Introducing the Concepts -- Why Is Strategic Management Important? -- What Is Strategic Management? -- The Basics of Strategy and Strategic Management -- The Strategic Management Process -- Looking at Strategic Management's Past -- Misconceptions About Strategy and Strategic Management -- Who's Involved with Strategic Management? -- The Role of the Board of Directors in Strategic Management -- The Role of Top Management -- Other Strategic Managers and Organizational Employees -- The Context of Managing Strategically -- Managing Strategically and Competitive Advantage -- The Industrial Organization (I/O) View -- Resource-Based View -- Guerrilla View -- All Three Views Provide Clues to Understanding Competitive Advantage -- The Realities of the New Business Environment -- Drivers of the New Business Environment -- Implications of These Driving Forces -- Critical Success Factors -- Assessing Opportunities and Threats: Doing an External Analysis -- What Is an External Analysis? -- Organizations as Open Systems -- Perspectives on Organizational Environments -- Environmental Scanning and External Analysis -- How Do You Do an External Analysis? -- External Environmental Sectors -- Specific Environment -- General Environment -- Finding Information on the External Environment and Evaluating It -- Responsibilities for External Analysis at Different Managerial Levels -- Why Do an External Analysis? -- Benefits of Doing an External Analysis -- Challenges of Doing an External Analysis.