Tools, Models, and Methodologies Used in Traditional Strategy Formulation and Implementation in Stra

The strategy approach in strategic management directs the firm towards being a lot more innovative, flexible and provides direction about the route organizations should follow in pursuit of their objectives. According to (Venter, 2014), students always complain about the way strategy is taught which is different from the way it actually is in their organization. Nevertheless, businesses today have been hit by the effects of globalization leading to rapid industrial and technological developments and innovation, competitive markets as a result is in need of strategy as it provides members of the organization with a framework to guide their decision-making.

According to (Rouleau, 2013), “studying managerial practices not only solely informsone of what constitutes the skilled practice of strategizing, additionally provides a superior view of the skills and abilities that managers at totally different levels drawupon once doing strategy”. The concept of strategic practices used as tools, provides a higher level of understanding the traditional methods of strategic planning and implementation, and how operational norms are developed in the current environment according to (Rouleau, 2013).

The classical view of strategy supports the notion that strategy making is still the responsibility of top managers (the traditional ‘strategists’). While undoubtedly topmanagers significantly contribute to the success of strategic management, emergingperspectives support that not only top managers are strategists, any individuals in the organizations that control key or precedent-setting actions can be regarded asstrategists according to (Venter, 2014). There is considerable evidence to propose, that there may be alternative views or perspectives where strategy is concerned according to (Rouleau, 2013).

Consequently, these new perspectives have gained substantial momentum over the past years. The challenge remains in developing them into a robust field of research. Management theory and practices widely accept that current organizations operate in a more complex, dynamic, and ever-changing environment. This situation requires managers to be innovative in finding new ways to stay relevant in their current environment.

"Since early 2000, strategy as a practice has emerged as a distinctive approach for studying strategic management, strategic decision making, strategizing, strategy making and strategy work” according to (Golsorkhi, Rouleau, Seidl, et al., 2015). This strategy as a practice has come out as a strong alternative to traditional strategy formulation and implementation which is dependent on tools. The purpose of this study is to explore how can these tools, models, methodologies, and frameworks used in traditional strategy formulation and implementation be used in Strategy as practice.

Problem Statement

According to (Louw & Venter, 2013), The concept of strategy can be traced back to ancient Athens of 500BC, during the early 20th century, managers began finding ways or defining management tasks in a way to be proactive in planning to shape the organizational environment, and strategy was identified as always been and forever will be a key component of managerial activity. Several business schools still offer capstone courses at their schools about strategy and a lot of books have been written, and many scholars are still trying to figure out and piece together what strategy really is. The purpose of strategy formulation and execution was to guide organizational planning and processes and focus on strategy being a rational, top-down approach, and formal planning process that controlled almost all strategic management books. The traditional strategy management has always been closely linked to decision making models, frameworks, plans, methodologies, and other types of technologies of rationality according to (March, 2006). It is also important to indicate that the role of strategizing was only reserved for top senior members of the organization and relied on the understanding of the organization as predictable, linear, and rational entities according to (Mintzberg, 1990).

Strategy as practice on the other hand was Introduced by (Golsorkhi et al., 2015), and It focuses on how practitioners (senior managers, middle managers, consultants, employees, and others) really Interact and act in the process of Strategizing according to (Golsorkhi et al., 2015). According to (Golsorkhi et al., 2015), strategy as practice focuses its attention on 3 main concepts. Practitioners (The doers), Practices (theactivities) as well as practice (norms and rules). Understanding should be drawn that strategy as practice, will never replace traditional strategy perception, but complement it by providing valuable insights into how strategy is developed in the social process.

Problem Statement

What relevance do traditional strategy formulation tools have in Strategy as Practice?

The purpose of this study is to explore how can tools, models, methodologies and frameworks used in traditional strategy formulation and implementation be used in Strategy as practice.

How does strategy as practice and Traditional strategy formulation differ?

What are tools, frameworks, and methodologies traditional Strategy formulation utilize versus strategy as practice?

How can these tools be used in Practice?

A fair understanding is that the concept of strategy as practice is a new concept that is developing by academics, its thorough research will contribute tremendously to the scholars as well as managers in organisations in understanding the following three aspects. The first is that research will, to be precise, contribute to strategic enhancements by addressing issues that are abandoned by the traditional strategy perspective. The second being that research will also try to highlight some of the countless, micro activities that make up strategy and strategizing as a common practice. The last being that light will be shed on how complex the traditional tools used in traditional strategy formulation and execution are in a real-life environment.

Strategy-as practice therefore as our research focus area, links directly with sustainable development goal 9 which according to (United Nations, 2021) is “building resilientinfrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation”. Target 9.5, according to united nations sustainable development goals “is to enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of the industrial sector in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030 encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per one million people and public and private research and development spending” as cited in (United Nations, 2021). Strategy as practice as a new perspective, its further research and development will positively contribute to the empirical and theoretical knowledge, broaden its relevance agenda, and at the same time address some of the shortcomings of traditional strategy concepts.