Strategic thinking process a clear, wellarticulated strategy defines the corporate mission for those charged with carrying it out. Strategic thinking is defined as the generation and application of business insights on a continual basis to achieve competitive advantage. Strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect an organisations direction, i. Strategic thinking and subsequent management must result in action. These findings help demystify the process by which strategic thinking is learned, offering important implications for management development and the practice of. Leadership, innovation, strategic planning, strategic thinking, organization.
The university followed this planning process to inform the project soar strategic plan. These sentiments are echoed by two other leading theorists in the field, prahalad and hamel 1989, who describe traditional approaches to planning as form filling. A process to systematically drive strategic thinking is required within any organization. Strategic intent is our term for such an animating dream. Strategic planning is the channeling of business insights into an action plan to achieve goals and objectives.
Assess plan engage execute apex 2025 montclair state navigates a highly complex set of intersecting terrains being in new jersey, in the u. Strategic management is a broader term than strategy and is a process that includes top managements analysis of the environment in which the organization operates prior to formulat ing a strategy, as well as the plan for implementation and control of the strategy. Strategic thinking is different from strategic planning. Strategy, strategic thinking, strategic planning, leadership. A comprehensive strategic thinking process leadership. The 5 steps to strategic thinking that really matter. Strategic thinking is a critical skill for leaders. This document is in raw form as i process and distill 4 yearsworth of my personal development notes. Demonstrating strategic thinking, on the other hand, requires that you are simultaneously a marketer, a salesperson, and a change agent.
Critical strategic thinking skills center for simplified. Strategic planning is a tool for organizing the present on the basis of the projections of the desired future. Strategic thinking is different from both strategic planning and operational planning. Thinking give a more noteworthy open door for organizations to plan and arrange business activities to succeed, accordingly, this study seeks to define the role of strategic thinking on high. Good strategic thinking can make your organization.
Strategic thinking entails an element of risk to push the boundaries as well as long term commitment. Second, the paper evaluates the strategic management process within the framework of its strategic planning and strategic thinking components. Jagdish sheth, a respected authority on marketing and strategic planning, provides. Four ways effective leaders gain insight, drive change, and get results driving strategy through structure and process april, 2015 olson, a k and simerson, b. Build an organizational competency in strategic thinking. Strategic planning is the process of documenting and establishing a direction of your small businessby assessing both where you are and where youre going. Unlike the additional work that is created by the process of strategic planning. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Ten keys to successful strategic planning for nonprofit and. A noted speaker, he has written articles in numerous business magazines and journals, including the wall street journal. Fundamentally, strategic thinking is a learning process that should be ongoing, rather than episodic. It also implies a particular point of view about the longterm mar. They refer to strategic thinking as crafting strategic architecture but.
Strategic thinking extends both to the formulation and. Strategic thinking defined greg githens, executive. Learn how to think strategically in order to effectively guide the direction of your teams and solve key business problems. A sensible alternative is a well tested process called strategic planning which is a. They should not accept generalized theories of economic behaviour, and they should try to understand the underlying specific dynamics relevant for their business in an unbiased way.
Strategic management process strategic management process dr i. In this textbook youll receive an insight into the strategic thinking and planning process. Strategic thinking and planning in a learning culture. How to master strategic thinking skills in 5 simple steps. Strategists should be uncomfortable with vague concepts like soft synergy. Developing great strategic thinking skills requires you to gain exposure to strategic roles, synthesize broad information, participate in a culture of curiosity, and gather experiences that allow. Relying on a framework such as the star model to guide the process can. Organisational goals, the mission statement, values and. Develop your critical and strategic thinking skills to advance your career with free courses from top schools.
As a cognitive activity, it produces thought when applied in an organizational strategic management process, strategic thinking involves the generation and application of unique business insights and opportunities intended to. Understanding what strategic thinking is, and how it differs from operational thinking, is the first step in becoming an accomplished strategic thinker. By understanding some of the components involved, a leader can begin to create conversations around critical issues and foster a shared understanding of who we are, where we are going, and how well get there. Strategic thinking and planning world digital library. The strategic plan gives you a place to record your mission, vision, and values, as well as your longterm goals and the action plans youll use to reach them. It represents what is going on in the mind of the business owner and entrepreneur. Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals in a game or other endeavor. Explore the methods of strategic thinking practice the seven major skills of how strategic thinkers process information outline the strategic thinking process, both the major processes and their related subprocesses practice the strategic thinking model within a small group. Strategic thinking is easy to say but much harder to achieve in reality. Like defensive driving, one is constantly alert for obstacles in the road ahead. Strategic thinking seeks hard, factbased, logical information.
To put it simply, not every plan is a strategic plan. A strategic thinking process urges the mandate for creativity and innovation and encompasses a research phase to study the voice of the customer, the employee and industry best practices. Pdf strategic thinking skills course guidebook researchgate. As touched upon earlier, strategic thinking encompasses ideation, strategic planning and operational planning to arrive at decisions and strategies that have a greater chance of success. Strategic thinking is an extremely effective and valuable tool. While strategic thinking begins with some vision for the future there typically isnt a formal process for strategic thinking. Individual contributors, managers, directors and other leaders who need strategic thinking skills to gain better business insights and identify trends that can contribute to a more successful business strategy.
Strategic thinking is defined as the individuals capacity for thinking conceptually, imaginatively, systematically, and opportunistically with regard to the attainment of success in the future. It is a look of the organization at some point in the future. The discipline of strategic thinking is not about a widely accepted organising structure and a growing body of empirical knowledge. Chaneta department of business studies faculty of commerce university of zimbabwe abstract wheelen and hunger 2002 say that strategic management is a set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the longrun performance of an organization. Spot the changes coming in the market you serve, test your ideas to find out which ones have. Today, cultural thinking has to cut across cultures because as a global society, we have shifted our strategic thinking as being connected across boundaries, to the point where some even use global languages 16. Strategic planning process strategic plan 2025 project. It is an exercise in examining everything we do in our various roles, addressing the needs of our customers and ensuring that all of this is directly or.
Everything we see, touch, taste, hear and smell stems from ideas. Strategic thinking is a planning process that applies innovation, strategic planning and operational planning to develop business strategies that have a greater chance for success strategic thinking is the ability to see the total enterprise, to spot the trends and understand the competitive landscape, to see where the business needs to go and to lead it into the future. A strategic plan is a tool that provides guidance in fulfilling a mission with maximum efficiency and. Unlike the additional work that is created by the process of strategic planning, we can. Good strategic thinking uncovers potential opportunities for creating value and. When applied in an organizational strategic management process, strategic thinking involves the generation and application of unique business insights and. This essay summarizes the case for more process thinking in strategic organization, suggests some ideas for making process thinking more central, and draws attention to some illustrative studies that have shown the way. Strategic thinking is not the same thing as critical thinking. Strategic learning in an organization is driven by strategic thinking 15 and is part of a learning culture. A key distinction between strategic thinking and strategic planning is that the former occurs on a regular basis, as part of our daily activities, while the latter occurs periodically quarterly, semiannually or annually. As management attempts to implement the strategy, the organization zigzags from event to event, lacking clear direction. The authors analysis in the following discussions shows that strategic thinking manifests itself at two different levels.
Pdf strategic thinking is a powerful and invaluable skill, one that leads to greater chances of success in whatever professional and personal projects. Strategic thinking is better thought of as a style of thinking and not confused with organizational techniques or processes e. Teams can engage in a process that clarifies organizational values and use these as a basis of practices. A simple three step process that may be used at an individual or group level for improved strategic thinking is to. Strategic surprisingly, here there is ready agreement. Define the strategic business mental models and its underlying assumptions relating. Poor strategic thinking or the lack of any strategic foresight at all will doom your organization. By understanding some of the components involved, a leader can begin to create conversations around critical issues and foster a shared understanding of who we are, where we are going, and. Michel robert is founder and president of decision processes international, inc.
What is strategic management and strategic thinking. The 5 steps to strategic thinking that really matter instead of barreling through a todo list, especially when were short on time already, try reframing the way in which you approach the. Strategic thinking process decision processes international. Strategic thinking is a process that defines the manner in which people think about, assess, view, and create the future for themselves and others. Strategic planning whenever the word strategic is uttered, most people think of planning rather than thinking. Sometimes strategic planning is confused with other planning modalities, each valid in its own right but geared toward a different end result. Robert is the author of the power of strategic thinking, product innovation. Pdf strategic thinking is a powerful and invaluable skill, one that. Strategic thinking, on the other hand, is a synthesizing process utilizing intuition and creativity whose outcome is an integrated perspective of. One can apply strategic thinking to arrive at decisions that can be related to your work or personal life.
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