Strategic Management: A Cross-Functional Approach

Good strategic managers are capable of seeing the big picture and managing across the whole organization — that is the message of Strategic Management: A Cross-Functional Approach. This text shows students that successful strategic management requires an ability to see the organization as a whole—to step out of the functional silos that students tend to acquire through previous work experience or prior courses, and see the organization in a new way. To be good strategic thinkers, people from a marketing or HR background need to understand financials and how to use them, and finance and accounting people need to see that customer and employee relationships are the lifeblood of the organization.

 

Strategic Management is unique in covering the research, tools, and theory of strategic management – taking a cross-functional and integrative perspective, by focusing on value creation for customers, employees, and owners/stockholders.  This concept, called the customer-employee-owner cycle, is introduced in Chapter 1 and serves as an organizing framework throughout the book.

 

Each chapter is brought to life for students with a “focus company,” used as a running example to illustrate and enliven the material in the chapter.  Focus companies include organizations students are familiar with and interested in, such as Nike, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, John & Johnson, and the Walt Disney Company.

Dr. Stephen Porth is associate dean of the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University and a professor of management. He holds a PhD in business administration and strategy from Temple University, an MBA in marketing from Drexel University, and a BS in management from Saint Joseph’s. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of strategic management, leadership, management consulting, and business ethics. His research has been published extensively in management journals and he has written three books on strategy.