AmericanStrategic Thinking Style
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Numerous reasons can be given for the success or failure of any particular organization. Unquestionably, an organization's management plays a critical role in its success or failure. 1 An analogy used most often among American companies is that a business is like a ship: if there's no skipper in charge, the ship will lose its course and might even sink if not steered clear of obstacles. As a result, successful American managers, like mariners, generally possess the skills necessary to be successful in the rough and tumble corporate world.2 Strategic Thinking has been defined in many ways --- and even today in America, there is no universally accepted definition. One often used is "getting things done through others". Another popular definition holds that StrategicThinking is the efficient utilization of resources. Generally, however, Strategic Thinking is a form of work that involves guiding or directing a group of people toward organizational goals or objectives. But even today, with business's reliance on knowledge and information, this definition is changing, requiring executives to learn how to manage situations in which they do not have command authority; where they are neither controlled or controlling. 3 This new, changing form of strategic thinking will be explained in this paper. It is critical at this point to understand what kinds of companies exist in America. There are three basic kinds of business organization available to an Ame
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business planning to be impractical, counterproductive or dangerous because of the tendency for long-term plans to go awry.
Most American CEOs are well aware of the fact that their short-term perspective runs counter to the strategic planning of European and Japanese firms. U.S. executives often cite that foreign companies, when supported by their governments (e.g. attractive debt-equity ratios, price subsidies, etc) can afford to take a longer-term strategy of slow growth with almost no growth in year-to-year or quarter-to-quarter earnings. 8 As it is now among American companies, if American CEOs were to take a longer term perspective, they most probably would be fired for lack of immediate performance.
Again, a question of shortsightedness. Instead of long-term goals, most American CEOs are more concerned about the exclusively short-term focus of their subordinates in both their business making and the construction of their personal careers, particularly the tendency to job hop. 9 Many of these executives recognize that their subsidiary managers' constant focus on short-term results and job hopping tend to jeopardize the companies they work for, milking each business for its short-term payoffs at the expense
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2092
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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