There is a lot of confusion between the terms strategic management and tactical management. Many people use them interchangeably, but they actually are very different from each other. Strategic management is the process of creating and implementing a long-term plan for your business, while tactical management is the day-to-day implementation of that plan. In order to understand both terms in a better way, one should look at some of the important differences between strategic management and tactical management –
Strategic Management vs Tactical Management
Meaning
Strategic management in simple words refers to that process by which the company develops and implements a plan that will help the company in the achievement of long-term goals of the company. It involves setting objectives, analyzing the current situation, formulating strategies, and taking action. Tactical management, on the other hand, is the process of carrying out the strategic plan properly. It includes short-term planning and execution of tasks and activities that are necessary to achieve the company’s short-term objectives.
Long Term and Short Term
Another difference between strategic management and tactical management is that strategic management focuses on long-term planning while tactical management focuses on the short-term implementation of the long-term plan. In simple words, strategic management is more like a 3 hour movie and that is the reason why it involves a lot of planning and tactical management is more like a 3 minute short video and hence requires less planning.
Scope
Another key difference is that strategic management is concerned with making decisions about the overall direction of the company while tactical management is concerned with making decisions about specific departments or projects. Hence one can say that scope of strategic management is wide as it is concerned about the whole company while the scope of tactical management is narrow as it is concerned about the particular department or project only.
Flexibility
In the case of strategic management, there is less flexibility implying that once the top management has made the plan then it is very difficult to reverse the plan or change the plan according to changes in circumstances. Hence for example if the company has made a plan for setting up a factory and invested the capital then it is impossible to back out. In the case of tactical management, there is more flexibility as compared to strategic management as these plans are made keeping in mind the day to day activities of the department. In simple words since strategic management affects the whole company, they are less flexible as compared to tactical management which affects only a particular department or project.
Levels of Management
Strategic management is all about setting long-term goals and creating a plan to achieve them. This includes analyzing the current situation, assessing the competition, and making sure that the company has the resources it needs to succeed which is the reason why these plans and strategies are made by the top-level management of the company. Tactical management, on the other hand, is all about implementing the strategic plan and making sure that day-to-day operations are running smoothly which is the reason why these plans and activities are done by middle-level managers and lower-level managers.
Area of Expertise
Strategic management is more about long term planning and achievement of goals and that is the reason why strategic managers need to be good at planning, analyzing, strategy formulation, and forecasting but when it comes to tactical management since it is more about routine work and operations the tactical managers need to be able to make quick decisions and solve problems quickly besides they also need to be good at organizing, teamwork and coordinating tasks.
As one can see from the above differences that both strategic management and tactical management have many differences between two but both types of management are important for the smooth functioning of the company.