Title: Strategy and strategic action in the global era: overcoming the knowing-doing gap

Authors: Milan Zeleny

Addresses: GBA, Fordham University, Lincoln Center, New York, USA; The Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Czech Republic

Abstract: Efficiency and effectiveness are not sufficient in the global era. Explicability and ethics – not only doing the things right but also doing the right things – are emerging as major components of corporate success. Key aspects of competitiveness have moved from data and information to knowledge and wisdom. Strategy and strategic action have upstaged efficient performance and flawless execution. The world has changed. In the world of information, the notion of strategy has been reduced to the |mission-vision| descriptions, declarations and statements. In the world of knowledge, the notion of strategy has reinstated the action in the center. Your strategy is what you are doing, not what you are saying and, significantly, what you are doing is your strategy, no matter what you say. Each company has a powerful strategy, whether they know it or not. Modern view of the strategy is not about a statement and its implementation, but about transforming one action portfolio into another action portfolio, one implicit strategy into another. Here we present a methodology for overcoming the knowing-doing gap in the area of strategic management.

Keywords: global society; global sourcing; knowing-doing gap; knowledge; strategic action; strategy; strategic management; wisdom; explicability; ethics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2008.019407

International Journal of Technology Management, 2008 Vol.43 No.1/2/3, pp.64 - 75

Published online: 11 Jul 2008 *

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