Strategic Management as a Key to Educating the New Aviation Professional

Abstract

Differences and similarities between management and strategic management are discussed in this article and a framework for the aviation strategic management process is proposed. The steps of the aviation strategic management process include 1) scanning the aviation environment, 2) analyzing the aviation organization, 3) formulating the corporate strategy, 4) formulating the business strategy, and 5) implementing the corporate and business strategies through the formulation of functional strategies. The article argues that knowledge of strategic management principles along the abovementioned process can help aviation organizations, just like organizations in other industries, achieve high strategic and financial performance and develop a clear understanding of industry competitive dynamics. Aviation Strategic Management as a course of study can significantly enrich the educational experience of students in aviation programs and mold them into competent aviation professionals as it provides an effective way to synthesize technical information and apply
this information on everyday industry issues. We propose that strategic management can and should be an inextricable piece in aviation curricula, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels and can be used as an excellent theoretical foundation for aviation capstone courses.