Strategic Leadership in Business
A strategic leader must empower others in the organization to carry out these strategic actions and ensure that the actions achieve the set vision. Apart from setting the vision and mission, other strategic actions that are part of strategic leadership include; developing a management team in an organization, managing the resources, building entrepreneurial cultures, promoting integrity and ethical behavior in the organization as well as setting up and using effective controls within the organization.
The vision and mission set out the path that a company follows in the long term. They set out how a business is supposed to operate and what it is expected to achieve in the long run. In order to achieve this, other short term strategic plans should be set up to help in the achievement of the overall vision. These short term strategic plans help the company achieve short term targets that end up creating value for the company as it seeks to achieve its core intent, included in the vision and mission of the company.
A balance between the strategic and financial controls is important for the success of any organization. Since the strategic controls usually focus on the long term future, they are likely to lead to losses in the current period. Financial controls on the other hand, focus on the current period ensuring profitability while jeopardizing the future stability of the company. A balance between the two controls is needed to ensure that the company has a successful future, while maintaining its current profitability. Organizations can achieve the right balance between strategic and financial controls using a balanced scorecard. The balanced score card provides the best framework for evaluating these two controls.
The balanced scorecard provides the best framework for evaluating the strategic and financial controls simultaneously. It focuses on four areas namely the financial aspect, customers, internal business processes and the learning and growth culture of the organization. With its help, leaders are able to view the organization through the eyes of all the stakeholders i.e. the customers, employees and shareholders. This way they are able to develop strategic plans that map out operations and executions that are within the available resources.
The balanced score card also acts as a performance measurement framework offering managers a balanced view of the organizational performance. It provides feedback and a clear prescription of the vision and strategies put in place translating them into action. When fully implemented, a balanced scorecard can transform strategic plans from a management exercise to being the nerve center of an enterprise.
