Final answer:
Managers should understand a company's external and internal environments to make strategic decisions about production, pricing, and workforce. Long-term planning is typically easier for expansion due to the high short-term costs and difficulties.
Step-by-step explanation:
Managers must chart a company's strategic course by developing a thorough understanding of the company's external and internal environments. This knowledge informs decisions on whether to expand or reduce production, set the price they choose, open new factories or sales facilities or close them, hire workers or to lay them off, and whether to start selling new products or stop selling existing ones. It's important to note that on the supply side of markets, producers typically find it easier to expand production in the long term of several years, as opposed to the short run of a few months, since activities like building new factories and hiring workers can be costly or difficult in the short run.