Leading with strategic thinking
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:04:30 +0000
THIS is the time of the year when organizations are preparing for their annual strategic planning process. Oftentimes, the starting point for next year’s strategy is the current year’s strategy. Organizations concentrate on the segments and territories that they are familiar with, without realizing that the real opportunities are somewhere else. Thus, creative strategies seldom crop up from the annual strategic planning exercise. This necessitates the need for strategic thinking, particularly in the areas of crafting a vision and formulation of strategies.
The Strategic Thinking Institute ranks strategic thinking as the most important leadership competency. According to Stan Abraham, writing in Strategy & Leadership, strategic thinking is an important aspect of every leader’s job. He defined strategic thinking as the process of finding alternative ways of competing and providing customer value.
The need for strategic thinking has never been greater for organizations seeking to gain competitive advantage in an unpredictable and volatile marketplace. With a focus on improvement, often through creativity and innovation, strategic thinking can unveil new, alternate and creative visions of the future prior to the formulation of a strategic plan. Organizations that build on strategic thinking are more responsive to external pressures and attain extraordinary results with ordinary people.
According to Fiona Graetz, writing in Management Decision, strategic thinking is different from strategic planning in terms of their roles in the organization. Strategic thinking seeks innovation and imagines new and very different futures. This may lead a company to redefine its core strategies and even its industry. On the other hand, strategic planning realizes and supports strategies developed through the strategic thinking process and integrates these back into the business. Strategic thinking complements strategic planning but allows for more rapid and creative responses to change. Strategic thinking also impacts on the organization’s sustainability, leading to positive organizational outcomes.
Strategic thinking can be developed in individuals across all levels of an organization so
that their creativity and innovation may become integrated into the formal organizational strategic planning process. Studies show that the expanded development of strategic thinking skills and responsibilities at lower levels of the organization generates invaluable contributions from passionate and engaged members of the organization, who may offer an unusual point of view that may produce stunningly elegant solutions. Truly, the organizations that will excel in the future will be those that realize how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in the organization.
To support the strategic thinking learning process, Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith, authors of “Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader,” suggested that strategic thinkers must know where they are beginning and where they want to end up. They must design their strategic map objectively by exploring various routes first before selecting the best route. They must continuously harness their passion and commitment to learn.
Jeanne Liedtka, writing in Long Range Planning, explains that organizations that successfully build capability for strategic thinking across all levels of the organization will generate tangible outcomes. The holistic system perspective that goes with strategic thinking enables the organization to redesign its processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness. The organization will have increased intent-focus — making it more determined and less distracted than rivals while enhancing its ability to improve the quality of decision-making and speed of implementation. Organizational members will be good at hypothesis generation and testing, thus incorporating both creative and critical thinking into their processes. Finally, the organization will learn to be intelligently opportunistic and more responsive to local opportunities.
Strategic thinking creates superior value for customers and other stakeholders. It leads to strategies that are difficult for competitors to imitate and makes the organization more adaptable to change.
Jose Tiburcio S. Canlas is a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) student at the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University. He currently runs his own accounting and management consultancy office and teaches financial management and management accounting in the Graduate Department of Don Honorio Ventura State University.