The following figure shows the process that a company’s top management might follow in order to define and establish the most appropriate strategic processes for their organization at a given point in time. Each of the steps that make up this process are described in detail underneath the figure.
1. Evaluation of the organization’s context.
As already mentioned, each organization will have a type or combination of types of strategic processes that are best suited to its specific problems or context at any given time or, in other words, to its internal characteristics and the characteristics of its environment at any given moment.
Therefore, the first step to be taken is to analyze or evaluate the different aspects that define the organization’s context:
- Characteristics of the company (Internal aspects).
- Characteristics of the company’s environment (External aspects).
These aspects were listed and described in blog entries 9 and 10.
2. Consideration of strategies and general objectives of the organization.
Although the strategies (intended strategies) and general objectives of a company are part of its internal aspects, the consideration of these two variables has been taken out of the previous step of ‘Evaluation of the organization’s context’ due to the great importance that both aspects can have when defining the most appropriate strategic processes for the company, since these delineate what is the desired future for the organization.
3. Definition of the most appropriate strategic processes for the organization.
Once the organization’s context and its strategies and general objectives have been analyzed, the most appropriate strategic processes for the company will be defined. To this end, the following tasks will be carried out:
a) Define the type or combination of types of strategic processes most appropriate for the organization. This should consider the above mentioned in:
- Blog entries 6, 7 and 8, which indicate the general contexts in which deliberate strategic processes, emergent strategic processes and strategic processes composed of deliberate and emergent actions are respectively applicable.
- Blog entries 9 and 10, which describes the influence that the different aspects (internal and external) that define the context of a company can have on the typology and characteristics of its strategic processes.
b) Forecast the activities and changes to be carried out in order to establish and promote the defined strategic processes.
c) Evaluate the feasibility of establishing, promoting and developing the defined strategic processes. In the event that such processes are not feasible, they need to be redefined.
4. Establishment and promotion of defined strategic processes.
The company’s top management should take the necessary actions to establish and promote the strategic processes they have previously defined.
5. Identification and monitoring of the strategic processes actually being developed in the organization.
Whatever actions have been taken in this regard, the strategic processes will eventually be developed in the organization, which may coincide to a greater or lesser extent with the strategic processes that were previously defined. The strategic processes that are actually being developed must be identified and monitored.
6. Learning and timely action.
The company’s top management must analyze the information obtained from the monitoring of the strategic processes that are actually being developed within the organization and, as a result, will have to take the actions they deem appropriate with respect to the strategic processes that were previously defined. Thus, in general, they may act as follows:
- Not to take any action on the initially defined strategic processes, because they are developing satisfactorily.
- Take certain additional actions so that the initially defined strategic processes can be developed as planned or desired.
- Introduce a series of changes in the initially defined strategic processes so that they can be better adapted to the observed reality and, in this way, can be satisfactorily developed.
- Discontinue some or all of the initially defined strategic processes, when it is observed that their further development is not feasible or desirable.
In addition, as a result of the learning obtained from the analysis of the observed reality in this regard, top management may wish to define and establish some other type of strategic process that may be more appropriate for the company’s context.
In any case, it is important not to confuse the obligation of the company’s management to define, establish, encourage or promote those strategic processes it considers most appropriate for its organization at any given time, with the fact that some or many of the strategies finally realized in the company have been developed outside those processes and even in totally unexpected and unusual ways. Management must be concerned with the strategic processes of the company, being aware of the great diversity of forms that these may take, and therefore being open to processes that arise and develop outside what is established, encouraged or expected.
In relation to the latter, it should be taken into account that the company’s top management must continuously monitor and analyze the strategic processes that are being deployed in their organization, and may act as follows with respect to those processes that develop outside of what is established, encouraged or expected:
- Allowing these strategic processes to develop on their own, without deliberately acting on them, if possible [1].
- When the time is right, paralyzing these strategic processes, discarding or saving (in case they may be useful in the future) the incipient emergent strategies that may be forming.
- When the time is right, deliberately pushing forward the development of these strategic processes.
[1] In many cases it is not possible for a strategic process to be fully developed without the company’s management deliberately acting on them.
If you are interested in going deeper into the strategic process, allow me to recommend you: - Book: "The strategic process of the firm: Theory and cases" (Roch, 2024). - Courses and consulting program on the strategic process.
