ABSTRACT
One way to view management’s role is that managers must constantly align and realign the strategic plan of the organization so that mission-critical functions match the core capabilities and core competencies of the enterprise. If we begin to analyze this statement, we fi nd several concepts that need to be explored: strategic plan, mission-critical functions, core capabilities, and core competencies. Distance education forces managers to think of each of these in new ways. Even how strategic planning is accomplished successfully in the global economy of the 21st century is diff erent from in the past.
