One of the main reasons of the dissolution of numerous major corporations is the lack of vision and appropriate strategies for coping with the fast pace of business trends & technological innovations. The Management Mix Guide is a 7 step referential platform for developing corporate strategy; it is also a guide for reengineering, & restructuring and dynamically managing the change. The Guide is based on nine organizational elements to be analyzed & formulated taking into consideration the impact of the five micro-environmental factors and four macro-environmental factors.

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A Best Practice in Strategy Formulation
 One of the main reasons of the dissolution of numerous major corporations
is the lack of vision and appropriate strategies for coping with the fast pace of
business trends & technological innovations.
 The Management Mix Guide is a 7 step referential platform for developing
corporate strategy; it is also a guide for reengineering, & restructuring and
dynamically managing the change.
 The Guide is based on nine organizational elements to be analyzed &
formulated taking into consideration the impact of the five micro-environmental
factors and four macro-environmental factors.
How can companies & organizations assure a sustainable strategic development?
One of the main reasons of the dissolution of numerous major corporations is the lack of vision
and appropriate strategies for coping with the fast pace of business trends & technological
innovations.
NCR, Wang Laboratories, BBAC are companies that have been vanished long time ago; and
more recently major names such as Delta Airlines, General Motors or World Com have also
disappeared.

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In view of the above, a Managerial Guide is recommended which is implemented in hundreds
of companies & organizations in specific industries such as the Banking & Finance,
Telecommunications, Healthcare, Information Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Food Processing &
other industries such as Machinery Manufacturing.
The Management Mix Guide is a referential platform for developing Corporate Strategy; it is
also a Guide for Reengineering, & Restructuring and dynamically managing the change.
The Guide is based on nine organizational elements to be analyzed & formulated taking into
consideration the impact of the five micro-environmental factors and four macro-environmental
factors.
The seven steps for implementing the 9-5-4 Guide are as follows:
1. Analyze the micro-environmental factors: Competitors, Customers, Substitutes, Partners &
Suppliers;

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2. Analyze the opportunities & threats in the macro-environment: Political, Economic, Socio-
Cultural & Technological (standard PEST analysis).
3. Identify the organization’s stakeholder’s constantly evolving needs.
4. Analyze the organization’s strengths & weaknesses in the nine organizational elements,
Each element elaborated separately in the following page.
5. Formulate the Strategy regarding the 9 organizational elements.
6. Set an action plan & implement the strategy.
7. Continuously monitor & evaluate the strategy.
The nine organizational elements are as follows:
1. Strategy: After revisiting and restating the Organizational Vision, companies should
develop the corporate strategy, which includes the organization’s strategic orientations &
objectives, based on the existing and required resources and assessment of the micro &
macro environments in which the organization operates.
2. Processes: Optimization, standardization & streamlining of the organization’s
management, operational & supporting processes by controlling process related risks and
ensuring the continual monitoring & improvement of the management system through the
identification of KPI’s. Various types of international management standards are adopted,
according to the industry and the needs of the organization.
3. Talents: Development of a customized competency based talent management system for
attracting, developing and retaining talents. The talents will implement the formal
processes and informal processes for achieving operational and strategic objectives.
4. Structure: Development of the required competencies and layers and setting the
communication lines, the reporting system & cross-departmental coordination systems for
supporting the achievement of the corporate strategies and organizational vision.
5. Marketing: Development of a marketing plan by setting a Market Monitoring System for
transforming information into intelligence and then into initiative in terms of new products

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and services, a pricing policy, a placing and a promotional policy by taking into account the
constant changes of the customer behavior and the market requirements.
6. Sales: Optimization of the sales process through the seven steps sales model and
establishment cross-selling & up-selling approaches. In addition, development of sales
channels in different geographical regions.
7. Customer: Being in the center of the stakeholders, the company will develop a customer
satisfaction and loyalty policy; the customer experience management system will be set
and some specific procedures will be identified such as: loyalty programs, satisfaction
surveys & complaint management systems.
8. Information technology: Development & optimization of a holistic Information Technology
policy that will support the implementation of the processes, including but not limited to
Information security Management system.
9. Resources: Development of financial Management and asset management systems for
optimizing the exploitation of the resources.

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The Strategic Management Guide presented above has proven its efficiency in numerous
corporations. Management Mix experts constantly monitor the results & performance of
companies implementing the guide and provide customized recommendations to reduce the
managerial waste (muda) and cope efficiently with the environmental changes.
The article is written by Raffy Semerdjian for Arab Business Review
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