ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Concepts of strategy
Brindle Retail's board has set a three-year plan in detail, but six months in a competitor launches a rival online service. Managers notice the plan's assumptions no longer hold and, without formal planning, trial a new delivery offer that proves popular and is then adopted company-wide. Which view of strategy development does this best illustrate?
This illustrates emergent strategy. The delivery offer was not part of the intended plan but arose through managers' experimentation and learning after circumstances changed, and was later adopted widely. A deliberate strategy would have followed the original plan as intended.
- ARational planning model, because objectives were set in advance
- BEmergent strategy, arising from experience and adaptation rather than the original planCorrect
- CDeliberate strategy, because the board approved the final outcome
- DStrategic positioning, because the firm responded to a competitor
Explanation
Strategy arose from managers' experimentation and learning in response to events, and became the pattern of action later. This is emergent strategy (Mintzberg). Option C is wrong because the delivery offer was not part of the intended plan, even if ratified afterwards.
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