Lara Jelenc

The Foundations of Strategic Thinking: Effectual, Strategic, and Causal Reasoning

In this chapter, we dissect the differences between strategic planning and strategic thinking and suggest that traditional methods of planning no longer yield the benefits as in the past. Our analysis lays this failure on the use of a causal reasoning logic that alone no longer benefits organizations. Then we also examine foundational beliefs underpinning strategic thinking by examining the connections among the logic of entrepreneurial, causal, and strategic reasoning. In this analysis we distinguish two binary forms of thinking—causal and effectual—to frame our discussion, and then in the Hegelian tradition we press on to form a higher category of transcendent reconciliation through dialectic synthesis to introduce strategic reasoning. We end by picturing how strategic thinking concepts can form a new organizational change model that supersedes traditional planning. We call this model the strategic thinking protocol, which incorporates the logics of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Past and Future: Neostrategic Management

By providing the extended history of strategic management discipline, we offer an insight for the future development. Apart from classical tracks within strategic management, new directions—forming neostrategic management—are trying to find synergy with complementary disciplines like entrepreneurship, cognitive and social psychology, spiritual and religion movements, sociology, and anthropology. We suggest an additional role of consultants in strategic management—an emerging profession of neostrategic knowledge broker, as a bridge serving as the translator of research results by helping practitioners to utilize the scientific insights in everyday business environment.

Management and Leadership Development Needs: The Case of Croatia

Croatia is the youngest member of the European Union, having joined in 2013. Since 2008, it has experienced a significant slowdown in the economy due to the worldwide crisis, seen a high unemployment rate, high public sector debt, uneven regional development and a challenging investment climate. The higher educational system in Croatia, although structured on the foundations of European higher education tradition, has also undergone an intense transformation process mostly initiated by the increased demand for tertiary education, as well as the introduction of the protocol of the Bologna Agreement. Our study on management and leadership development needs in Croatia was based on 18 in-depth interviews with senior and executive managers from 10 companies in Croatia using the grounded theory approach. The results imply that older companies struggle with the generation gap and changing corporate culture, while younger companies like startups face problems with employing workers from countries outside of the EU. Both of them concluded that the current educational system fails to provide graduates with the set of skills the Croatian industry needs. Therefore, the development needs of managers are most often met through in-house development programs and coaching. Although companies realize the need for constant work on developing skills, they are not willing to invest in continuing education and development programs. Suggested recommendations are directed toward the academic and business community as well as the government by changing the relation paradigm between educational institutions and companies, suggesting an open and innovative business model of co-creating learning communities.

Failing Strategy Implementations

Strategy implementation is recognized as the source of frustrations and the black box of strategic management processes. This chapter summarizes research attempts in defining implementation problems and critical factors. Further on, based on previous empirical results, it suggests an integrated strategy implementation model. We suggest that the core of the integrated model includes factors like resources, communication, people, control mechanisms, operative planning, and time. Strategy formulation is the antecedent of strategy implementation. The relation between formulation and implementation could be influenced by outer and inner environment (culture, structure, and leadership). The basic conclusion is that multiple factors should be considered simultaneously when developing and implementing a strategy.There are two points that ought to be kept in mind when studying strategy implementation process. The first one is the hierarchical level of the respondents included in the empirical research. Namely, most research is founded on responses provided by top managers ignoring middle, low, and nonmanagerial perspectives. The second is to look after different levels the strategy refers to. Most research has been focused on business and less on the corporate level of organizations.

Building Bridges Between Entrepreneurship and Strategic Thinking

In this chapter, we present two bridges linking entrepreneurial and strategic thinking. The first bridge links the research of individual entrepreneurial behavior and strategic thinking skills. We found that systems thinking was the strongest predictor of all three elements of individual entrepreneurial behavior (risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness). The more often the entrepreneurs in our sample used systems thinking, the higher was their predisposition for risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness. Furthermore, all subscales of strategic thinking (systems thinking, reframing, and reflecting) significantly influenced proactiveness. These links enable entrepreneurs to decide how to respond, act, and/or exploit possibilities. The links we found between strategic thinking skills and entrepreneurial behavior were strong enough to recommend that strategic thinking skills should be learned, trained, and practiced by entrepreneurs, leaders, and managers at all levels of the organization. The second bridge positions strategic thinking as a link between the effectual and causal reasoning continuum. The strategic thinking research suggests that strategic thinkers employ cognitive ambidexterity. It suggests that strategic thinkers use strategic reasoning skills in analytical, critical, synthetic, integrative, adaptive, and creative, and innovative thinking to switch back and forth between causal and effectual reasoning and thus are able to gather as much information about situations as possible before acting. We concluded that by linking entrepreneurship and strategic thinking, we gain a clearer understanding of the gap between entrepreneurial thinking and action, as well as strengthening the ability to see and recognize opportunities. The chapter concludes with five propositions to further develop the links between entrepreneurship and strategic thinking.