The Challenge of Strategy: A Comment (original) (raw)
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�� Hew Strachan created wry, if cynical, comment. It managed -just -to put the horse before the cart: the Ministry of Defence's White Paper, Delivering Security in a Changing World, appeared a week later. 3 Those who wondered whether that too would establish a strategy for policy, as opposed to a policy for strategy, might point to the degree to which the Ministry of Defence had already come to set the foreign policy agenda. The key statement on British policy a�er the a�acks of �/�� was neither UK International Priorities nor Delivering Security in a Changing World, but the so-called 'New Chapter' to the Ministry of Defence's Strategic Defence Review published over a year previously, in July ����. 4 The confusion in Bush's speech and in the Foreign Office's White Paper embodies the existential crisis which strategy confronts. The word 'strategy' has acquired a universality which has robbed it of meaning, and le� it only with banalities. Governments have strategies to tackle the problems of education, public health, pensions and inner-city housing. Advertising companies have strategies to sell cosmetics or clothes. Strategic studies flourish more verdantly in schools of business studies than in departments of international relations. Airport bookstalls carry serried ranks of paperbacks reworking Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Gerald Michaelson is a leader in this field: his titles are self-explanatory -Sun Tzu: the Art of War for Managers -�� Strategic Rules (����) and Sun Tzu Strategies for Marketing: �� Essential Principles for Winning the War for Customers (����). But strategic studies are not business studies, nor is strategy -despite the beliefs of George Bush and Jack Straw to the contrary -a synonym for policy.
Futures, 1995
The end of strategy' was one of six articles which comprised the Futures Special Issue on Strategy in May 1994.
The Field of Strategy::: In Search of a Walking Stick
European Management Journal, 2005
After more than twenty years of commitment to the field of strategy, we are still wondering if the academic field of strategy exists. There have been excellent and exhaustive reviews by authors such as Rumelt, Schendel and Teece (1994), Whittington (1996); Hitt & Tyler (1991), and Pettigrew, Thomas and Whittington (2001), and many others, but most take note of the extreme diversity of the research, and shy away from providing a convincing framework to clarify what the field is all about. To develop this theme further, at the 2002 Academy of Management meeting in Denver, one of us asked the same question of some of the pioneers in the "Strategy section." 1
Strategy –Not a universal Formula
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of applying the principles of strategy to organizations in any context in order to pursue success. Nevertheless, also this paper will discuss the idea that the strategy in not a universal formula, because there is none an existing linear reality with same frames and results, furthermore they change every time, thus the strategy and formula must change and fit to every new scenario in today's multidimensional scopes.
Texas National Security Review, 2020
The use of strategic theory to support the practice of the use of military force was the subject of many of Colin's books, articles, and lectures. Strategy must convert policy from ideas and objectives into the use or threat of military force. It is this conversion that I will examine here through Colin's works, my conversations with him, and my experience teaching his works to my students. An understanding of Clausewitz and Thucydides is fundamental to Colin's approach to strategy. He succeeded in developing strategic theory from their practical methods, creating the concept of strategic history almost single-handedly. 1 As a practitioner, he sought to provide the firmest of foundations for those charged with the conversion of policy into the use of force. My students have occasionally suggested to me that Colin's work is complex and difficult to comprehend. Indeed, in a paper titled Defining and Achieving Decisive Victory, Colin wrote that his own "dense prose" was perhaps too forbidding for non-academics. 2 Some reviewers have criticized his work for the same fault. 3 Many of the concepts with which he wrestled require sophisticated language to fully express their complexity. Despite this, to paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, the knowledge gained is certainly worth the effort necessary to understand the full breadth and depth of Colin's work. The Use of History Colin argued that the theory of strategy should be taught and understood, while maintaining that the process of designing and creating strategy itself was unteachable. "Strategists cannot be trained, but they can be educated." 5 Strategic theory is there to guide the strategist, but the
2021
Strategy is a category of growing importance in contemporary scientific debate. “Strategy” as a concept is derived from military thought, but it has become popular in many areas of expertise in recent decades. This term can be found in professional literature in the field of military science, political studies, psychology, economics and management. It is therefore worth taking a look at a book that explains the classical understanding of this concept. The book reviewed here is positioned in the area of strategic studies and war and conflict studies. The review will look at the structure and content of this publication, as well as assess its usefulness in scholarly and didactic practice.
Understanding Modern Warfare
In moments of reflection, both management teachers and practitioners acknowledge that choices are constrained by the availability of information, the ability to make sense of it, and the ability to communicate it. This study of strategy practice in organisations shows that choice is more than constrained; it is also socially constructed. Everyday strategy is guided by 'taken for granted' practices rooted in social reality; an objective reality that is the product of subjective processes. At the same time, practitioners construct their social reality through practice; through, for example, shared meaning, heritage, the patterning of experiences. These observations are based on a phenomenological study of strategy and innovation in three unrelated organisations all of whom regard innovation as essential for their survival: a bank, a telecommunications service provider, and a business school. Others have helped me develop my ideas. My thanks to Professor David Bloor for our discussions on Wittgenstein's and Mary Douglas' work, Professor Friso den Hertog for reading and commenting on an early draft of my 'research design and method' chapter, and Professor Lefebvre for his suggestions on organisational behaviour. My thanks also to those who shared their time and ideas with me at seminars and informal chats, particularly from: the Research Centre for Social Sciences, and the Business Studies department at the University of Edinburgh; MERIT, and the Faculty of Arts and Culture at the University of Limburg in The Netherlands; the Faculty of Applied Economic Sciences at Limburgs Universitair Centrum in Belgium. I am also very grateful to Kit Gardner and her team in the Business Studies office at Edinburgh and Corien Gijsbers at MERIT for clearing away those administrative and practical obstacles that reared up from time to time. With their help I was able to enjoy my task even more. This study was made possible through the cooperation of staff in the organisations studied. For this I am especially grateful to Robin Browning of the Bank of Scotland, Patrick Hurd of Ascom Timeplex, and David Asch of the Open Business School, for providing me with time and access to their colleagues. In many ways Katerina, my wife, has been critical to the production of this thesis. She has supported me by managing our household, reading various early drafts, and giving me the freedom to think and walk around in a distracted state preoccupied with my own thoughts. This research was funded by the Joi nt Panel of the Science and Engineering Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council. I am very grateful to the Panel for their support and their belief that the marriage of my industrial background and academic research could advance our understanding of the nature of strategy and the management of innovation. CONTENTS List of Figures ix List ofAppendicies x 1959: 86). Lindblom's branch method seems descriptive of firms that develop through incremental product changes and manufacturing process improvements, and firms which Freeman (1982) might describe as following an 'imitative' strategy. These firms operate in established and stable technologies, relying on more innovative firms to develop both the technological improvements and markets. Lindblom's analysis highlights the role of social values and the futility of a determinate metaphor. However, his suggested 'successive limited comparison' approach risks producing 28 completely arbitrary outcomes in the face of a fast changing and developing environment, because he denies or significantly understates the scope for strategic intent shaping outcomes. 2.3.4 Social construction An emerging set of ideas about strategy, "emphasizes the importance of symbol manipulation, shared meaning, and cooperative actions of individuals" (Chaffee, 1985: 95). This perspective posits a more sociological view of strategic management in that managers operate on a reality which is socially constructed and manage the organisation by co¬ operative agreements or social contracts, "entered into by individuals with free will" (Chaffee, 1985: 93). Many writers both within and outwith the strategy field, equate organisations with Boulding's (1956: 205) hierarchy of general systems, in which there are eight levels. The lower levels are mechanical, moving up in complexity through the biological, with "symbolic images in human behavior" at level eight, and 'transcendental systems' at level nine. The variables determining the pattern include: language, discourse, laws, roles, ritual, custom, ceremony, norms, folklore, stories, beliefs, myths. These patterns are symbolic constructions and are the means by which organisational members make sense of their interrelationships. The validity of conceiving of strategic implications as a social construction is implicitly supported by Loveridge's study of the implementation of IT to improve services in banking, retaining, and health care. Loveridge notes that managers' subsequent interpretation of IT as having systemic significance is "shaped by earlier 'problem' applications and, often, by the crises that triggered the search for earlier IT solutions"(1990: 341). The consequences of this, as he points out, is that managers' creativity in terms of how IT may be used is guided and informed by their previous learning. Similarly, Metcalfe and Gibbons (1989) in their development of an evolutionary metaphor for technological innovation, note that firms' development options are severely constrained by their knowledge base: existing technological knowledge and ways of organisation. Moreover, Chaffee (1985: 96) notes that The Open University (1993), Board of the School ofManagement: School Plan 1994-98. The Open University (1993), Plans for Change, Leaflet. Thomson A. (1994), 'Information systems and information technology strategy committee: A preliminary report from the Advisory Group on strategy for the 'Electronic Strand' of the University', The Open University, presented as internal seminar paper March 15, 1994: 1-62.
Re-Reading The Term “Strategy”
International journal of business and social research, 2014
The aim of this paper is to understand the denotations and connotations ascribed to the term “strategy”, which is critical to the strategic management field. On the basis of the term, it has been appeared that the field takes mostly a normative position and could not escape from producing analytical tools for managers because of having a managerialistic focus since the 1960s, beginning of the field. This article provides a reader with re-reading the term “strategy” from a different point of view. The methodology of this study is based on qualitative content analysis of the selected articles. The results show that the strategic management field is still dominated by a managerialistic view. Therefore the knowledge and analytical tools are produced by the orders of managers which create asymmetric power relations in the field. This study analyzes the basic articles published in SSCI. It would be more comprehensive view to broaden the article pool. Although analyzing articles published ...
Security & Defence Quarterly, 2021
Strategy is a category of growing importance in contemporary scientific debate. “Strategy” as a concept is derived from military thought, but it has become popular in many areas of expertise in recent decades. This term can be found in professional literature in the field of military science, political studies, psychology, economics and management. It is therefore worth taking a look at a book that explains the classical understanding of this concept. The book reviewed here is positioned in the area of strategic studies and war and conflict studies. The review will look at the structure and content of this publication, as well as assess its usefulness in scholarly and didactic practice.