Thinking strategically

Strategic thinking is the main topic of this article.

Strategic thinking is developing and applying unique business insights to possibilities in order to generate a
competitive edge for a company or organization. It entails questioning the assumptions that underpin the
organization's strategy and value offer. In 1994, Mintzberg stated that it is more about synthesis (i.e.,
"connecting the dots") than analysis (i.e., "finding the dots"). It is about "capturing what the manager learns
from all sources (both soft insights from personal experiences and the experiences of others throughout the
organization, as well as hard data from market research and the like) and then synthesizing that learning into a
vision of the direction that the business should pursue." Mintzberg claimed that strategic thinking is more
important than strategic planning activities in developing strategy.

General Andre Beaufre noted in 1963 that strategic thinking "is a mental process, at once abstract and rational,
which must be capable of combining both psychological and material facts. The strategist must be skilled at
both analysis and synthesis; analysis is required to gather the facts on which his diagnosis is based, and
synthesis is required to construct the diagnosis itself from these data—and the diagnosis, in reality, amounts to a
choice between possible courses of action.

Will Mulcaster[55] claimed that, while considerable study and creative thought has gone into developing
alternative strategies, much too little work has gone into understanding what determines the quality of strategic
decision making and the success with which strategies are executed. In retrospect, the financial crisis of 2008-9
may have been prevented if banks had paid more attention to the risks involved with their investments, but how
could banks adjust the way they make decisions in the future to enhance the quality of their judgments?
Mulcaster's Managing Factors approach tackles this issue by identifying 11 forces that should be included in
decision-making and strategic implementation procedures. Time; Opposing forces; Politics; Perception; Holistic
impacts; Adding value; Incentives; Learning capacities; Opportunity cost; Risk and Style are the 11 forces.

In a volatile and uncertain world, traditional strategy thinking and vision have some limits. In the conventional
concept, the constraints are related to heterogeneity, future-oriented aspirations, and the existence of cognitive
powers. Strategy should not be viewed just through the eyes of the top management hierarchy. According to the
newer micro foundation architecture, employees from various management levels must collaborate and interact
dynamically to produce the knowledge strategy.