The Umbrella Strategy, etc. - Mintzberg & Waters "Of strategies, deliberate and emergent" part 3

Today I have been... 

Reading about The umbrella Strategy (Reader, p22), the process strategy, the unconnected strategy(p23), the consensus strategy(p24), and the imposed strategy.

Why? 

Required Reading.

So What?

Unlike Ideological, Planned or Entrepreneurial strategies, some strategies imply looser control over the organisation or even the environment.

Here we have behavioural guidelines - defined boundaries within which actors can move. An example of an umbrella strategy is "all products should be designed for the high-priced end of the market". Where there is a complex and uncontrollable environment, the strategy cannot demand central control. Strategies are allowed to emerge, within boundaries. The umbrella strategy can therefore be considered both deliberate and emergent - deliberately emergent.

Virtually all real-world strategies have umbrella characteristics

 The process strategy is similar to the umbrella strategy, but instead of controlling strategy at a general level, it tries to influence indirectly. It controls the process of strategy making, but leaves the actual implementation, the content, to everyone else. Again this is deliberately convergent. This strategy is often used in divisionalised organisations.

The unconnected strategy is very simple to understand. You'll see them in organisations of experts, where sometimes a group or individual is allowed to create and follow its own strategy independent of others. This may be planned, tolerated or simply "lost in the system.

The consensus strategy evolves through the results of individual actions. Almost like a de-facto strategy. It totally ignores any prior intention and is a totally emergent strategy.

The imposed strategy is the first one which ignores entirely the will or the intentions of the actors within it. Imposed strategies can come from internal sources or from outside as well (eg government).

Sometimes it is the environment that imposes strategy, eg the way markets head.

There is a summary of the strategy types and their features on p26.

I ask myself the question, is there a relationship between deliberate strategies and the drive for operational effectiveness. And likewise a relationship between emergent strategies and innovation?


Fundamentally, deliberate strategy  focuses on direction and control, whereas emergent strategy opens up strategic learning.

How will I use it?

It has opened up my thinking about strategy formation. Thinking about the EMI case in TMA1, I am considering how the changing market conditions for music companies (the shift from CD to download, hard to soft) may be considered as a way that their strategy was imposed on them by the environment to some extent.

I am also mindful that the strategic learning that emergent strategy opens up is a key to becoming a learning organisation. With deliberate strategy, once you set your intentions in stone, you are unable to adapt them and so no feedback loop operates.

Emergent strategies necessitate that management is willing to learn. This is especially important in complex or turbulent environments. It allows you to act on reality rather than try and deliver some ideal world. However it may sometimes be appropriate to pause the feedback loop and focus on delivery of that ideal world. Managers need to be agile and able to attend to deliberate and emergent strategy.