Pros and Cons of Emergent over Deliberate Planning Strategy - Essay Example

Unexpected marketing benefits may result from an emergent strategy. A company can design an emergent strategy to corporate a business opportunity or something else that competitors have not identified. For example, a firmmay set deliberate strategies to become the best supplier of a particular primary product or service in the next five yearsin a particular city. However, along the way, it may discover that a minor product or service is selling more than thetargeted one. The business may decide to set up an emergent strategy to increase the sale of the minor product to realizemore profits. In essence, the emergent strategy helps a business to offer what the market demands rather than what thecompany believes or thinks the customers want. An emergent business strategy also enhances the advancement of technology and thus the development of the product being provided in the market. Emergent strategies mostly spark from individuals in a business reacting directly to shifts in the marketplace factors and forces. Their decisions thusreflect order sizes, consumer tastes, and the practices of competitors. When two or more organizations provide the sameproducts that have almost similar features and technologies, clients will be unable to distinguish one from another. Hence, the firm will begin to refine and develop its product to add new features to survive in the marketplace and standout. The business will attempt to engage emergent strategy to include the new product developments that could propel itto emerge as a technological leader in the marketplace.

Cons of Emergent Strategy

However, an emergent strategy plan can go off course and result in completely new and unexpected problems ifan organization continually uses it to attempt to capture an attractive idea. Organizations constantly put out fires by dealing with unexpected issues that can cause problems. Although keeping an eye on emergent strategies helps do so, businesses should aim at original deliberate strategies as a blueprint for success. Careful analysis and assimilation of emergent plans into strategic planning are necessary to avoid unexpected problems. Attempting to compel emergent strategies to occur normally would cause a new chain of issues that may not bring significant benefits. An emergent strategy can also cause problems to the structure of the organization especially if the company cannot plan properly forit. Executives and individuals in an organization may also misinterpret it as a lack of structure or happening by accident. A corporate strategic plan needs to be ready to accommodate emerging potential benefits that the organizationnever anticipated. When the business discovers those benefits, it will come up with an emergent strategy to analyze list an organization that lacks a strong strategic plan that has focused objectives and accountability for results will fail to use emergent strategy correctly, leading to inadequate planning and hence problems.

Conclusion

Every business should have deliberate strategic plans to ensure it achieves its short-term and long-term goals. However, deliberate strategies sometimes fail to capture the unexpected benefits.  A business may thus find itself moving towards an entirely new direction because of many employees in it making decisions that reflect the actual industry situations. The business will thus adopt an emergent strategy to capture new and unexpected marketing benefits and develop products to stand out in the industry. However, a lack of clear and well-focused strategic planning may make the emergent strategy go off-course and cause unexpected problems to the organization and its planning structure. A business should, therefore, be on the lookout to ensure that its deliberate strategies remain its blueprint for success.