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Strategic Thinking
Ideal Type of Management Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2012 PP. 71-84

Strategic Thinking; a Practical View
Ehsan sharifi *
M.A. student in EMBA, Qom College, University of Tehran, Iran

(Received: 9 October 2011; Accepted: 28 March 2012)

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to clarify some of salient issues surrounding the concept of strategic thinking. After a historical overview of the evolution of strategic thinking, debate about types of thinking and different of definitions, I review research across the field of strategic management to find out characters and elements of strategic thinking model to develop a practical view. This approach can be useful to organizing a competitive organization.

Keywords Strategic thinking, strategic planning, learning.

* Corresponding Author

E-mail: Ehsan.sharifi7@gmail.com

72

Introduction During the past years a lot of research has be done on first-mover organization. The main problem identified by the majority of senior executives was strategic thinking. Interestingly, strategic thinking was a problem regardless of whether the companies had a formalized strategic planning system or used a non-formalized approach. The ability to think strategically, however, is crucial to remaining competitive in an increasingly turbulent and global environment (Bonn, 2001). This paper presents a framework that can be used to increase strategic thinking in organizations. It argues that what strategic thinking is, and the importance of it to have organizations that think strategically. The Evolution of Strategic Management Review of the strategy literature indicates there has been five phases in the evolution of the field since World War II. The first phase in the evolution of the strategy paradigm involved “basic financial Planning” in the 1950s where the typical planning focus for the firm was the Preparation of the financial budget with a time horizon barely beyond 12 months. The success of the organization was dependent on



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