Strategic Thinking Vs. Strategic Planning
In the view of F. Graetz, strategic thinking and planning are “distinct, but interrelated and complementary thought processes” that must sustain and support one another for effective strategic management. Graetz's model holds that the role of strategic thinking is "to seek innovation and imagine new and very different futures that may lead the company to redefine its core strategies and even its industry". Strategic planning's role is "to realise and to support strategies developed through the strategic thinking process and to integrate these back into the business".
According to J. M. Liedtka, strategic thinking differs from strategic planning along the following dimensions of strategic management:
| Strategic Thinking | Strategic Planning | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision of the Future | Only the shape of the future can be predicted. | A future that is predictable and specifiable in detail. |
| Strategic Formulation and Implementation | Formulation and implementation are interactive rather than sequential and discrete. | The roles of formulation and implementation can be neatly divided. |
| Managerial Role in Strategy Making | Lower-level managers have a voice in strategy-making, as well as greater latitude to respond opportunistically to developing conditions. | Senior executives obtain the needed information from lower-level managers, and then use it to create a plan which is, in turn, disseminated to managers for implementation. |
| Control | Relies on self-reference – a sense of strategic intent and purpose embedded in the minds of managers throughout the organisation that guides their choices on a daily basis in a process that is often difficult to measure and monitor from above. | Asserts control through measurement systems, assuming that organisations can measure and monitor important variables both accurately and quickly. |
| Managerial Role in Implementation | All managers understand the larger system, the connection between their roles and the functioning of that system, as well as the interdependence between the various roles that comprise the system. | Lower-level managers need only know his or her own role well and can be expected to defend only his or her own turf. |
| Strategy Making | Sees strategy and change as inescapably linked and assumes that finding new strategic options and implementing them successfully is harder and more important than evaluating them. | The challenge of setting strategic direction is primarily analytic. |
| Process and Outcome | Sees the planning process itself as a critical value-adding element. | Focus is on the creation of the plan as the ultimate objective. |
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