I attended an interesting breakfast seminar this week as part of the University of Nottingham's Ingenuity Programme where I heard Professor Tony Watson talking on Strategic Thinking.

His research in businesses shows that strategic thinking is much more significant than simply having a 'strategic plan'.

Most strategy is developed 'after the fact' to explain actions taken rather than actually determined and guided by a plan.  Any 'strategic plan' tends to be solely the property of the board/senior management.

Strategic thinking, on the other hand, can be adopted by anyone and everyone within a business - and deployed effectively as long as the business has a broad strategic direction.  Strategy is developed by both thinking and action - acting thinkingly and thinking actingl,y as Karl Weick put it.

You can see and hear some of Tony's presentation as it was livestreamed.

The presentation made good sense to me in relation to the idea of the marketing mindset - that the ability to understand your business situation as it changes and evolves, and to spot and harness the marketing opportunity it presents is about understanding your broad business strategy and being able to take informed marketing actions to achieve it whilst remaining flexible to the changing marketing environment.

Tony will be running a one-day workshop "Strategic Thinking - What's It Got To Do With Me?" (the "Me" being anyone and everyone in your business) on 19th January 2010.  It's some way away, I know, but places are limited and, if Tony's ideas have been as thought-provoking for youas they were for the audience this week, you might like to consider booking a place soon.

Francine Pickering
Clarity Marketing