Control consists of making something happen in such a way that it was planned to happen. Various standards are established for control purpose in an organization. Control enables the managers to decide whether to continue or discontinue the strategic path that is adopted. Strategic control and evaluation is the final phase of strategic management.
In the competitive situation, the organization formulates a strategy on the basis of several assumptions. Such assumptions relate to the environmental dynamism and eventful organizational factors. So, there is considerable gap between the time of strategy formulation and implementation. Such gap is managed through strategic control and evaluation mechanism.
Strategic control focuses on the monitoring and evaluation of the strategic management process in order to make sure that organization's entire mechanism is functioning properly. The objective of strategic control is to examine whether the strategy as implemented is meeting its objective and, if not, to take corrective actions. It is concerned with steering the future direction of the organization. It takes proactive measure to take the necessary step to adjust the strategy in new requirements.
Strategic controls typically answer the following questions that strategic managers are faced with;
Are we moving in the proper direction?
Are key things falling into place?
Are our assumptions regarding major trends and changes correct?
Are the critical things we need to do being done?
Do we need to modify or abort this strategy?
How are we performing?
Are we meeting objectives and schedules?
How are costs, revenues and cash flows matching projections?
Do we need to make operational change?
Source; Pearce John and Robinson Richard, Strategic Management 1996