I came across this research paper, "Crucial Challenges Facing Contemporary Global Corporate Strategies" by Camila de Sousa Braga and Hélène Bertrand and am posting their posited Model of Global Strategic Thought below.
- Strategic actions need to be thought through using a rational and deliberative process, based on the corporations global objectives and targets, in order to encourage the collective learning process in complex organizations, but without being excessive to the point of putting the organization’s growth at risk.
- The figure of strategist represented by the central command should coordinate the formulation, implantation and control of strategies. As organizations contain many potential strategists, the central command should be open to ideas and information from local units. This enables the organization to achieve a fit between external opportunities and internal capabilities, and retro-feed the system, in order to gradually acquire the characteristics of transnational corporations.
- There should be a concern with content, focus, a sense of direction, integration,context and strategic processes, without however foregoing the quality of the creative process involved in the formulation of strategy;
- Central command should be able to promote strategic changes, without losing sight of consistency, of the organization’s recourses and competencies, and preventing the organization’s life cycle ruptures from destroying it;
- Perfect strategic management techniques, including the environmental analysis of competitive, technological, political, economic and social impacts and risk dimensions of capital markets;
- Develop plans, standards, positions, project, economic feasibility studies, analyze needs of demanding consumers, manage information in complex environments and the entry into new markets, considering organizational strengths and weaknesses, and making the necessary adjustments;
- Possess a group which is specialized in risk management focused on developing risk and return simulation techniques, in order to seek financial diversification in capital markets and also protect the organizations total value, faced with financial market imbalances and disintegration;
- Use teams of catalyzers, including expatriates who move around the local units of the global organization, and who have planning expertise to stimulate different types of strategic behavior by encouraging insights, creativity and fresh syntheses, and seek to mediate conflicts and promote organizational integration;
- Promote the integration of functional areas with networks between firms, with strategic alliances with local partners, with a value chain of key suppliers and key manufacturers and distributors, linked by data, so that together they are able to discover better profitable solutions and enhance their competitive position, as well as monitoring their competitors’ moves.
While the entire model is valuable for deploying and maintaining a transnational’s global strategy, I would like to point out No. 3 and No. 8 as particularly valuable from the perspective of continuous innovation as a globally competitive corporate strategy.