STRATEGIC PRACTICE & LEADERSHIP

STRATEGIC PRACTICE & LEADERSHIP

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“We see in the world many examples of sets of human activities related to each other so that they can be viewed as a whole”

(Checkland, 1999, pp115).

Introduction

Strategic planning means to forecast the production and sales function of an organization in the old times. However, the strategy and practice is getting all changed now. Strategic planning is now the name of creating a strategic fit between the organization's resources (material, financial, human, time and intellectual capital) and its environment. Furthermore, organizations strive to infuse the sense of strategy throughout the organisation at all levels. The concepts of community of practice, system thinking, and emergent leaders, all work in a synergistic manner, and are means of propelling the organization in the direction that brings an innovative and learning culture, which is the new paradigm of strategy. It is about managing the system of organization, in collective gains via mutual interest and interdependencies.

Discussion

Competition is the cradle of organization. Companies are born and die in this cradle. Those, which successfully management the strategic aspect and infuse change as per the requirement of dynamic and turbulent environment, survive and grow, while others, die. Organizations are limited with their resources (financial, material, human, and knowledge). The environment is becoming more unpredictable, life cycles of technology and product both are getting shorter and shorter. It is of immense importance that, managers and leaders fine tune their organization's direction, to successfully compete in the market place. This strategic fit between the environment's opportunities and threats requires managers to have diverse knowledge, of not only their organization's resources but also what prevails in the environment. The understanding of the dynamics of the industry is crucial for formulating successful strategy. Creative and innovative solutions requires to manoeuvring the organization towards achievement of its goals. In order to achieve these goals and create a strategic fit, managers engage in strategic management and strategic thinking on a continuous basis. Strategic management entails the activities of senior level managers and their activities to manoeuvre the direction of their firm towards the attainment of goals (Schendel, 1980). Strategic thinking, on the other hand, involves activates at all level of the organization. From top to the bottom level of managers, all involve in strategic thinking in an attempt to improve the performance collectively.

The mechanics is simple, mangers at all level understand the position of their firm in the market place, and what challenges in the broader context the firm is facing. The connection between the individual performance and the organizational performance is critical to implement the strategic thinking philosophy. In a music band, every instrument player supports the theme, working in integration and this collaboration brings synergy, as neither of these instruments would have played that beautiful music in isolation. The guitarists, drummer, all have to know the role of each other in addition to their own, so they can understand the aesthetic sense in the broader ...