STRATEGIC THINKING

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Strategic thinking is the way, process, and capability that can determine the organization’s development strategy, strengths, weaknesses, and how to continually review the environment to identify the opportunities and threats that need to be overcome to find the way and solutions to bring the organization to success. Nuntamanop, Kauranen, and Igel (2013) define “Strategic thinking as a set of competence that impacts strategy formulation and strategic actions leading to business performance, of which characteristics include: conceptual thinking ability, visionary thinking, creativity, analytical thinking ability, learning ability, synthesizing ability, and objectivity.” (p. 256). Strategic thinking is a combination of competencies of broad thinking, deep thinking, and long-term thinking. Thompson and Cole (1997) classify “Three groups of competencies: the content of the actual strategies; strategic change competencies; and strategic learning competencies… Strong and appropriate content competencies will enable the organization to add value, innovate, and exploit internal and external architecture in order to gain benefit from its technological competencies and its strategic processes and capabilities.” (p. 157). Large-scale thinking is a holistic, systematic view of the environment in which an organization exists, seeing the changing environment and position that the organization must achieve in the changing environment. Deep thinking is a deep analysis of the opportunities, challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of the organization, seeing the fulcrum of leverage for organizational growth. Long-term thinking is the ability to see the goal ahead, be aware of changing trends, and constantly make the organization adapt to the environment to achieve the desired goals. The combination of the above three characteristics requires a long-term vision of the desired goals and the handling of problems as a whole to achieve these goals.

Hughes, Beatty, and Dinwoodie (2014) define “Strategic acting as both short term and long term. Strategic acting is a learning opportunity. Strategic decisions always involve uncertainty… Strategic acting requires attending to both short-term and long-term objectives. It’s not just about making long-range plans; it’s also about how actions now (tactics) align with strategic priorities. Acting strategically requires the discipline to invest in both the present and the future, and that requires having a strategy that is clear to people from the start.” (pp. 105-107). Strategic thinking is a creative and diverse process that demonstrates the vision of the leaders, requiring them to engage in daily activities with the organization’s long-term strategic goals. This is an intellectual and cognitive process that examines how organizations innovate or reorganize in response to major environmental changes.