Strategy as Practice Reflective Essay

Strategy as a subject can be viewed from varying perspectives. In its simplest form the term strategy can be defined as “…A general direction set for the company and its various components to achieve a desired state in the future. Strategy results from the detailed strategic planning process” (ManagementStudyGuide, n.d.). In a journal published by Henry Mintzberg, he states, “to anyone, strategy is a plan- some sort of consciously intended course of action, a guideline (or set of guidelines) to deal with a situation” (Mintzberg, 1987)

So many definitions have been given to word strategy, but the intended focus of this paper to look into the concepts of deliberate and emergent strategy practices and how it relates to me as an individual. Mintzberg and Waters highlight in their paper that for a strategy to be regarded as deliberate it must satisfy a collective collection of vision, goal and purpose by an organization which must be clearly and adequately broken down in detail and communicated to parties involved in order to achieve an envisioned outcome. (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985)

Although there is no preferential disposition as to one strategy being out rightly more efficient that the other. The afore mentioned strategy concepts both possess their own advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses, which all depend on the context and environment in which they are being applied.

A key determining factor as to which strategy methodology is based on an organization’s scope of operations and what it seeks to achieve as its goal. I remember a time back in 2017, I had a created a new business to sell information technology training products to a select segment of the market. I had mapped out client personas, advertising and marketing campaigns and so on. A few months into the business, I realized a key factor I had missed out during the initial phase of the project, which forced me to come up with a new working strategy as fast as possible, so as not to miss out on a particular timeframe when the market was receptive to the emotional indulgence of the product.