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

Meridian Pharma's management agrees to a generic-drug expansion plan. During implementation, a competitor launches a cheaper substitute, so the company revises its pricing and distribution plans midway, even though no one had foreseen this when the original plan was drawn up. Which concept does this revised course of action, arising in response to unforeseen developments, best illustrate according to Mintzberg's view of strategy?

This illustrates emergent strategy, which develops in response to unforeseen circumstances rather than from the original plan. Deliberate or fully realised intended strategies follow the planned course, and unrealised strategies are never implemented, so they do not describe changes triggered by the competitor's launch.

  1. AIntended strategy realised fully
  2. BEmergent strategyCorrect
  3. CUnrealised strategy
  4. DDeliberate strategy

Explanation

Emergent strategy arises in response to unforeseen circumstances and was not planned in advance. A deliberate or fully realised intended strategy would be carried out as originally planned, and an unrealised strategy is one that is planned but never carried out. Here the new pricing and distribution plans arose from the competitor's move.

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