Strategy Process Flashcards
Strategy Thinking: Different Levels
- Cognitive activities: Application Level, Mental Reasoning
What are the intended mental tasks in order to increase the strategist’s knowledge? - Cognitive Maps: Operating System Level, Mental Models
What are the maps of a person of how the world works?
3.Cognitive Abilities: Hardware Level, Mental Faculties
Till what degree is the human brain limited what it can know?
cognitive activities
- Defining:
- Identifying (recognizing sense-making) What is the problem?
- Diagnosing (Analyzing reflecting) What is the nature of the Problem? - Solving:
- Conceiving (formulating imagining) How should the problem be addressed?
- Realizing (implementing acting) What actions should be taken?
cognitive maps
- knowledge stored in people’s minds
- representations in a person’s mind of how the world works
- map situation: reflects a person’s beliefs about importance of issues and causes and effects relationships between them.
cognitive abilities: limitations
- limited information sensing ability
- limited information processing capacity
- limited information storage capacity
Paradox of Strategic Thinking
Logical Thinking:
the ability of managers to critical reflects on the assumptions they hold and to make their tacit beliefs more explicit
vs
Creative Thinking:
the ability of managers to abandon the rules governing sound argumentation and generates new understanding
What are the risks of strategic decisions?
Demand for logical thinking:
not following an logical order during strategic reasoning process -> the reality can be distorted. Actions could happened before thinking about them which could be really costly
Demand for creative thinking:
we should not only stick to our rigid cognitive map as strategist because we also need new innovative ideas which we receive through creative thinking
perspectives of strategic thinking
rational reasoning:
logic, analytical, formal/fixed rules, deductive thinking, structured, vertical, conscious, recognizing, cold cognition, objective knowable, incomplete information, slow, calculation, strategy as science
generative reasoning:
creativity, intuitive, informal/ variable rules, inductive, unstructured, lateral, unconscious, imagining, hot cognition, subjective creatable, rigid cognitive map, fast, judgement, strategy as an art
Strategy Formation: Strategy formation activities
elements of strategic reasoning process:
- Defining
- Identifying: Mission & agenda setting
- Diagnosing: external & internal assessment - Solving
- Conceiving: Option generation & selection
- Realizing: action taking & performance control
Strategy Formation: Strategy formation roles
How will the strategy formation activities be carried out?
Top vs middle vs bottom roles:
–> how much to empower each of them?
line vs staff
–> which of does should be responsible for strategy formation process?
internal vs external
–> should the strategy. form. proc. be outsourced?
deliberate and emergent strategy
intended strategy (plan of action) + deliberate strategy (unrealized strategy) + emergent strategy –> realized strategy (patterns of action
deliberate strategizing: pressures
the ability of acting intentionally, so thinking before acting.
Advantages of having a plan:
1. Direction: plans and objectives
2. commitment: to a course of action
3. coordination: of all strategic initiatives
4. optimization: optimal resource allocation
5. programming: all organizational activities in advance
strategy emergence: Advantages
the ability of thinking and acting at the same time and letting strategy emerge.
- Opportunism: open mind to grab unforeseen opportunities
- flexibility: keep options open, don’t commit to early
- learning: give it a try
- entrepreneurship: different people with different ideas
- support: understanding political and cultural dynamics
Paradox of Strategy Formation
deliberate strategizing: ability of acting intentionally; so thinking before acting
strategy emergence: ability of thinking and acting at the same time and letting strategy emerge
Perspectives of Strategy Formation
strategic planning:
deliberateness, intentionally designed, figuring out, forecast, commitments, structure, think than act, hierarchical, optimal resource allocation, coordination, programming, implemented top-down
strategic incrementalism:
emergence, gradually shaped, finding out, partially unknown, stay flexible, unstructured, think and act at the same time, dispersed(verstreut), experimentation, learning, requires cultural and cognitive shifts
Strategic Change: the issue of strategic renewal
How can a path strategic changes be followed to constantly renew the firm?
- Areas: Does the strategic change take place in the business or in the organizational system?
- Magnitude: what is the scope and the amplitude of the strategic change?
- Pace: What is the speed and timing of the change?
