Emergent Strategy

Description of Emergent Strategy. Explanation.

Definition Emergent Strategy. Description.

Emergent Strategy is the vision towards strategy formation in organizations that emphasizes the benefits of letting the strategy emerge as things gradually becoming apparent. Try before you commit. Strategy is viewed as an ongoing process of constant learning, experimentation and risk-taking. It is an adaptive, incremental and complex learning process in which the ends and means are intertwined and often specified simultaneously.

The ends are rarely announced or recorded in a formal planning document, and when they are, they remain broad, general and non-quantifiable.

The means develop or evolve over time as the organization learns from environmental developments and interactions.

It does not mean that emergent strategists do nothing upfront and react completely ad-hoc to things as they evolve.

Benefits of emergent strategy formulation. Advantages

• Opportunism. Organizations must retain the mental freedom to grab unpredictable opportunities as they emerge. See: Scenario Planning

• Flexibility. Organizations must keep their options open, by not committing to early to actions and investments. See: Real Options

• Learning. Letting strategy emerge provides the environment to learn. See: Organizational Learning

• Entrepreneurship. The best way to find out what will work is to let people try. This is conducive to an entrepreneurial spirit to emerge. See: Chaos Theory

• Building Support. Major strategic change causes considerable resistance in organizations. So time to build support for it is important. See: Appreciative Inquiry

Compare with: Deliberate Strategy  |  Logical Incrementalism  |  Strategy Dynamics

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End of description Emergent Strategy. An explanation.