Strategic Management: A Few Indian Cases.

A business be it a manufacturing or services has a purpose of existence to serve the customer and serve the society in fulfilling the needs of consumption. The consumption needs are perpetual and under going changes .The perpetuality of needs and their changing character with time re­ quires the business to keep pace with time insuring its survival. The investment made and the returns to be given to investors makes the business to work for long life unlike the human life which perhaps goes on even if a human being decides todo nothing until the predetermined end is reached. The business has earned its life and therefore there is nothing like predetermined end nor the assurance of continuity if left to the forces of nature. The earning oflife makes the business to work towards the long term leading to the drawing of long term plans. The working towards the long-term through the planning is in essence mean dealing with future and attempting to control the uncertainty as when the future unfolds to have as far as possible no shocks and in the event of shocks its intensity does not impact the business to such an extent that the business is shaken beyond redemption/ retrievable position . The process of dealing with future or foreseeing the future to navigate business smoothly through it, is the bane of contention in strategic management. The strategic management is therefore to work out long term plan looking into the environment and anticipating changes to deal with them in systematic manner. The environment poses both challenges and threats. The challenges if handled well, help business to navigate smoothly and the failure in doing so pose the threat of (in extreme case) closure of business itself. This situation makes the business to look within and check what its positives are and what are the negatives that need the attention. The analysis of positives and negatives namely the strength the weakness help business to convert the challenges into opportunities so that the threats are reduced or wiped out. The two sides get separated into external environment and internal environment. In the following cases an attempt is made to bring out the importance and approach in strategic management by Indian companies.