about the business policy as well as strategic management. Businesses need to implement sound strategies to succeed. Those strategies form part of an overall management and business policy that guides the business in connecting with customers, generating profits and managing resources. The related concepts of strategic management and business policy are keys to help small business owners manage their responsibilities and set clear objectives. Strategic management represents a theoretical concept first introduced by Peter Drucker in the mid-20th century. The idea behind strategic management is that organizations will be better equipped to meet their goals and objectives if the owners and managers adopt a clear business philosophy. For many businesses, that philosophy will be to increase their share of the market. For others, it might be about making a difference in the community or about developing new products. Sometimes, a combination of motives drives the management’s strategy. In any case, strategic management helps the business to keep its sights set on what matters most and to not get distracted by ancillary concerns. Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It is the process of specifying the organization’s objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources to implement the policies and plans to achieve the organization’s objectives. Strategic management, therefore, combines the activities of the various functional areas of a business to achieve organizational objectives. This book is designed to support and enhance both learning and teaching. An important aspect of the style adopted for this book is the use of exhibits, presenting a vast gamut of information regarding special theoretical matter.