Measurement:

• Strategic control requires data from more sources. The typical operational control problem uses data from very few sources.
• Strategic control requires more data from external sources. Strategic decisions are normally taken with regard to the external environment as opposed to internal operating factors.
• Strategic control are oriented to the future. This is in contrast to operational control decisions in which control data give rise to immediate decisions that have immediate impacts.
• Strategic control is more concerned with measuring the accuracy of the decision premise. Operating decisions tend to be concerned with the quantitative value of certain outcomes.
• Strategic control standards are based on external factors. Measurement standards for operating problems can be established fairly by past performance on similar products or by similar operations currently being performed.
• Strategic control relies on variable reporting interval. The typical operating measurement is concerned with operations over some period of time: pieces per week, profit per quarter, and the like.

Analysis:

• Strategic control models are less precise. This is in contrast to operational control models, which are generally very precise in the narrow domain they apply.
• Strategic control models are less formal. The models that govern the considerations in a strategic control problem are much more intuitive, therefore, less formal.
• The principal variables in a strategic control model are structural. In strategic control, the whole structure of the problem, as represented by the model, is likely to vary, not just the values of the parameters.
• The key need in analysis for strategic control is model flexibility. This is in contrast to operating control, for which efficient quantitative computation is usually most desirable.
• The key activity in management control analysis is alternative generation. This is different from the operational control problem, in which in many cases all control alternatives have been specified in advance. The key analysis step in operations is to discover exactly what happened.
• The key skill required for management control analysis is creativity. In operational control, by contrast, the formal review of outcomes to discover causes means that they skill required is the ability to do technical, even statistical, analysis of the data received.