What is Strategic resource management (SRM)?

Strategic resource management (SRM) involves the organizational planning for deployment of resources to create value for customers and shareholders. Key attributes in the success of SRM are the management of information and of change in responding to threats and opportunities. SRM is concerned with the following issues:

• how to deploy resources to support strategies;
• how resources are used in, or recovered from, change processes;
• how customer value and shareholder value will serve as guides to the effective
use of resources; and
• how resources are to be deployed and redeployed over time.
 

These areas cannot be measured by financial accounting because they often relate to nonmonetary benefits. Thus, management accounting provides the necessary estimates to help managers address these issues and focus on strategic objectives.

The foundation of SRM is the value chain (supply chain), or the set of processes that convert inputs into products and services for the firm’s customers. The value chain includes both internal and supplier processes. Managers can use the value chain to determine which activities create customer value as reflected in product/service prices and, thus, revenues earned. By reducing or eliminating activities that add no value within the value chain, firms can become more efficient and effective.