Strategy in Practice: A Practitioner's Guide to Strategic Thinking, 3rd Edition

Chapter 7Strategy Formation and Evaluation of Strategic Options

The real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting the subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation.

—Henry Mintzberg

In this Chapter, We:

• examine how strategic options are generated from the reconstructed “big-picture” that emerges from preceding steps of the strategic thinking process;
• explore simple mechanisms for strategy formation that are based on high-level concepts such as the unique competing space introduced in earlier chapters;
• examine the formation of strategic options in various organizational contexts;
• reflect on an opportunity–response perspective of strategic formation;
• examine appropriate approaches to the evaluation of strategic option based on principles, such as the building blocks of strategy, introduced in earlier chapters; and
• derive suitable criteria for the evaluation of strategic responses and reflect on their limitations.

There is no scientific approach to strategy formation. Strategic options emerge and take shape through astute sense making, continual challenging of assumptions, and careful crafting of suitable alternatives in response to a strategic challenge that presents itself. Just as importantly, there is no such thing as a single “right” response to a strategic challenge. All strategic responses feature potential liabilities. Hence, the final choice ...