The Need to Think Strategically

7/29/2019 The Need to Think Strategically

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The need to think strategically

Defenation

is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in thecontext of achieving success in a problem or doing activity and achieve it as

you thought.

First of all, what exactly is strategic thinking? To think strategically

requires founders and key team members to continually assess your business

and your industry, and to apply new business insights. The goal is to use

these insights to reinforce a companys differentiation in the marketplace to

achieve competitive advantage. You need to think strategically before your

team can move on to the long or short-term strategic planning. You need

both of these to make smart decisions on a daily basis. If you don't know

where you're going, you'll have a hard time getting there!

Use it for decision making.

People who think strategically constantly reassess their business

environment. They evaluate at a corporate level by looking at the company's

strategy, customers, competition, and industry trends. At the department

level, they analyze the departments internal challenges and positions. Next,they gather and assess extensive information to estimate the changes that

must be made today in order to generate the desired results tomorrow.

Strategic thinking is an ongoing process.

Good strategic thinkers

Identify relationships, patterns, and trends while noticing patternsacross seemingly unrelated events, and categorize related information

to reduce the number of issues with which one must grapple

concurrently;


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Think creatively by generating alternatives, visualizing newpossibilities, challenging assumptions, and opening themselves to newinformation;

Analyze data while prioritizing the most important information; Prioritize action steps to stay focused on key objectives while

handling multiple demands and competing priorities;

Make trade-offs while understanding the potential advantages anddisadvantages of an idea or course of action. From that, they makechoices trying to balance short- and long-term concerns.

You can develop your strategic thinking ability by

practicing the following:

Curiosity: being genuinely interested in what transpires in yourcompany, department, industry, and wider business environment;

Flexibility: trying new approaches and ideas when new informationsuggests the need to do so;

Focus on the future: thinking about your companys operationalconditions that may change in the coming months and years.

Remaining alert for opportunities that may prove valuable in the

futureas well as threats that may be looming; Maintain a positive outlook: viewing challenges as opportunities,

and believing that success is possible;

Openness: welcoming new ideas from others, including outsidestakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and business partners;

Self-expansion: continually working to broaden your knowledge andexperience. Doing so will help you to see connections and patterns

across seemingly unrelated fields of knowledge.

What is the deffirence between Strategic thinking vs.

strategic planning

Only the shape of the future can be

predicted.

A future that is predictable and

specifiable in detail.


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Strategic thinking competencies

Liedtka observed five major attributes of strategic thinking in practice that

resemble competencies.

[14]

The first competency, asystems perspective, refers to being able to

understand implications of strategic actions. "A strategic thinker has amental model of the complete end-to-end system of value creation, his or her

role within it, and an understanding of the competencies it contains."[14]

A second competency underlying strategic thinking is intent focusedwhich

means more determined and less distractible than rivals in the marketplace.

Crediting Hamel and Prahalad with popularising the concept, Liedtka

describes strategic intent as "the focus that allows individuals within anorganization to marshal and leverage their energy, to focus attention, toresist distraction, and to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve agoal."[14]

Thinking in time means being able to hold past, present and future in mind atthe same time to create better decision making and speed implementation.

"Strategy is not driven by future intent alone. It is the gap between todays

reality and intent for the future that is critical."[14]Scenario planning is a

practical application for incorporating "thinking in time" into strategy

making.[23]

A fourth strategic thinking competency is being hypothesis driven, ensuring

that both creative and critical thinking are incorporated into strategy making.This competency explicitly incorporates the scientific method into strategicthinking.[citation needed]

The final strategic thinking competency is intelligent opportunism, which

means being responsive to good opportunities. "The dilemma involved in

using a well-articulated strategy to channel organisational efforts effectivelyand efficiently must always be balanced against the risks of losing sight ofalternative strategies better suited to a changing environment."[14]

Referances "What is Strategic Thinking?". harvardbusiness.org. Retrieved 10 August 2012.

^"What is Strategic Thinking? by Rich Horwath". Retrieved 10 August 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-ST-RBK-10-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-ST-RBK-10-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-ST-RBK-10-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://ww3.harvardbusiness.org/corporate/demos/hmm10/strategic_thinking/what_is_strategic_thinking.htmlhttp://ww3.harvardbusiness.org/corporate/demos/hmm10/strategic_thinking/what_is_strategic_thinking.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_ref-ST-B-01_2-0http://www.sculpturaconsulting.com/Articles_Samples/What_is_Strategic_Thinking.pdfhttp://www.sculpturaconsulting.com/Articles_Samples/What_is_Strategic_Thinking.pdfhttp://www.sculpturaconsulting.com/Articles_Samples/What_is_Strategic_Thinking.pdfhttp://www.sculpturaconsulting.com/Articles_Samples/What_is_Strategic_Thinking.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_ref-ST-B-01_2-0http://ww3.harvardbusiness.org/corporate/demos/hmm10/strategic_thinking/what_is_strategic_thinking.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-ST-RBK-10-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_note-Liedtka-14


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^"Strategic Thinking". Center for Applied Research. Retrieved 10 August2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_ref-ST-B-02_3-0http://www.cfar.com/Documents/strathink.pdfhttp://www.cfar.com/Documents/strathink.pdfhttp://www.cfar.com/Documents/strathink.pdfhttp://www.cfar.com/Documents/strathink.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_thinking#cite_ref-ST-B-02_3-0