Strategic Surveillance

Strategic surveillance is unfocussed. It involves general monitoring of various sources of information to uncover unanticipated information having a bearing on the organizational strategy. It in volves casual environmental browsing. Reading financial and other newspapers, business magazines, attending meetings, conferences, discussions and so on can help in strategic surveillance. Strategic surveillance may be loose form of strategic control, but is capable of uncovering information relevant to the strategy.

 

Special Alert Control

To cope up with such eventualities, the organizations form crisis management teams to handle the situation. Some unexpected events may force organizations to reconsider their strategy. Alert about sudden changes in government, natural calamities, terrorist attacks, unexpected merger and acquisition by competitors, industrial disasters and other such events are required to trigger an immediate and intense review of strategy

Implementation Control

Managers implement strategy by converting major plans into concrete, sequential actions that form incremental steps. Implementation control is directed towards assessing the need for changes in the overall strategy in light of unfolding events and results associated with incremental steps and actions. Strategic implementation control is not a replacement to operational control. Unlike operational control, it continuously monitors the basic direction of the strategy. The two basic forms of implementation control are:

1. Monitoring Strategic Thrusts: Monitoring strategic thrusts helps managers to determine whether the overall strategy is progressing as desired or whether there is need for readjustments.
2. Milestone Reviews: All key activities necessary to implement strategy are segregated in terms of time, events or major resource allocation. It normally involves a complete reassessment of the strategy. It also assesses the need to continue or refocus the direction of an organization.

These four strategic controls steer the organization and its different sub-systems to the right track. They help the organization to negotiate through the turbulent and complex environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure: “Strategic Management- Formulation, Implementation and Control”