Revista Română de Statistică – Supliment Trim IV/2012 64 Some Considerations regarding Strategy and Strategic Management in Romanian Insurance Sector Lecturer Cristina PROTOPOPESCU PhD cristinaelenaprotopopescu@yahoo.com Senior Lecturer Anca-Mihaela TEAU PhD anca.teau@yahoo.com Senior Lecturer Sorin Gabriel GRESOI PhD soringresoi@yahoo.com “Artifex” University of Bucharest Abstract Over the last decade, the external environment of insurance sector had significantly changed, becoming very instable and complex. In these circumstances, we believe that the proper managerial approach, not only for anticipating the future problems, opportunities and threats but also to improve profitability, is the strategic management. In this paper we present the concept of strategy and the differences between strategy and strategic management. We also present a strategic management model for insurance companies, based on a few important stages: substantion of the strategic management model, development and implementation of the strategic management model and evaluation and control of the performances of the strategic management model. Based on „Strategic management” book, written by Ion Popa, this model is adapted for the insurance companies operating on our local insurance market. Key words: strategy, strategic management, insurance company, performance JEL Classification: L22 Due to the unstable and complex environment in which insurance companies activate, dealing with a large number of risks related to their main activities and other economic agents risks, it is obvious that we need to identify and also take into consideration the external influences, to value opportunities and to avoid possible threats. This is possible by promoting and using the strategic management approach. The concept of strategy had been used for the first time in the management theory and practice in the sixth decade of the 20 th century. Little by little, a new approach appeared, called „Strategic Management”, which imposed the concept of strategy as its key element. In the economic literature there are a lot of definitions and approaches for strategy and strategic management. Ovidiu Nicolescu and Ion Verboncu define strategy as „the ensemble of an organization’s major long term goals, the main approaches for achieving them, together with the resources allocated in order to obtain the competitive advantage according to the mission of the organization”. The major components of a strategy are: mission, fundamental objectives, strategic options, resources, deadlines and competitive advantage.