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5.1. Strategic Management in the P-O-L-C FrameworkLearning Objectives 1. Be able to define strategic management. 2. Understand how strategic management fits in the P-O-L-C framework. 3. Broadly identify the inputs for strategy formulation.What Is Strategic Management?As you already know, the P-O-L-C framework starts with “planning.” You might also know that planning is related to, but not synonymous with, strategic management. Strategic management reflects what a firm is doing to achieve its mission and vision, as seen by its achievement of specific goals and objectives.A more formal definition tells us that the strategic management process “is the process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy.”[196] The strategic management process is “the coordinated means by which an organization achieves its goals and objectives.”[197] Others have described strategy as the pattern of resource allocation choices and organizational arrangements that result from managerial decision making.[198] Planning and strategy formulation sometimes called business planning, or strategic planning, have much in common, since formulation helps determine what the firm should do. Strategy implementation tells managers how they should go about putting the desired strategy into action.The concept of strategy is relevant to all types of organizations, from large, public companies like GE, to religious organizations, to political parties.Strategic Management in the P-O-L-C FrameworkIf vision and mission are the heart and soul of planning (in the P-O-L-C framework), then strategy, particularly strategy formulation, would be the brain. The following figure summarizes where strategy formulation (strategizing) and implementation fit in the planning and other components of P-O-L-C. We will focus primarily on the strategy formulation aspects of