THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
GROUP Y
NAMES COMPUTER NUMBERS
NG’ANDU SIKOPO 2016135264
MPUNDU NDALAILA 2016137997
NATHANIEL MWANDILA 2016135178
COURSE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
COURSE CODE BBA 4111
LECTURER MRS PHIRI
TASK ASSIGNMENT ONE (GROUP Y)
DUE DATE 26TH MAY, 2020
QUESTIONS:
1. Explain the following strategies; Intended, emergent, deliberate, and realized.
2. Identify any two companies known on the Zambian market, and describe with
examples how their strategies have evolved over time.
INTRODUCTION
In our even growing business world, most companies have ambitious plans for growth. But
Despite these ambitious plans, only a few of these businesses ever realize their growth plans. In
order to achieve their business goals, managers need to possess two qualities and these are
planning skills and patience. Strategic management ensures the steps necessary to reach a
business goal are implemented and followed. Chris Zook and James Allen, in their book “Profit
from the Core” report that between 1988 and 1998, seven out of eight companies in a global
sample of 1,854 large corporations failed to achieve profitable growth. Yet 90% of the
companies in the study had developed detailed strategic plans with much higher targets.
In this essay we explain what is meant by; Intended, emergent, deliberate and realized strategies
and understand the differences between them. We start by defining what these strategies are and
then explain Realized strategies and how they are influenced by intended, deliberate, and
emergent strategies. We also identify two companies on the Zambian market, and describe how
their strategies have evolved over time. To begin with. Let us start by defining some important
terms
According to Andrews, K.R. (1980) a strategy is the pattern of decisions in a company that
determines and reveals its objectives, purposes or goals, produces the principal policies and plans
for achieving those goals, and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of
economic and human organization it is or intends to be and the nature of the economic and
noneconomic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers and
communities.
Strategic management is concerned with the character and direction of the enterprise as a whole.
It is concerned with basic decisions about what the enterprise is now, and what it is to be in the
future. It determines the purpose of the enterprise. It provides the framework for decisions about
people, leadership, customers or clients, risk, finance, resources, products, systems, technologies,
location, competition, and time. It determines what the enterprise should be capable of achieving,
and what it will not choose to do. It will determine whether and how the organization will add
value, and what form that added value should take.
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Having defined what a strategy and strategic management are. We are now in a good position to
move on and go into details with the types of strategies a business should have.
INTENDED, EMERGENT, DELIBERATE AND REALIZED STRATEGIES.
Henry Mintzberg has projected a model of strategy development that provides a more encircling
view of what strategy actually is.
An intended strategy is the strategy that an organization hopes to execute. It can be useful in
motivating the team towards a shared vision and common goals. Intended strategies are usually
described in detail within an organization’s strategic plan. When a strategic plan is created for a
new venture, it is called a business plan. The plan is a rough strategy that intends to keep the
organization on track (Mintzberg, H and Waters J, 1985).
When we speak of strategy as plans for the future, we refer to an intended strategy. Most
organizations create intended strategies that they hope to follow to be successful. Over time,
however, changes in an organization’s situation give rise to new opportunities and challenges.
Organizations respond to these changes using emergent strategies.
Emergent strategy is an unplanned strategy that arises in response to unexpected opportunities
and challenges. In other words, it is a set of certain consistent actions that form an unintended
pattern that was not initially anticipated or intended in the initial planning phase. Henry
Mintzberg introduced the concept of emergent strategy; his argument was that the business
environment is constantly changing and businesses need to be flexible in order to benefit from
various opportunities. Emergent strategy develops when organization takes a series of actions
that with time turn into a consistent pattern of behavior, regardless of specific intentions. It
implies that an organization is learning what works in practice.
Realized strategy is a combination of intended and emergent strategies. which can be interpreted
by reference to the strength of pressure from the external environment—a kind of environmental
determinism, and it the product of a firm’s intended strategy (i.e., what the firm planned to do).
In practice, the strategies of most organizations are probably a combination of the intended
(planned) and the emergent. A realized strategy is the strategy that an organization actually
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follows, and sometimes firm’s original intended strategies are long forgotten, (McGee, Thomas
& Wilson 2005 p 11).
Deliberate strategy is the part of the intended strategy that the firm continues to pursue over time.
It provides the organization with a sense of purposeful direction, (Gerry, J & Kevan, S 2008). s
The two most important strategic management tools used by an organization are the intended and
emergent strategies. This is because there may be a difference between the intended results and
the realized results due to the unpredictability of the business environment. The key difference
between intended and emergent strategies is that intended strategies are the strategies that an
organization hopes to execute while emergent strategies are strategies implemented by
identifying unforeseen outcomes from the execution of strategy and then learning to incorporate
those unexpected outcomes into future corporate plans.
TWO COMPANIES IN ZAMBIA AND HOW THEIR STRATEGIES HAVE EVOLVED
OVER TIME.
We follow closely how Savenda group of companies has become successful with their strategies.
Savenda Management Services Limited ("SMS") was founded in Zambia on 6th February 1997
as a private company. Savenda is a multimillion dollar forward looking and well-established
player in procurement and logistics solutions globally and has several International partners
servicing the mines, Telecommunications, Energy, Agriculture, Automotive, Petro-chemical and
Medical fields including government.
As a Global Supply Chain Management Company, significant collaborations exist in the
company due to a network of association in the USA, Middle East, Africa, European Union and
Asia pacific regions. As such it is strategically positioned to procure products internationally.
Highly experienced staff in international business also brings about unique strengths when it
comes to providing the services and solutions the company has.
Savenda’s vision is to be the most preferred and marketing leader in procurement and logistics
solutions globally. Savenda has now been appointed in Zambia as the distributor of Telecoms
equipment from Huawei Technologies, one of China’s largest telecom equipment
manufacturers.
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Savenda has a contract to supply, repair and maintain all power generator sets in Zambia for
Airtel and MTN. Savenda covers all base stations.
Savenda is also in the printing business (Embroidery, Screen Printing, Silk, Car Branding,
Billboards, CD/DVD Printing and office stationery. SAVENDA is dynamic and has access to a
very fast-growing customer base because of the solutions it provides which tailor made.
Savenda started off as a procurement and logistics solutions company, this was its intended
strategy. after successive growth in that sector.it opened up more doors for other industries as
part of its emergent strategy. These other industries include Savenda mining equipment and
supplies, Savenda construction, Savenda insurance etc.
Realized strategies are a product of a firm’s intended strategy that is what the firm planned to do,
in this regard Savenda’s realized strategy is procurement and logistics solutions, which it has
over the years managed to do successfully.
Finally, its deliberate strategy is parts of the intended strategy that the firm continues to pursue
over time.in this case Savenda’s deliberate strategies are Savenda mining equipment and
supplies, Savenda construction, Savenda insurance etc. as it continues to continues to pursue
them.
Next we look at another company called Zampost. ZamPost is the company responsible
for postal service in Zambia. Zampost exists as a public postal operator designed by an Act of
Parliament and mandated to provide postal and courier services. In 1986, the organization was
assimilated into a Public Limited liability company and became known as Posts and
Telecommunications Corporation (PTC). Its shares were held by the holding company ZIMCO,
on behalf of the Government. This was the ranking until July 1, 1994. In July 1994 the Zambia
Postal Services Corporation (Zampost) was created under the Postal Service Act No. 24 of 1994
after the disbandment of PTC further dividing the postal division from the telecommunications
division. In August, 2009 the Postal Services Act No. 24 of 1994 was repealed and replaced with
the revised Postal Services Act No. 22 of 2009 which defined Zampost’s mandate as providing
postal and courier services, financial services including the creation of Post Bank.
Zampost is a clear example that emergent strategy took place in this organization. As defined
before, Emergent Strategy is the kind of strategy that emerges with time. It’s an unplanned
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strategy that arises in response to unexpected opportunities, threats and challenges. Zampost
started as a Postal and telecommunications where they were only dealing with financial services
and mailing services, on a local and international scale. But they saw an opportunity and drifted
into transportation. They came up with a post bus which transports people all around the country
at a fee. Sometimes emergent strategies also result in disasters, like what happened in 2013 when
the post bus was involved in serious accident on the Great North road and claimed over fifty (50)
lives on the bus. This resulted in people keeping away from the post bus due to the fear infused
in them. However, emergent strategies can also lead to resounding success. Organizations
dealing in post bus services made a great deal of profit of profit in the transportation industry
because there were fewer competitors, and by purchasing new buses profit was being maximized
even in the long run.
As explained before, Deliberate Strategy refers to formal planning that is intended on helping the
company ahead with expected outcomes. The organization’s deliberate strategy, that is the parts
of the intended strategy that the firm continues to pursue over time which is to carry out postal
and telecommunication services.
Realized Strategy is a real and practical strategy. It’s the one that a firm actually follows. In this
case the realized strategy for Zampost was and still to provide financial services and mailing
services to individuals and institutional customers. These financial services are swift cash,
MoneyGram and Western union. The mailing services are EMS, domestic and international
mailing.
In conclusion, it is very important for a business to have a strategy if it wants to successfully
grow in the business world. It is also evident from the two examples of Savenda group of
companies and Zampost that sometimes a company’s intended strategy may or may not be
realized and that managers should be smart enough to realize emergent strategies as these may
save the business if the intended strategy fails. We can also see that a realized strategy is/or can
be a blend of both the intended and the emergent strategies.
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Volume 77, Issue 2, p 193-202
Bodwell,W. & Chermack,T. J.
(2009), Organizational
ambidexterity: Integrating
deliberate and
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emergent strategy with scenario
planning, Technological
Forecasting and Social Change,
Volume 77, Issue 2, p 193-202
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(2009), Organizational
ambidexterity: Integrating
deliberate and
emergent strategy with scenario
planning, Technological
Forecasting and Social Change,
Volume 77, Issue 2, p 193-202
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(2009), Organizational
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