Rafael Alberto Pérez’s Eight Dimensions of Strategy
Rafael Alberto Pérez identifies eight crucial dimensions that define the size and scope of strategy. These dimensions offer a comprehensive understanding of strategic thinking and its application.
1. As Anticipation
The strategy for the future, driven by human will, acknowledges that uncertainty is key. This dimension raises two critical issues: behaviors and attitudes, both guided by a clear vision. The School of Management emphasizes that humans can interpret the present and shape their future, possessing two core qualities: anticipation and adaptation. A strategist anticipates the future to prevent issues, organizing efforts into missions, objectives, and long-term decisions. While tactical filters exist, the goal is to choose the most desirable future. The past is crucial for context, and a strategist must embrace risk and vision.
Historical Context of Strategic Anticipation
During the 1950s and 1960s, economists, managers, and organizational theorists began incorporating concepts like change and environment into their theories. In 1965, Joan Woodward proposed contingency theory, recognizing the vital relationship between an organization’s structure and its environment. Later, Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker introduced the concept of open systems, asserting that the environment is predictable and companies must anticipate its changes. By 1974, systems theory gained acceptance, built on three key premises:
- The environment is the primary actor.
- The organization responds to environmental demands.
- Leadership’s task is to interpret the environment and ensure adaptation and anticipation.
As we approach the future, changes accelerate. There are two prevailing perspectives on this acceleration: some believe it’s better to resist the future and live in the present, while others advocate for embracing lived experience, remembering the past, and living fully in the present.
2. As Decision
A decision strategy involves two agents in a two-way process: strategic intent and executed strategy. While strategy is inherently intentional, it must also allow for emergent outcomes. The decision-making process, though intentional, needs to adapt to a dynamic future.
3. As a Method
Moving from strategic decision to method is a single step. The selection of a method considers criteria such as cost, efficiency, and risk. Ultimately, choosing a method is synonymous with choosing strategies.
4. As Place and Benefit
Every method leads to a specific situation. Strategy, in this dimension, aims to secure a position of advantage. This advantage can be economic, related to marketing, management, or communication. Traditional strategic analysis, which was often static before 1980, evolved to define competitive position by introducing two new values: value and differentiation.
5. As a Framework
Strategy serves as a frame of reference, defining the space and boundaries within which an organization operates. It unites and provides coherence. This framework is embodied in the strategic document, which must clearly articulate goals, objectives, and strategies, thereby creating organizational unity.
6. As Insight and Perspective
Strategy must be a dynamic organizational project, moving beyond rigid, pyramid-like structures. Vision illuminates the path forward. A good strategist must anticipate and account for discontinuities. This dimension also considers the leader’s perspective and aspirations. As a perspective, strategy is understood differently across disciplines:
- Sociologists refer to it as ideology.
- Anthropologists relate it to society and culture.
- Military strategists call it grand strategy.
- Communicators define it as corporate identity.
7. As a Discourse
To comprehend strategy as an evolutionary process, both internal and external discourse must be considered. Strategy possesses a logic of action, and when understood as a discourse, it provides coherence and future direction. The strategic plan, as another element, translates these ideas to operational levels while remaining consistent with the overarching discourse.
8. As Relationship with the Environment
This dimension highlights how strategy dictates the choice of form, style, and approach for an organization’s interactions with its external audiences.