Change management principles and practices

Strategic Architecture, and Therefore a Strategic Plan, Cannot be a Detailed Plan

Today's organizations must operate within industries that are in a constant state of flux. Change is the only constant. For this reason, organizational strategic planning has changed considerably over the years as well.

Companies must now address opportunities and threats that come at them in rapid fire succession. Being able to quickly adapt to these threats and take advantage of these opportunities equates to increased competitiveness and industry leadership. For this reason, flexibility is paramount to success, which follows the same lines of thinking for the statement, 'A strategic architecture, and therefore a strategic plan, cannot be a detailed plan.

Kiernan (1993) noted that the 1980s saw corporate strategy focused on factors that were external to organizations, such as industry structure and dynamics and the changing customer requirements and their implications.

But, that this external focus blinded management to the internal factors that were more critical to competitive success.

Kiernan surmised that "constructing strategic architecture requires conscious attention to developing mechanisms for organizational learning, innovation and experimentation, constructive contention, empowerment, optimized value potential, corporate sustainability, and strategic re-framing." It is through these strategies that organizations can increase their competitiveness. In a world where not only are external factors changing constantly, but internal factors are also continuously shifting, strategic architecture simply cannot be set in stone.

Strategy, in general, is managerial behavior that concerns itself with the creation of sustainable competitive advantage, for the organization. It's a blend of tactical responses, deliberate actions, and organizational learning. To be effective, resources must be allocated, policies must be established, systems must be installed, and leadership must be applied (Mansfield & Fourie, 2004). Even if core capabilities exist within an organization, without an effective strategy in place, an organization cannot be effective (Scholes, 2005). Again, in an ever-changing environment only through flexibility can an organizational strategy hope to be effective in providing competitive advantage.

Applying this knowledge to the analysis of the statement, 'A strategic architecture, and therefore a strategic plan, cannot be a detailed plan' results in several realizations. First, that strategic architecture goes beyond concerning itself with external factors, but also focuses on internal factors as well. These factors are continuously changing, and therefore an organization's strategic architecture must be able to respond to these changes. Being able to be proactive when certain opportunities and threats present themselves is what sets certain organizations apart from their competitors.