Intended versus realized strategy

The following quote from Burgelman and Rosenbloom (1989) is one of my all-time favourites:

"The reality of strategy lies in its enactment, not in those pronouncements that appear to assert it." (p. 19)

I used to work in a company that was a great example of this: the boss (husband) would have in his mind what the company was doing, what it wasn't doing, and where it was going. This was the intended strategy. This was great, and he would take great pride in sharing this with all of his staff. The problem was, though, it was the company secretary (his wife) who was pulling all the strings and in control of what was really happening on a day-to-day basis. As you can imagine, her ideas and the boss's ideas were very different, although she kept this to herself. She was by far the quietest employee at the firm, yet she was the real strategy maker.

Her policy was: "No objections or confrontation from me, but I'll be darned if I'm going to comply, buddy boy!"



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