As the world change so does the manner in which business is conducted and strategized. Traditionally, strategic planning was more convenient as the businesses were formally run and planning was therefore necessary to predict future outcomes. In today’s world, however, the dynamics have changed and this calls for a change in the manner which business operations are strategized. Strategic planning is ideally about analysis which is breaking down business goals, designing the implementation stages and forecasting the expected consequences of each stage. Strategic thinking is however about synthesis and the use of intuition and creativity in forming a vision of where the business should be. It a rigorous and continuous step and does not stop at formulation stage unlike planning (Mintzberg & Lampel, 1999).

Despite the varying differences, the concepts are similar in that they are driven at achieving organizational goals. The idea of both concepts is to provide synergy among the various departments and thus making them perform more effectively. Strategic planning and strategic thinking are all management practices that are necessary for the smooth running of business. As such, they are complimentary to each other and should be used to make the operations better and helping achieve the organization’s goals (Harvard Business School Press, 2005).

While strategic planning is planned and follows a laid out approach, strategic thinking incorporates learning in coming up with the business strategy. In fact, strategic thinking is considered as a scenario in which the manager does an action in order to think rather than the conventional think before acting axiom. Strategic thinking positively impacts business strategy by capturing what the managers learn from all sources. In the modern world, business strategy should be expanded to cover the views of as many stakeholders as is possible. The effect of this shift is a better business strategy that takes into account all the needs in the market. It would be interesting to study the impacts of expanding business strategy to include views of the competitors, for example.

References

Mintzberg, H., & Lampel, J. (1999). Reflecting on the strategy process. Sloan Management Review, 40(3), 21–30. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Harvard Business School Press. (2005). Strategy: Create and implement the best strategy for your business. Boston, MA: Author. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

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