Creativity or Innovation in the Strategic Formulation

Question: Discuss about the Creativity or Innovation in the Strategic Formulation. Answer: Introduction The management of the organizations adopts various strategies in order to achieve the desired goals and objectives. The competitiveness and the changes in the customer demand has generated a situation where the managers are intended to make use of creativity and innovation while formulating the strategies. The innovation, creativity, utilization of the existing resources, exploitation and exploration of the resources etc can add value to the strategic formulations (Grant, 2016). Creativity in Strategic Formulation When creativity is imposed in the strategic work the managers can gain the effective outcome. This attribute makes the managers unique from others and they can achieve the competitiveness easily through the implementation of the creative and innovative strategies. The integration of creativity in the strategic formulation includes a research phase in the process through which the manager can identify what the customer expects and prefers from the organization. This identification enables the manager to develop a strategy which is customer oriented and it can produce effective outcome. The creative strategic thinking will enable the manager to implement the qualitative synthesis of the opinions and perceptions as it make use of the internal and the external data (Kim Mauborgne, 2014). Exploitation and Exploration in Strategic Formulation The exploitation and the exploration of the available resources can be considered as the effective attribute of the strategic managers. Through the exploration strategy the mangers includes the activities like the search, variation, risk taking, experimentation, play, flexibility, discovery, innovation etc. The adaption and the flexibility approach of the exploration process will enable the managers to develop the strategy which is suitable for the new configuration or the requirement of the organization. Through the implementation of the exploitation strategy in the strategy formulation the managers can include the factors like the refinement, choice, production, efficiency, selection, implementation, execution etc. This enables the managers to make the maximum utilization of the existing resources. Through the exploitation the refinement of the existing technology is possible which requires the individual coordination. Hence the integration of the exploitation and the exploration c an introduce the creativity and innovation in the strategic formulation which can make the organization competitive. This integration enables a long term success to the organization through effective strategy (Stadler, Rajwani, Karaba, 2014). Stake Holder Involvement The stake holder involvement in the strategic formulation is considered to be very important in the modern business environment. Through involving the stake holders like the employees in the strategic formulation new ideas, opinions, etc can be obtained from them. The stake holder involvement will also prioritize the employees which can reduce the employee turnover; their commitment towards the organization enhances which can lead to highly motivated and productive employees. For a strategy to be implemented effectively the coordination of the employees are essential. Hence through the employee involvement method the managers can make the employees loyal. For the formulation of an effective strategy the managers should be a strategic thinker (Voss, Voss, 2013). References Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley Sons. Kim, W. C., e Mauborgne, R. (2014). Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard business review Press. Stadler, C., Rajwani, T., Karaba, F. (2014). Solutions to the exploration/exploitation dilemma: Networks as a new level of analysis. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(2), 172-193. Voss, G. B., Voss, Z. G. (2013). Strategic ambidexterity in small and medium-sized enterprises: Implementing exploration and exploitation in product and market domains. Organization Science, 24(5), 1459-1477.