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Developing robust strategy for uncertain times: Parts I & II

Successful companies survive and prosper in uncertain times by adapting business strategy to changing circumstances. Our two-part report provides an insightful overview for management discussion.

The vast majority of companies survive only short periods, but some manage to survive longer and even prosper by delivering excellence in the present time frame while at the same time designing adaptive business strategy to protect the future.

Developing Robust Strategy for Uncertain Times: Expanding Our Concept of Management Control to Deal with Dynamic Markets shows you how to recognize the barriers to success and how to design management control systems to help you adapt your organization’s strategy to dynamic market conditions.

Part I
Part II

You will learn

In Part I: Understanding the Barriers to Strategic Adaptation you will learn about three barriers organizations must recognize before developing a robust, adaptive business strategy:

  • “cultural lock-in”: the cognitive, organizational and political biases preventing timely response to market threats
  • the pre-conception of strategy as static rather than dynamic
  • dangerous overconfidence in the company’s ability to react to threats

In Part II: Management Control System Design for Meeting the Challenge you will learn how to design management control systems that can help your organization embrace strategic uncertainty and increase the odds of longer-term success. Insights include:

  • basic considerations for improving the decision-making process
  • methods for developing a robust strategy without exposing the organization to excessive risk
  • how to mitigate cultural lock-in
  • the role of senior management to encourage divergent thinking, assess trade-offs and remove barriers inhibiting the pursuit of new strategic frontiers