Strategic Thinking

The book titled «Strategic Thinking» written by Timo Santalainen made me think about different aspects of strategic management and planning. At the very beginning, I want to mention that I share the author’s opinion about the necessity of using multiple lenses while tackling with strategic challenges. Timo Santalainen emphasizes following «Any manager, leader or expert who counts on one single frame becomes blinkered and misses chances passing by». I agree with him and strongly believe that there is no universal formula for organizational success. The example of Sony products came to my mind. Sony is a great company. Their history says that sometimes their new products were embraced, sometimes they failed miserably. The least successful product Sony produced was Sony Betamax. Although Betamax came before VHS and produced sharper recordings, VHS was cheaper and could store more footage on one tape. Thus, the company failed with this innovative solution. In contrary to this unsuccessful product, Sony created compact discs (CDs), pushed them and popularized them. I think the example of Sony shows that a company can either win or lose industry competition and this depends not only on local or global economy but also on how a company applies systematic strategic thinking. It also shows that strategic leaders should proactively monitor the environment to foresee industry shifts.

In my mind, in order to successfully convert a great idea into a reality a company should consider different factors before entering a new market, launching a new product, etc. This should be done from different prospective, so a company will not rely only on the one frame.

In the book, there are some themes to think about in order to kick-start strategic thinking. I found these six themes mentioned in the first chapter very relevant. Especially I liked the theme about «tentative vision or strategic intent». I agree with the author on the fact that the sphere of opportunities