Strategy content & strategy process
Strategic Management
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Strategy from different perspectives
Strategy content and strategy process
Two broad approaches to strategy development
Different perspectives on strategy development
Strategy content is the result of strategic activities
Strategy process considers the way in which strategies are, or should be, formed.
Broadly there are two types of approach;
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the planning approach ‐
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the incrementalist approach ‐
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deliberate strategies
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emergent strategies
Sheena Davies
Deliberate & emergent strategies
DELIBERATE STRATEGY
Unrealised
Strategies
Realised
Strategy
EMERGENT STRATEGY
From Mintzberg & Waters (1985)
Risk of incremental
approach: Strategic drift
Amount
of
Change
Strengths of the two approaches
(De Wit and Meyer: 2004)
Deliberate strategies
Emergent strategies
Direction
Commitment
Coordination
Optimisation
Programming
Opportunism
Flexibility
Learning
Entrepreneurship
Support
CONTRADICTORY BUT BOTH ARE NECESSARY
Skilful strategic management can achieve
a balance of the two approaches
Frameworks for understanding how strategies come about
Whittington (see next slide)
Mintzberg et al (The Strategy Safari)
Environmental
Change
(see the Blind Men and the Elephant poem on Victory)
DRIFT
Strategic
Change (incremental)
Time
Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008) Four ‘lenses’ for understanding how strategies come about – this is a reworking of previous frameworks (note – previously only 3)
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Perspectives on strategy: Whittington
Outcomes
Profit maximizing
Mintzberg et al –
Ten approaches to strategy
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CLASSICAL
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EVOLUTIONARY
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Processes
deliberate
emergent
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PROCESSUAL
SYSTEMIC
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Whittington 2002:10
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Plural
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The design school
The planning school
The positioning school
The entrepreneurial school
The cognitive school
The learning school
The power school
The cultural school
The environmental school
The configuration school
Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008): The strategy lenses
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Design lens
Experience lens
Ideas lens
The discourse lens
The ‘design’ lens
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The design lens assumes a rational model of decision‐making
Assumes that ‘rational economic man’ makes decisions that will maximize return on investment
Also assumes;
 It is possible to gather all relevant information
 Information is quantifiable
Also known as the classical, prescriptive, deliberate, planned or rational approach.
Exemplified by writers such as Ansoff and Porter
Involves rational analysis using models/matrices in an attempt to match the organization’s capabilities to the environment Favoured by management because it is neat, self‐
contained, tangible, looks like a technique
Favoured by lenders and investors because it gives the impression of providing ‘answers’ about the future
BUT – it is not a perfect representation of reality
The ‘experience’ lens
Accepts that analysis is ‘coloured’ by human irrationality, and taken‐for‐granted assumptions
 Strategies develop incrementally
 Strategies tend to mimic the past
GROUP THINK
IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
(Harrison and Pelletier 1997)
RISKY SHIFT SYNDROME
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The experience lens: Bounded‐rational model of decision‐
making
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The experience lens: Well known drifters….
A perfect representation of reality is not available
Time and cost constraints
Cognitive limitations
From this..
To this…
(Harrison and Pelletier 1997: 360)
Because of these…
The experience lens: Cultural influences on strategy 
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National culture
Organisational field (industry level)
Divisional culture Organisational culture
Departmental culture
Individual attributes
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“Among all competitors, those whose particular conditions happened to be most appropriate for testing and adoption will be ‘selected’ as survivors…the survivors may appear to be those having adapted themselves to the environment, whereas the truth may well be that the environment has adopted them” (Alchian 1950 in Whittington 2002: 19)
The design lens views organizations as tightly controlled systems/machines
The experience lens views organizations as cultures that do not break from the past
So, how do new ideas ‘break through’?
The ideas lens sees organizations as evolutionary systems where the organization’s survival rests on the innovation process. New ideas must be given breathing space otherwise they will die. Education, race, religion, gender, class, nationality.
The ideas lens:
Evolutionary perspective
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The ‘ideas’ lens
The ‘discourse’ lens
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How the ‘language’ of strategy influences organizations
“The way in which we talk about strategy – as well as the way in which we analyze particular actions that we categorize as strategic have political implications.”
(Hardy et al, 2000, p1229)
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Conclusion
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The different perspectives and lenses are only a viewpoint. They are a different way of looking at the same thing.
They are all correct to some extent
The classical school dominates because it gives managers and students something tangible to learn from but it doesn’t necessarily reflect reality
Strategies cannot be detached from the people who formulated them.
Finally…
Should organizations have
a strategy at all?
“… strategies are to organizations what
blinders are to horses: they keep them going
in a straight line but hardly encourage
peripheral vision.”
Source: Mintzberg (1998: 18)
References
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De Witt and Meyer, (2004), Strategy: Process, Content, Context, Third Edition, Thomson Learning.
Hardy et al (2000) ‘Discourse as a strategic resource’, Human Relations, Vol. 53, No. 9. p1229.
Harrison, F and Pelletier, M (1997), ‘Managerial attitudes towards strategic decisions: maximizing versus satisficing outcomes’, Management Decision, Vol. 35, Issue 5, pp358‐364.
Harrison, F and Pelletier, M (2000), ‘Levels of strategic decision success’, Management Decision, Vol. 38, Issue 2, pp107‐117.
Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 8th Edition, FTPH. (ch 11 and Commentary pg 30)
Mintzberg, H et al (1998) The Strategy Safari, Prentice Hall
Whittington, R (2001), What is strategy – and does it matter?, 2nd
Edition, Thomson (handout in scheme of work)
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