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CA Intermediate · Financial Management and Strategic Management · Introduction to Strategic Management

A mid-sized Indian dairy firm's top management drafted a five-year plan stating the intended target of 20% market share. After two years, a rival's price war and a change in consumer taste forced the firm to drop some planned products and launch new ones that had not been planned at all, and these moves eventually worked. Applying Mintzberg's view of strategy, how can the firm's final strategy be best described?

The final strategy is emergent combined with some deliberate elements. Part of the original plan was abandoned, while unplanned responses to the price war and changing tastes became the realised actions. Mintzberg treats realised strategy as a blend of intended and emergent patterns, so it was not purely deliberate.

  1. APurely deliberate strategy, since the original plan was written
  2. BUnrealised strategy only, since the plan failed
  3. CEmergent strategy combined with some deliberate elements, as the realised strategy differed from the intended oneCorrect
  4. DOnly a tactical response, with no strategic content

Explanation

Mintzberg describes realised strategy as a mix of deliberate (planned and carried out) and emergent (unplanned, arising from responses) strategies. Here some planned products were dropped (unrealised) and new unplanned moves worked (emergent), so the final strategy is partly deliberate and largely emergent. Calling it purely deliberate ignores the unplanned moves.

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