Approaches to Strategy Formulation
Mintzberg and Water (1985) suggested three approaches to strategy formulation. They are intended, realized, and emergent strategies.
A manager can choose any of these strategy-developing approaches considering the goal of strategies.
Intended Strategy
It is the strategy that the company has chosen to pursue deliberately. It is also known as a deliberate strategy because it involves the accomplishment of a clear goal. As a result, an intended strategy has been developed as part of an organization’s strategic plan.
The intended strategy supports the strategic plan to make better strategies and implement them so as to realize organizational goals.
Realized Strategy
Realized strategy is the strategy that the organization actually carries out. For example, an organization may not implement the intended strategy due to a change rt customer preference; the strategy is called unrealized strategy. Now, managers use their experience and learning to develop an emergent strategy.
Emergent Strategy
Under this, the managers use their experience and learning to develop a strategy that meets the needs of the external environment. Strategy emerges from the action of all the people working in the organization. It focuses on the idea of experimentation. It is suitable to deal with changing environment.