Researchers found a wide variation in strategy making approaches, even within similar industries and across organizations of similar sizes. They found four approaches to strategic decision making and discuss the differences in this article: unilateral, ad hoc, administrative and collaborative.
Source: Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2017.
Many senior executives struggle to describe how they make strategic decisions. That’s a serious problem, since the process for making strategic decisions can shape the strategy itself. Making a strategy without knowing your process is like sailing without a compass. You are setting yourself up for a long, stressful journey. Even worse, if you eventually reach your destination, you may not realize that you’re in the right place.
INSIGHTS: Too frequently, the stacking of tactics is considered a strategy. The research suggests that the unilateral archetype is most suspect.