Competition is the reality of modern business organisations. At the time when economy was controlled in many countries including developing countries like China and India, market was protected and the dominant market position was the rule. In the last two decades these countries have substantially liberalized their economy. Their industries have been competing to get advantage in the national and international markets. Because of their economic development through the development of their institutions, industries and business such countries are expected to remain more competitive in the future too.
Business environment has been changing, frequently. It is difficult to keep our industries out from the impact of environmental effects. Instead, environment forces organisations to cope with. The organisation failing to cope with, can not progress, prosper and even threat for its survival over time. Successful organisations are those which can internally be strong enough to cope with environmental opportunities and threats. Then only they can compete in domestic and international markets.
Strategy is important to cope with environmental changes and to be competitive. Strategic management is the process of formulating and implementing strategic goals to secure market position of a firm. Every organisation engaged in the strategic management process can help achieve this goal. In this process, a firm can ensure best use of its human, financial, physical and information resources and finally able to change the organisation to fit with the need of time.
Does Nepal need strategic management approach to manage its organisations? The brilliant scholar of strategic management aptly argued that "no company, and no country, can afford to ignore the need to compete. Every company and every country must try to understand and master competition". Ignoring strategy means loosing every thing. A firm without strategy can not use its resources optimally. It remains weak internally by loosing its strength to gain opportunities and will face number of challenges from the external environmental forces including competitors, customers and suppliers. Therefore, no country and no company can neglect the value of strategy for the success.
I have tried to explain the above mentioned concepts and practices of strategies in this book. Take it as my modest effort to write this book on strategic management. I always welcome any valuable suggestions from the readers of this book. I tried to make this book as simple as possible for the use of students pursuing master degree in business administration.