Business Strategy During Crisis

There is a significant difference between having a strategy, which suggests a plan (such as in a Strategic Plan) and acting strategically, which requires flexibility in response to events. This is why we utilize Strategic Intent rather than a Strategic Plan to communicate direction.

Strategic Intent allows strategy to be dynamic to engage with fast changing circumstances.

Strategy may need to be improvised under the pressure of urgent events, this is especially true during a crisis. In these scenarios intuition will play as important a role as deliberation. Maintaining situational awareness and alignment then becomes critical for this to be successful.

Crisis can either be a major threat or a huge opportunity. If it can severely affect competitors or accelerate changes in potential customer base, the opportunity in that can be massive. However, it is important to remain situationally aware during these fleeting opportunities.

If you have a decentralized organization you have a huge competitive advantage during a crisis. A decentralized organization has a culture to act independently, making decisions guided by the organization’s Strategic Intent.

Note that Strategic Intent does not act alone. For an organization to absorb these changes they will need an adaptive process. Here is an academic explanation of how the adaptive process is guided by Strategic Intent.