“Strategic thinking is the bridge that links where you are to where you want to be.”
– John Maxwell
In today’s fast-changing business environment, both managers and individual contributors alike need to have a broad perspective, an awareness of the cultural trends, and business developments shaping the world.
Many managers focus on delivering ‘today’s’ business results, preoccupied with daily responsibilities that they fail to place themselves for long-term success.
In this period of rapid change economically and business wise around the globe, strategy in business is moving away from the basic strategic planning to more of strategic thinking in order to survive the crowded and competitive global environment.
To stay competitive requires organisations to keep their strategic management process dynamic, continuously learning and adaptable and taking advantage of emerging opportunities.
Strategic thinking thus becomes a key competency for leaders and managers responsible for the design and deployment of business and functional strategies. Strategic thinking needs to be at the center of the entire strategic management process, constantly re-evaluating, re-visiting and re-defining mental models of the business. The label strategic planning should be dropped because strategic planning has impeded strategic thinking.
Strategic planning is about analysis while strategic thinking is about synthesis.
Strategic planning means breaking down a goal into steps, designing how the steps may be implemented, and estimating the anticipated consequences of each step.
Strategic thinking is about using intuition and creativity to formulate an integrated perspective, a vision, of where the organization should be heading.
In practical terms, strategic thinking should help to analyze, explore, understand and define a complex situation and then develop planning actions that will bring the greatest possible positive impact towards a pre-defined goal, hence it is justifiable to conclude that strategic planning is subordinate to strategic thinking.
Strategy positions a business in a certain level based on the goals and possible positive changes they intend to achieve. This is why most companies require executives and managers to have a strategic mindset because this obviously sets them from those who think in a conventional manner.
Thinking strategically also helps predict the future of a company. With this it is easier to develop steps on how to get into what has been planned for the future and stay away from paths that may lead to business failure. Moreover, through this kind of thinking, a business is able to become more adaptable to change.
The distinction of strategic planning and strategic thinking therefore leaves many confused on which one to prioritize on. It is a reality in business today that strategic thinking and execution of strategic planning is proving to be a challenge among many leaders. Therefore a clear understanding of the value and the benefits of strategic thinking is indispensable.