PRESENTATION ON
STRATEGIC THINKING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
By Dr. John Yabs, PhD
Senior Lecturer, University of
Nairobi, School of Business
Area of Specialization : Strategic
Management and International
Business
Author of : Strategic
Management Practices; and
International Business
Operations in Kenya
BOOKS AUTHORED BY DR. JOHN
YABS
TOPIC OF DISCUSSION:
STRAGEIC THINKING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
PART I
STRATEGIC THINKING
STRATEGIC THINKING
What is strategic thinking?- It is a mental process
that give priority to some ideas over others.
 It is using selective memory to give priority to
some ideas that are relevant to the situation at
hand
 Strategic Thinking is a planning process that
applies innovation, strategic planning, and
operational planning to develop business
strategies that have a greater chance for success.

DEFINING STRATEGIC THINKING
Strategic Thinking is a planning process that
applies innovation, strategic planning and
operational planning to develop business
strategies that have a greater chance for
success.
 Strategic thinking came as a distinct metal
exercise of strategic planning: a process of
identifying objectives and fulfilling them.

EXPLAINING STRATEGIC THINKING
Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or
thinking process applied by an individual in the
context of achieving success in a game or other
endeavor. As a cognitive activity, it produces
thought.
 When applied in an organizational strategic
management process, strategic thinking involves
the generation and application of unique business
insights and opportunities intended to create
competitive advantage for a firm or organization

EXPLAINING STRATEGIC THINKING

Strategic thinking includes finding and
developing a strategic foresight capacity for
an organization, by exploring all possible
organizational futures, and challenging
conventional thinking to foster decision making
today
CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking is clear, reasoned thinking
involving critique. Its details vary amongst
those who define it. According to Beyer (1995),
critical thinking means making clear, reasoned
judgments. During the process of critical
thinking, ideas should be reasoned and well
thought out/judged
CRITICAL THINKING
It is the process of actively and skillfully
conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and evaluating information to
reach an answer or conclusion
 It is disciplined thinking that is clear, rational,
open-minded, and informed by evidence
 It is reasonable, reflective thinking focused on
deciding what to believe or do

CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking means making reasoned
judgments that are logical and well thought out.
It is a way of thinking in which you don't simply
accept all arguments and conclusions you are
exposed to but rather have an attitude involving
questioning such arguments and conclusions.
It requires wanting to see what evidence is
involved to support a particular argument or
conclusion.
PART II
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strega management has its roots in the first
function of management- Planning
 Planning is the start of every management
function- organizing, staffing, leading, and
controlling
 Strategic planning in the identification of
objectives and providing means of ataining
them

STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic planning is an organization's process of
defining its strategy, or direction, and making
decisions on allocating its resources to pursue
this strategy. It may also extend to control
mechanisms for guiding the implementation of
the strategy.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic Planning try to answer the following
questions:
 Where are we now?
 Where do we want to be?
 How do we get there?
 How do we measure our progress?

STRATEGIC PLANNING EXPLAINED
Strategic planning involves setting goals,
determining actions to achieve the goals, and
mobilizing resources to execute the actions.
A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be
achieved by the means (resources).
The senior leadership of an organization is
generally tasked with determining strategy.
STRATEGIC PLANNING EXPLAINED
Strategic planning is a review and planning
process that is undertaken to make thoughtful
decisions about an organization’s future in
order to ensure its success.
 It is a process of identifying goals and
objectives to be pursuit

OPERATIONAL PLANNING EXPLAINED
Operational planning refer to the short term
goals that are part of the overall strategic plan
 It answers the questions:
Where are we now?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?
How do we measure our progress?

PART III
Strategic Planners and strategic
thinkers
THREE LEVEL OF STRATIC MANAGEMENT
EXECUTIVE LEVEL
 BUSINESS LEVEL
 OPERATIONAL OF FUNCTIONAL LEVEL

STRATEGIC PLANNERS AND STRATEGIC
THINKERS
Planners and Strategists: all those who hold
positions of leadership who must think, decide
and execute their decisions
 Planners and Strategists should learn to own
the results of their decisions regardless of the
positive or negative nature of the outcome

STRATEGIC PLANNERS AND THINKERS IN A
UNIVERSITY
The Council members individually and
collectively
 The members of the senate
 Members of various committees and academic
boards
 Members of faculties, schools and various
divisions
 And all leaders of any other division identified
as a strategic business unit

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE
At every strategic management level, every
strategist must have requisite knowledge to be
able to comprehend the matters at hand
 The interaction between the environment and
organizations can be so complex that it
requires analytical mind and a capacity to
comprehend the intricacies between then.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT EXPLAINED
Strategic management is the continuous process
of creating, implementing and evaluating
decisions that enable an organization to achieve
its objectives.
 Formulation of Strategies and their execution is
the duty of the executive level of any organization
 The attainment of financial and non financial
goals, academic and non academic goals as well
as societal expectations

FORMULATION OF A STRATEGY
Environmental Scanning under the PESTEL
Factors
 Internal Environmental Scanning
 Answering the questions: what, when, where,
and how.
 Why now and what is expected of me or us
collectively?

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
What is the state of affairs in the industry, in
the world, in the country Kenya?
 What do we want to achieve?
 How is the environment and how are the odds?
 What are the experiences of others and what
model can we follow?

WORLDS ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
SITUATIONS
According to US Population Census Estimates
2015, World population in 2015 reached 7.3
billion
 Leading most populated countries: China
1,403 mln; India 1,290 mln; USA 325;
Indonesia 256; Brazil 206; Nigeria 180;
Ethiopia 90; Egypt 87; Tanzania 47; Kenya 42;
Uganda 35;

WORLD POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION
IN 2015
Political Activities that influence Educational
development in the world
 Millennium development goals
 Economic Activities and their influence on
culture and educational activities
 New political associations and political
dispensations

HOW CAN ORGANIZATIONS REACT? GLOBAL
STRATEGIC THINKING
Globalization and interdependence of world
economies: we must participate and join the
comity of nations
 To guard against hegemonic tendencies of
powerful nations and institutions like
monopolies. Understand the theory of
hegemony.

THE USA MODEL
Population 325 million in 2015
 Super power and must keep ahead of the pack
 Resources both national and international
 World presence and a hand in every event and
activity every where

THE CHINESE MODEL
Population 1,403 million: China has opened its
economy and many FDI go tyhere.
 They don’t have enough resources and thus
interest in Africa
 Chinese model of development: a friend in
need is a friend in deed

THE INDIAN MODEL
Population of 1,297 million. They practice Selfsufficiency in all sector of the economy
 India uses all available resources including NRI
in diaspora
 Investment in institutions to produce requisite
manpower
 Many countries are borrowing a lot from India
as an economic model

THE KENYAN MODEL
Population 42 million: each county has their
owns figures for planning purposes.
 New political dispensation and county
governments: each would like to have a
University.
 Many universities are opening satellite
campuses as expansion strategy.

MODELS OF POOR COUNTRIES
Papua New Guinea
 The Islands of Kiribati and St Brigit's and
Neville
 Tonga island
 Fiji islands
 Galapagos islands
 Haiti

PART IV
STRATEGIC THINKING AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AT THE
LEVEL OF THE BOARD OF
DIRECTORS IN AN INSTITUTION
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE QUALITY OF
DECISIONS
Composition of the board
 Contribution by individual members
 Collective thinking and quality of debate
 A right decision arrived at after debate is better
than a right decision made by CEO alone

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN UNIVERSITIES
The practice of formulating strategies and
implementation
 Challenges in Universities
 State of affairs in Universities and the stiff
completion
 The scramble for higher education and to
attract numbers

WEBOMETRIC RANGING OF UNIVERSITIES IN
2015
first 5 slots. U.Capetown, UNISA, U.Pretoria,
U.Stellenbosch, U.Witwatersrand
 Leading Kenyan Universities according to the
same webometric scales: UoN, Makerere,
Daresalam, KU, and JKUAT and others

COMPETITION BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES
What Universities should do?
 Challenges: Reducing government support;
demands from stakeholders; increased
autonomy and responsibilities
 Demand for quality decisions

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Efforts to Increase capacities and capabilities
within universities and application of business
process reengineering
 Strategic thinking and foresight in decision
making
 Increased demand for quality decisions
 Increased capabilities of individual members of
the board of directors

THE WAY FORWARD
The dichotomy of thinking and acting
 Innovation of ideas and new ways of practicing
management
 New approaches in solving routine problems
and using innovation to solve new problems

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
Is our organizational structure conducive to
new strategies?
 What internal advantages and competencies
do we have?
 What are the specifics of our products?
 Is our corporate culture understood by all
workers?

INTER-UNIVERSITY CHALLENGES
Increased turnover of lecturers and poaching of
good ones
 Luck of skills in specific in universities:
strategic thinkers and foresight managers
 Hostile environment and luck of support from
Central and County Governments

USING SERVICES OF EXPERTS
Use of expert consultants with specific
knowledge required by the University
 Continuous upgrading of skills and capabilities
of individual members of staff and members of
various committees;
 upgrading skills of managers and board
members in the latest and best practices in
industry.

PART V
CONCLUDING REMARKS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOCUS ON THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL
To improve the quality of decisions in the boards
of directors it is influenced by: the composition;
qualifications; institutional structures; the
thinking of individual members; the role of the
chairman; and the collective will of the board.
QUALITY OF CONTRIBUTIONS BY BOARD
MEMBERS
The quality of the contribution of individual
members is influenced by: qualifications;
experience; individual characteristics and
predispositions; the willingness and passion to
work.
CONDUCIVE ATMOSPHERE TO WORK
Working conditions and auxiliary services
received by members of the board
 Incentives to members of the board: gifts;
tokens; appreciation; facilitation.
 The question of corruption and collation under
the coalition phenomenon- kleptocracy

INTERESTS OF MEMBERS AND THE INTERESTS
OF ORGANIZATIONS
There should be efforts to merge or bring as
close as possible the interests of the members
of the executive board and those of the
organization.
 All should think collectively to formulate long
term plans and execute them to attain
objectives
 That is the purpose of Strategic management in
organizations.

THAT IS THE END