Introduction

Throughout this book we have stressed that organizational mind-set plays a major role in competitive success, and that it should be a central focus for HR strategy. One of the potential breakthroughs that might bring about a shift in organizational mind-set is to facilitate more strategic thinking in the organization. However, how can this be brought about, and with what economic value? This chapter tries to answer this very important question.

Strategic thinking often fails to meet its expectations in delivering economic value in many organizations. This is generally felt to be because strategies are frequently not implemented, or are implemented poorly. Another reason is because managers are unsure about how strategic thinking actually creates economic value. Because strategy is often perceived as relatively intangible and qualitative, the idea of actually putting some financial numbers on strategic thinking (or on strategic thought) may never have occurred to most managers.

To enquire more deeply into this topic the authors conducted in-depth, qualitative research into how five line/HR managers and five strategy academics saw the links between strategic thinking and value creation. The five senior managers were drawn from a variety of industries, each of which was facing rapid external or internal change (or both).

This chapter focuses on the five line/HR managers (findings from them being very closely parallel with those from the five strategy academics, who were also interviewed as a benchmark). Our conclusions (and the implications of these) can be found at the end of this chapter.

Strategic...