We explain what strategic thinking is in the business world, its function, objectives and the capabilities it requires.
What is strategic thinking?
In the business and administrative world, strategic management thinking, or simply strategic thinking, is known as a form of planning or planning that pursues the fulfillment of the organization's goals, through the provision of resources and the use of ideas and opportunities to create a competitive advantage with respect to the environment.
This means that strategic thinking is that which, individually or collaboratively, pursue success creatively, methodically, highly competitive like someone designing a strategy to win in a game.
This type of thinking part of an overview of available resources in order to contemplate the possible outcomes of the different paths to be taken. This makes it possible to make efficient, daring and success-oriented decision-making.
It is clearly not an infallible form of thought, far from it, but rather “a mental process, both abstract and rational, that must be capable of synthesizing psychological and material data,” as defined by the French general Andre Beaufre (1902-1975).
For this it is necessary:
- Analysis capacity: It allows you to gather information that allows you to make a diagnosis.
- Synthesis capacity: It allows, based on the analysis, to produce the diagnosis and choose a course of action among all possible ones.
In fact, strategic thinking is key in the military world. Just as an army designs plans (strategies) to gain a combat advantage over its opponent, organizations can resort to strategic thinking to overcome their future obstacles and thus guarantee the best possible results in the face of uncertainty.
Of course, the very notion of strategic thinking is difficult to summarize or exemplify, since Above all, it is a way to anticipate the future entirely context-dependent.
However, many thinkers from different areas, from the Italian political thinker Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) to modern management scholars such as the American Jeanne Liedtka (1955-), wrote long treatises on the correct way to approach strategies and actions. ways to plan growth in a way that focuses on maximizing opportunity.
In short, strategic thinking is that which proposes establishing strategies: anticipating future events and having possible responses for each feasible scenario, so as not to be forced to improvise.
- Business management
- Creative thinking
References
- “Strategic management thinking” on Wikipedia.
- “How to define strategic thinking?” in Infodefensa.
- “What is strategic thinking in an organization?” in CEUPE Magazine.
- “Strategic thinking” by Raúl Orlay in Large SMEs.
