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  • April 10, 2017
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review (website)

The Different Approaches Firms Use to Set Strategy

By: Kimberly Teti, Mu-Jeung Yang, Nicholas Bloom, Jan Rivkin and Raffaella Sadun
  • Format:Electronic
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Abstract

Many senior executives struggle to describe how they make strategic decisions. That’s a serious problem since the process for making strategic decisions can shape the strategy itself. To understand better how companies really make strategic choices, we interviewed 92 current CEOs, founders, and senior executives and asked each to answer detailed questions about his or her approach to strategic decision-making. Their replies revealed a typology of four approaches. Our results can’t say that any single approach to strategy is always best, but we do offer some evidence that one of the approaches is often flawed.

Keywords

Strategic Planning; Decision Making

Citation

Teti, Kimberly, Mu-Jeung Yang, Nicholas Bloom, Jan Rivkin, and Raffaella Sadun. "The Different Approaches Firms Use to Set Strategy." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 10, 2017).
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About The Authors

Jan W. Rivkin

Strategy
→More Publications

Raffaella Sadun

Strategy
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More from the Authors
  • Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin
  • BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems? By: Jan Rivkin
  • Management and Firm Dynamism By: Nicholas Bloom, Jonathan S. Hartley, Raffaella Sadun, Rachel Schuh and John Van Reenen
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