Helgi Gestsson

Strategy in Icelandic organizations

The objective of this article is to present the results of a survey conducted in 2007 on strategic management in Icelandic organizations. The survey wass ent by e-mail to organizations with five or more employees. Answers from 222 top managers of companies and institutions (46% response rate) were received. The distinctiveness of the survey is that it targets organizations of all sizes, both small and medium sized as well asthe big companies and organizations. The main results of the survey are as follows: Most of the top managers answering the survey believe that the vision for their operations is very clear. In 57% of the companies a formal crafting of strategy is conducted,showing variation for both size of the companies and the education of the managers; formal strategy is more likely to be in place in the bigger companies and in companies and institutions run by university educated managers. For around 70% of the companies and institutions, crafting and implementing strategy is either an ongoing process or it was in progress at the time the survey was conducted. Board members and top-managers are most likely to partake in crafting the strategy for the companies. In 19.3% of companies and institutionsthe performance of the organization´sstrategy is not measured at all, but in 41.2% of them the performance is measured by both quantitative and qualitative measurements. Most of the companies apply performance measuresfor measuring both employee and shareholdersatisfaction.