1) The document discusses different perspectives on strategy - as a plan, a pattern of actions, and the interplay between intended and emergent strategies. 2) It also contrasts the conventional linear strategic management model with an organizational learning approach, noting the former does not accurately describe real-world strategic processes. 3) The organizational learning approach assumes plans offer guidelines and strategic management involves incremental adjustments through experiments to move toward a flexible vision.

1. Thinking Strategically About
Strategy
Prepared By :- Nitish Raj
IIPM; New Delhi
Mentor: Kamlesh Kumar, Ph.D.
Professor Of Business Strategy
College Of Business
University Of Michigan-Dearborn (USA)
11/21/2011 1

2. What is strategy?
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3. Strategy as a plan:
An intended course of action developed
consciously and purposefully
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4. But defining strategy as a plan is NOT
sufficient!
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5. For a strategy to be truly deliberate- that is, for
a plan to have been intended exactly as
realized would seem to be a tall order.
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6. Just watch for yourself what Reed
Hastings, the CEO of Netflix has to say
about this:
http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2009/11/2
0/f banetflixceohastings.cnnmoney/
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7. Let us then examine the concept of strategy
from a different approach:
Strategy as a pattern in stream of
actions over time.
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8. The strategies followed my most successful
organizations contain elements:
that were originally intended,
as well as
unintended elements that emerged over time.
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9. Here is an what an expert who has extensively
researched this issue has to say:
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2009
/10/12/ttkomisarcostcopaypal.fortune/
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10. Intended Strategy
Unrealized Realized Strategy
Strategy
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11. It is, therefore, important to understand that
organizational success does not depend on
blind devotion to implementing intended
strategies.
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12. Rather, it requires skillfully adjusting
intentions, plans and policies as events
continue to unfold.
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13. Intended Strategy:
A strategy a firm
thought it was going
to pursue
Deliberate Realized
Strategy: Strategy:
An intended The strategy a
strategy a firm firm is actually
actually pursuing
implements
Unrealized
Strategy:
Emergent Strategy:
An intended
A strategy that emerges
strategy a firm
over time or that has
does not actually
been radically reshaped
implement.
once implemented.
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14. Intended Strategies are based on strategic
intentions – outcomes of formal planning
and goal setting.
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15. When an organization can formulate
intentions and move to their realization, this
is deliberate strategy.
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16. A convergent series of actions taken by the
organization towards achieving the strategic
intentions is a realized strategy.
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17. Those strategic intentions that the
organization is not able to act upon are the
unrealized strategy.
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18. When the organization takes consistent
actions that were not part of its formal
intentions, those are emergent strategies.
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19. Thus, the finalized strategy of successful
organizations is often a combination of
deliberate and emergent strategies.
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20. Next, let us take a look at the conventional
model of managing strategically.
The conventional view of managing an
organization strategically involves
analysis, which is followed by optimal
decisions, and their subsequent meticulous
implementation.
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21. External Environment Opportunities , Threats
Analysis
Internal Environment Strengths, Weaknesses
Mission Consumers to be served
Capabilities to be developed
Formulation Goals, guidelines for major
Policies
activities
Organization
Implementation structure, systems, culture,
etc.
Evaluation (Cycle to earlier steps)
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22. This linear, sequential approach has four
elements:
A set of conditions external to the
organization to which it must respond
Establishing major goals and objectives
Performing situation analysis
Plans about how to achieve its goals and get
the best possible “fit” with the environment
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23. In this approach to strategic management:
Analysis must always come before any action
by the organization.
The goal setting, situation analysis, and
planning must always occur before any
action, usually referred to as strategy
formulation.
Action, referred to as strategy
implementation, is usually done by people
rather than analysts, planner or upper level
managers.
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24. But such an approach neither describes the
strategic management process, as it is
followed by organizations, in
reality, accurately; nor does it prescribe the
ideal practice.
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25. For one, the business environment is far
from predictable( for most
organizations), thus limiting the ability for
analysis.
Further, decisions are seldom based on
optimal rationality alone, given the political
processes that occur in organizations.
In addition, in reality, formulation and
implementation are intertwined as complex
interactive processes.
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26. Organizational Learning: A Different
Approach To Managing Strategically
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27. This approach to managing an organization
strategically requires an ongoing process of
continually rethinking and adjusting the
plans and activities.
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28. It assumes that:
In practice, most formal plans offer only
general guidelines
Strategic management cannot be viewed
simplistically as just the formal process of
coming up with the plan and then seeking that
it is implemented
Leaders can make incremental adjustments to
the formal plans with the hope of moving the
organization towards its goals, by way of
numerous small steps of progress rather than a
few major strides.
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29. In following this approach most successful
leaders are willing to concede that they lack
the ability to foresee the future and the
power to enforce adherence to the plans.
But that does not mean that they are willing to
allow their organizations to drift aimlessly.
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30. Leaders manage incrementally, but
they also manage with a purpose.
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31. Leaders of such organization have a vision of
what they want the organization to be in
years to come, but they try to move towards
this position in an evolutionary way.
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32. Often times this is done by building a strong
but flexible core business and then
continually experimenting with “side bet
ventures” to see what else works.
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33. Just see for yourself how one of the most
successful organizations of recent times-
Google is following a similar approach:
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2010/0
7/26/tmgooglenogrowth.fortune/
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34. The unknowable aspects of the future, as such
do not stop leaders from trying to
understand what will and will not work in
moving them toward what a vision of what
the organization should become.
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35. When new trends are observed, they carry out
small-scale experiments(side bet ventures)
to see how the organization as a whole
might adapt to them.
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36. But they also realize that they cannot hope to
spot all important emerging trends and try
all new ideas, and therefore, encourage
similar experimentation throughout the
organization.
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37. The role of leadership becomes building an
organization in which all members
continuously search out ideas for improving
the status quo, conduct experiments to see
which of these ideas are more fruitful, and
then spread what has been learned from
these experiments throughout the
organization.
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38. The conclusion from the discussion is that:
While the formal strategic planning approach
has given rise to a broad range of planning
techniques and methods, it is naïve to rely
solely on it, because of the complexity and
unpredictability facing most organizations,
and the resultant difficulty in enforcing a
strict adherence to a plan.
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39. Thus Strategic Planning, by definition, is a
future-oriented activity, but the efforts
should not be on foreseeing the future and
building perfect plans accordingly,
rather
the efforts should be on trying to understand
what will move the organization toward a
vision of what the organization should
become.
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