MGMT 410

412 CHAPTER 12 STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

ILLUSTRATION 12.3

An incrementalist view of strategic management

Managers often see strategy as developing through continual adaptation

to keep in line with the changing environment.

● ‘You know there is a simple analogy you can make.

To move forward when you walk, you create an

imbalance, you lean forward and you don’t know

what is going to happen. Fortunately, you put a

foot ahead of you and you recover your

balance. Well, that’s what we’re doing all the time,

so it is never comfortable.’ 1

● ‘I begin wide-ranging discussions with people

inside and outside the corporation. From these a

pattern eventually emerges. It’s like fitting together

a jigsaw puzzle. At first the vague outline of an

approach appears like the sail of a ship in a puzzle.

Then suddenly the rest of the puzzle becomes

quite clear. You wonder why you didn’t see it all

along.’ 2

● ‘We haven’t stood still in the past and I can’t see

with our present set-up that we shall stand still

in the future; but what I really mean is that it is

a path of evolution rather than revolution. Some

companies get a successful formula and stick

to that rigidly because that is what they know –

for example, [Company X] did not really adapt

to change, so they had to take what was a revolu-

tion. We hopefully have changed gradually and

that’s what I think we should do. We are always

looking for fresh openings without going off at

a tangent.’ 3

● ‘In our business you cannot know the future; it’s

changing so fast. That’s why I employ some of the

best brains in the industry. Their job is to keep at

the forefront of what’s happening and, through

what they are working on, to help create that

future. I don’t give them a strategic plan to work

to; my job is to discern a strategy from what they

tell me and what they are doing. Of course, they

don’t always agree – why would they, they can’t

know the future either – which means there’s a

good deal of debate, a good deal of trial and error

and a good deal of judgement involved.’ 4

● ‘The analogy of a chess game is useful in this con-

text. The objective of chess is clear: to gain victory

by capturing your opponent’s king. Most players

begin with a strategic move; that assumes a

countermove by the opponent. If the countermove

materialises, then the next move follows auto-

matically, based on a previous winning strategy.

However, the beauty of chess is the unpredict-

ability of one’s opponent’s moves. To attempt to

predict the outcome of chess is impossible, and

therefore players limit themselves to working on

possibilities and probabilities of moves that are not

too far ahead.’ 5

Sources

1. Quotes from interviews conducted by A. Bailey as part of a

research project sponsored by the Economic and Social Research

Council (Grant No.: R000235100).

2. Extract from J.B. Quinn, Strategies for Change , Irwin, 1980.

3. Extracts from G. Johnson, Strategic Change and the Management

Process , Blackwell, 1987.

4. CEO of a hi-tech business in an interview with a co-author.

5. From a manager on a MBA course.

Questions 1 With reference to these explanations

of strategy development, what are the

main advantages of developing strategies

incrementally? Are there disadvantages or

dangers?

2 Is incremental strategy development bound to

result in strategic drift (see section 5.4 )?

How might this be avoided?

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