Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Abstract
Strategic anticipation refers to the capacity to anticipate possible future strategic scenarios and thus anticipate required strategic moves in response to them. The academic community has produced significant literature regarding strategy formulation and implementation, but very little has been published in regard to what managers actually do, and should do, to anticipate the need for a strategic change. This study aims to uncover factors that influence the capacity for strategic anticipation. This paper reports on a qualitative, interviewed based, grounded theory study I conducted on the strategy practices of successful CEOs in Chile. I discovered that Mintzberg’s critique of the “design school” was correct, with none of the CEOs reporting strategy formulation or implementation practices corresponding to that tradition. Instead, strategic action took place via a series of localized responses (or “moves”) made by the CEOs based on their anticipation capacity of coming changes in their environment, competitors, markets and technologies. Strategic moves were not seen as such by the CEO’s until much later, when a series of “moves” they had made in response to their anticipation of a coming change accumulated over time and were recognized as an “emergent “strategy of the firm. I found that, in addition to individual characteristics that have been examined in prior literature, three forms of immersion (upstream, sideways, and downstream) influenced management capacity for strategic anticipation. Although these forms of immersion facilitate strategic anticipation and strategic moves, managers find it difficult to involve other members of the organization in the process. Given these findings and the nature of my sample, I discuss how situated, emergent processes of strategic anticipation and strategic moves are rarely diffused as a general management capacity within companies.
Keywords
strategy, strategic obsolescence, strategic anticipation, strategic moves
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Berczely, Gabriel, "Strategic Anticipation: Toward an Understanding of How Managers Anticipate Strategic Moves" (2013). Student Scholarship. 405.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/405