This paper presents an overview of the essential components of effective strategic management and a detailed description of the methodology for leading an organization through the strategic management process. This process can be extremely time consuming and can easily fall victim to pep rally thinking, rather than producing useful critical evaluation.The authors have successfully used GroupSystems software, one of a limited number of software products designed to support meetings, to significantly reduce the amoimt of time required for meetings and to improve the level of independent, unbiased input from participants. The parallel processing afforded by the software typically reduced meeting time from one-third to one-half that of face-to-face meetings, and the input anonymity feature of the software encouraged insightful candor from participants. The GroupSystems seuip for each of the computer-supported meetings is detailed to illustrate how software of this type can be used to make strategic management efforts more successful. (GroupSystems is a registered trademark of Ventana Corporation, Tucson, Arizona.
