Learning points

1.  Outline the role of the strategic leader

2.  Discuss leadership in the integrative strategy-making process

3.  Consider the implications for strategic management

The previous chapters have provided a general background to strategic management and introduced a variety of models, theories, and approaches to analyze and understand the competitive dynamics that affect the strategic position of the firm. A rational analytical planning framework was used to identify superior strategic positions and uncover alternative ways to reach them as the backdrop to formulate a strategic path, or plan, to guide future actions. However, the rational planning approach is an idealized normative depiction of the strategy-making process. What actually happens when strategy is executed, or implemented, cannot be described as a linear process but is a complicated amalgam of intended actions and ongoing learning from dispersed activities pursued in different parts of the organization in response to emerging events. Hence, we outline an integrative strategy-making approach that combines central planning activities as a way to create direction and common understanding with decentralized responses in the operating entities as they react to dynamic changes around the daily transactions.