Strategic Control

Strategic control answers: "Are we achieving what we set out to achieve, and if not, why?"

6.1 Types of Strategic Control (Schreyögg & Steinmann, 1987)

Type	When Applied	What it Monitors
Premise Control	During formulation and early implementation	Validity of underlying assumptions (environmental, competitive)
Implementation Control	During strategy execution	Are milestones being met? Is budget on track?
Strategic Surveillance	Continuous, broad	Unexpected developments in environment (weak signals)
Special Alert Control	Triggered by crisis events	Rapid response to sudden disruptions (e.g., COVID-19 in March 2020)

6.2 Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton (1992) at Harvard Business School. BSC translates strategy into measurable objectives across four perspectives:

Perspective	Key Question	Example KPI
Financial	How do we look to shareholders?	Revenue growth, ROE, profit margin
Customer	How do customers see us?	Customer satisfaction score, NPS, market share
Internal Business Processes	What must we excel at?	Order fulfilment time, defect rate, innovation pipeline
Learning & Growth	Can we continue to improve?	Employee training hours, patent applications, staff retention

BSC in Indian government: NITI Aayog uses a performance measurement framework analogous to BSC in the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) — launched January 2018, covering 112 aspirational districts across 28 states — tracking health, education, agriculture, water, financial inclusion, and skill development via composite indices.

6.3 Supply Chain Management as Strategic Tool (2021 PYQ topic)

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the strategic coordination of all activities from raw material to end customer. Three flows: Material flow (upstream → downstream), Information flow (both directions), Financial flow (downstream → upstream).

Strategic SCM decisions:

• Make vs. Buy (Outsourcing): Apple outsources manufacturing (Foxconn in China/India) while retaining design, software, and brand — a core-competence strategy
• Global vs. Local supply chain: Post-COVID, resilience has replaced pure efficiency. India's PLI (Production-Linked Incentive) scheme for 14 sectors aims to build domestic supply chain capacity: ₹1.97 lakh crore PLI approved by 2024
• Vendor-managed inventory (VMI): Supplier manages replenishment (e.g., Walmart's legendary SCM partnership with P&G)

India logistics: National Logistics Policy (NLP) launched September 2022 — targets reducing logistics cost from 13–14% of GDP to below 8% by 2030. PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (October 2021) — ₹100 lakh crore infrastructure investment for integrated multi-modal connectivity (railways, roads, ports, airports, waterways, pipelines, digital).

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