Abstract
The key aim of Open Strategy is to open up the process of strategy development to larger groups within and even outside an organization. Furthermore, Open Strategy aims to include broad groups of stakeholders in the various steps of the strategy process. The question at hand is how can Open Strategy be achieved? What approaches can be used? Scenario planning and business wargaming are approaches perceived as relevant tools in the field of strategy and strategic foresight and in the context of Open Strategy because of their participative nature. The aim of this article is to assess to what degree scenario planning and business wargaming can be used in the context of Open Strategy. While these approaches are suitable, their current application limits the number of potential participants. Further research and experimentation in practice with larger groups and/or online approaches, or a combination of both, are needed to explore the potential of scenario planning and business wargaming as tools for Open Strategy.
Highlights
While in the past, strategy processes were an activity for senior managers and their advisors, either internal or external strategy consultants, and were highly confidential, Open Strategy (OS) describes approaches that include large groups within an organization as well as external stakeholders to develop a strategy (Seidl et al 2019b). Birkinshaw (2017) argues that the level of openness in strategy-making has considerably increased in recent years
Offline as we find evidence in the OS literature of the relevance of online formats, for involving larger groups of internal or external stakeholders, we want to trigger the discussion of whether scenario planning (SP) and business wargaming (BW) can be applied in such a manner
The OS perspective is concerned with how the process of strategy development can be opened up to wider groups, or even the entire organization or outside stakeholders
Summary
Strategy processes were an activity for senior managers and their advisors, either internal or external strategy consultants, and were highly confidential, Open Strategy (OS) describes approaches that include large groups within an organization as well as external stakeholders to develop a strategy (Seidl et al 2019b). Birkinshaw (2017) argues that the level of openness in strategy-making has considerably increased in recent years. Birkinshaw (2017) argues that the level of openness in strategy-making has considerably increased in recent years. Openness in this respect is referred to as the level of inclusiveness (who is involved) and the transparency of the process (how much information is shared). The term “Open Strategy” with its current meaning was first introduced by Whittington et al (2011, 532) (Seidl et al 2019a) and defined as follows: “an openness in terms of inclusiveness, in other words, the range of people involved in making strategy; and an openness in terms of transparency, both in the strategy formulation stage and, more commonly, in the communication of strategies once they are formulated.”. The argument has been made that two branches of OS have emerged (Appleyard and Chesbrough 2017): a content branch and a process branch.
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