ACCA SBL Syllabus C. Strategy - The 3 Lenses of Strategy - Notes ^{10 / 10}

Strategy as Design

• This is where strategy comes about as part of a rational, logical and planned (designed) process

  Suited to a hierarchical structure where strategy is delivered from the top down

Strategy as Experience

• This is where strategy is said to come from the culture of an organisation, future strategies come from past experience

  Here, strategies come about by adapting the current strategy. 

  They will be incremental and the result of compromise between managers

  They will be heavily influenced by the company culture and its history, “it’s the way we have always done things and has been successful so far”

Strategy as Ideas

• This is where strategy is said to come from ideas that pop up at different levels of the organisation and at different times, not in a logical or planned out manner

  Many different ideas will compete with each other here. The development of these ideas should be allowed to flourish and so not too much management control is required
  It is what is known as an “emergent strategy”

Using the Lenses

Looking through one lens only can be short-sighted and miss potential opportunities and threats