The Strategic Management Process:The strategic management process is an eight-step process that encompasses strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation.A. The first step is identifying the organization's current mission, objectives, and strategies.1. Every organization needs a mission, which defines the purpose of the organization. What is the organization's reason for being in business?2. It's also important to identify the organization's current objectives and strategies, as well.B. Step 2 is analyzing the external environment, It's important to analyze the environment because, to a large degree, it defines management's strategic options.1. A successful strategy is one that aligns well with the environment.2. This step is complete when managers have an accurate grasp of what is taking place in theexternal environment and are aware of important trends that might affect the organizationC. The third step is identifying opportunities and threats. After analyzing the external environment, managers need to assess what opportunities to exploit and what threats to avoid.1. Opportunities are positive external environmental factors.2. Threats are negative external environmental factors..D Step 4 is analyzing the organization's resources. In this iD. Step 4 is analyzing the organization's resources. In this internal analysis, managers are looking at the organization's specific assets, skills, and work activities..1 Managers look for core competencies, which are an organization's major value-creating skills,capabilities, and resources that determine its competitive advantage..2. This step forces managers to realize that every organization, no matter how large or powerful, is constrained in some way by its resources and skillsE. assessment of the organization's internal resources.Step 5 is identifying strengths and weaknesses. The analysis in step 4 should lead to dear1. Strengths are those activities the firm does well or the unique resources it controls.2. Weaknesses are those activities the firm doesn't do well or the resources it needs but doesn'tOne area that's often overlooked in this step is an analysis of the organization's culture and its strengths and weaknesses.a. Remember that culture is the organization's personality.b. The strength of the culture is a result of how much employees understand and support the shared values..