Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the systematic idendification of specifying the firm's objectives, nurturing policies and strategies to achieve these objectives, and acquiring and making available these resources to implement the policies and strategies to achieve the firm's objectives. Strategic management, therefore, integrates the activities of the various functional sectors of a business, such as marketing, sales, production etc. , to achieve organizational goals. It is generally the highest level of managerial activity, usually iniated by the board of directors and executed by the firm's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team. Strategic management hopes to provide overall direction to the company has ties to the field of organization studies.