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2, What is our environment like? To evaluate the available routes, an organisation is forced to take an objective look at itself, its external and internal environments, its competition, and the threats and opportunities that competition and other organisations present. 3, How will we get there? To answer this question furnishes the organisation with a detailed road map containing specific goals, objectives, time frames, resources and measurement to guide the organisation on its journey toward achieving its strategic goals.
Classical Strategy
CAPABILITIES HOW
Strateg y
Objective s
WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE
Therefore strategy planning requires a stream of decisions that are rich in contemporary information. Intended Strategy Realised Strategy Deliberate Strategy
Emergent Strategy
Strategy is about planning, having clear intentions and monitoring what you
Deliberate
Flexible It must deal with the real world outside the organisation; as changes occur in the outside world, the strategic plan must change in response. Responsive To respond, the organisation must be close to the market (or sector) where changes take place. Responding is not reacting; responding is about adapting an existing strategy as circumstances demand whilst reacting means trying to respond without having a strategy. Continual Because the organisation must continually deal with the changes in the marketplace, strategic planning must itself be a continual process that includes periodic reviews and up dates. Analytical A plan is only as good as the information that goes into developing it. Relevant information, well analysed, should dictate the content of the plan. An organisations management must be willing to commit the necessary time and resources to collecting and evaluating information. Creative The plan should reflect not only the analysis of the data collected, but also some intuition, vision and creativity on the part of the organisations management. Action-Oriented A strategic plan should specify actions that the organisation can and will take.
Focused The plan should allow the organisation to evaluate all major decisions by asking, Will this decision help achieve organisational objectives? Will it move us closer to our strategic targets? Efficient Strategic planning allows an organisation to allocate its resources in the most efficient way possible by linking them to objectives where they can have the greatest impact.
of the interrelationships that exist between different parts of the organisational structure. In the majority of businesses, three different organisational levels can be identified: the corporate level, the business unit level, and the product level. Hofer and Schendel (1978, p 27) Strategy Formulation Analytical Concepts, identified three distinct levels of strategy in a commercial context. These are:
Corporate strategy, which deals with the allocation of resources among Businesss or divisions of an enterprise. At the corporate level, the decisions made are concerned principally with the corporate strategic plan and how best to develop the long-term profile of the business.
the various
Business strategy, which exists at the level of the individual business or Following on from this, each business unit should, within the resources allocated by corporate headquarters then develop their own strategic plan.
Functional or Product level strategy, which is limited to the actions of specific functions within specific businesses.
Finally, marketing plans need to be developed at the product level. Plans at all three levels need then to be implemented, the results monitored and evaluated and, where necessary, corrective action taken.
Ideological Strategy, Shared vision collectively pursued is an ideology. Intentions can usually be identified (Indoctrination, credo etc). Positively embraced by members of the organisation, not passive acceptance Umbrella Strategy, Relax control, leaders set guidelines for behaviour, define boundaries and let actors manoeuvre within. All organisations actions fall under the umbrella (Pricing strategies for example). Umbrella strategy can be both deliberate and emergent. De Wit and Meyer (ibid) argue that all real world strategies tend to be umbrella claiming that you cannot pre-empt the discretion of others. If leadership can direct, organisations can be directed and move towards planned or entrepreneurial. When it can hardly nudge, we move towards more emergent strategies. Umbrella strategies require the right balance between Pro-action and Reaction. Process Strategy, Leader controls the process of strategy making whilst leaving the content of strategy to others. Behaviour is both deliberate and emergent. Leaders control the staff and organisation structure thereby influencing the strategy process. Unconnected Strategy, One part of the organisation with considerable discretion (sometimes a single individual) because it is only loosely coupled to the rest is able to realise its own pattern in its stream of actions. This strategy can also be deliberate or emergent. Emergent in the context of the organisation and deliberate from the perspective of the individual) Concensus Strategy, (Emergent) Many converge on to the same theme or pattern that it becomes pervasive. Unlike the ideology strategy which has a central focus intentionally. Concensus strategy can be the product of a host of individual actions can be deliberately hosted by some actors. Result Collective Action but not necessarily collective intent. Imposed Strategy, Environment not always acquiescent or benign. Strategies can be imposed from outside, external individuals/group with influence. The strategy is then deliberate because the organisation could not resist. The environment can impose strategies. Reality seems to bring organisations closer to a compromise position
Environments seldom pre-empt all choice, just as they seldom offer Purely determined strategies are as rare as purely planned ones The difference between deliberate and emergent strategy is that the former
unlimited choice
focuses on direction and control getting desired things done. The latter opens up the notion of strategic learning. Emergent Strategies implies learning what works (feed back)