Strategic Process Applications to Emerging Economies

This paper suggests and elaborates selected factors that are important to the strategic process of organizations within emerging economies whether the organization is public or private, for profit, or, provides a product or a service. The assumptions are that the strategic process applies in any organization, however, the results of strategic analysis, and the implementation of strategy differ between organizations generally, and between emerging and well-developed economies specifically. The paper can stimulate discussion and critical thought which will further identify and refine those strategic process considerations and factors which are important to organizations in emerging economies, and which are useful to practitioners and to researchers. Introduction This paper is to suggest considerations important to the strategic process of firms within emerging economies. The goal of this paper is to stimulate the discussion pertaining to those considerations which are important and useful to practitioners in firms within emerging economies, and which are also important and useful to those conducting research pertaining to emerging economies. It is intended that this paper and its elaboration will apply whether the organization is public or private, whether for profit, and whether it provides a product or a service. The importance of organizational strategies in emerging markets is recently underscored by the call for papers pertaining to this topic in the April 1998 Academy of Management Journal (1998). Freedom to compete, freedom to fail. In a competitive, relatively open, market economy some firms within emerging economies will survive and some will not, i.e., there are winners and losers. A well-developed and well-implemented strategic plan should improve the organization’s ability to survive in a competitive environment. Ultimately the market place, which might be in the form of customer’s, client’s, government, or donor’s support, determines whether the firm survives. In the very short-run the strategic choices for the firm within an emerging economy can be very limited. Commitments of the immediately available resources, the skills immediately available, the equipment in place, the firm’s experience base, the infrastructure development, etc., all dictate that which is possible in the shortrun. Just as for firms in advanced economies, the greater the time horizon the greater the number of strategic choices and options available to the firm. Risk and uncertainty are inherent in organizational life. While all decisions and actions have risk and uncertainty, the elaboration below may help practitioners within emerging economies assess the risk, and perhaps, help reduce or avoid some of the risk and uncertainty. The intent is to stimulate discussion and critical thought, which will better 1. identify considerations and factors, which are most important or crucial to the strategic process in organizations within emerging economies, and 2. elaborate how those considerations and factors influence an organization's strategic process within emerging economies. The testing of the conclusions can be by researchers’ organizational studies or by practitioners' applications of them. Importance of Strategy If there is a clear perception of the organization and of its goals, and there is a reasonably good plan for reaching those goals, then managing day-to-day is much easier. Many of the day-to-day decisions are dictated by the perception that the organization’s members have of the organization, and by the goals toward which they are directing the organization. That is, the decision-maker does select the option A because it does fit the plan and the goals. The decisionmaker does not select the option B because it does not fit the organization’s plan and the goals.