Hamel (1996) criticizes traditional strategic planning, which he sees as incapable of creating innovative strategies, plunging companies into incrementalism. He sees this as a kind of calendar-driven ritual, a reductionist process based on extrapolation and assumption of the rules of the industry. He asserts that creating strategy is not following a procedure, it is a search.
He sets out a series of principles to be taken into account in the strategic process in order to increase the possibilities of generating revolutionary strategies, such as: questioning the conventions of the sector; democratizing the strategy creation process, increasing the spectrum of the type of participants in this process; changing perspective, that is, looking at the world differently; being aware that anyone can be a strategy activist, generating ideas that can shape the future of the organization; etc.
He considers the strategic process as a deliberate process of a ‘democratic’ nature, in which top management must encourage and listen to the voice of an important diagonal portion of the organization, including people from different functions and hierarchical levels, involving them in strategic analysis tasks and in the search for new ideas and innovative strategies. This process does not conform to typical deliberate, top-down strategic processes as it incorporates the voices of people from different functions and hierarchical levels (process of a ‘democratic’ nature).
Since this author does not specify the characteristics of the strategic process he promulgates in detail, it is necessary to establish a series of assumptions in order to be able to describe and represent it using the ‘Empirical Model’ (see table and figure below):
- The main stage of strategy formulation (thinking, analysis and formulation) is supposed to be ‘moderately formal’, not following a totally pre-set and rigid program nor using highly formalized tools or techniques.
- The main stage of strategy implementation (programming, implementation and control) is supposed to be formal.
- The principles outlined by this author to increase the chances of generating revolutionary strategies are supposed to be part of top management’s vision of the strategy creation process.
Table. Description of the deliberate strategic process of a ‘democratic’ nature
Figure. Representation of the deliberate strategic process of a ‘democratic’ nature
NOTE: In the book “The strategic process of the firm: Theory and cases” (Roch, 2024) there are more case studies than those included in this blog.
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.
