Strategy begins when we recognize the relationships between events, people, capabilities, and choices, and understand that we are part of the pattern.
Before a company writes down its strategy, it has already revealed one: in what it funds, rewards, repeats, and ignores. Yet we talk about creating a strategy as if the work begins on a blank page: gather the right people, fill in a framework, choose a direction, and write it down. A formal plan can redirect patterns already taking shape, but the organization’s repeated choices are already producing consequences. When stated goals, budgets, incentives, and daily decisions pull in different directions, the organization may be enacting a pattern that conflicts with its declared strategy. Olson (2024) identifies unaligned goals, disconnected budgets and incentives, and gaps in understanding and communication as barriers to implementation.
An organization is already full of dots. Customers have expectations. Employees have habits and skills. Products carry histories. Competitors make moves. Technologies, regulations, suppliers, and cultures shape what can happen next. These forces influence one another whether anyone has drawn the lines between them or not.
The strategic act is to recognize which relationships matter, understand the pattern they form, and decide how to respond. Mintzberg and Waters describe deliberate and emergent strategy as points on a continuum. Some strategy is planned; some becomes visible in patterns of action over time (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985). A 2024 article in the Strategic Management Journal similarly examines how everyday activities can contribute to recurring patterns that are strategic (Seidl et al., 2024).
That changes where we look for strategy. It may appear in a boardroom decision, but it also shows up in the product people keep choosing, the promise a salesperson makes, the friction a customer encounters, and the shortcuts employees take to get work done. Each action is a dot. Their relationships create a pattern.
Microsoft’s shift toward cloud services offers a concrete example. When Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft had well-developed desktop and enterprise businesses with large installed bases. Amazon’s AWS was advancing a cloud-based model, but the signal did not make Microsoft’s next move obvious. Customers might move slowly, and a major investment in a new model could put pressure on the established business before the new one had proven itself. A 2024 Harvard Business Review article describes the cloud commitment as far from obvious and notes the major engineering and architecture investments it required (O’Keeffe et al., 2024).
Microsoft committed to Azure and made Office 365 central to the shift. O’Keeffe and colleagues report that in fiscal Q1 2024, Microsoft’s cloud services and properties generated $31.8 billion, more than half of its revenue, up from about one-third in 2020 (2024). Looking back, the decision can appear inevitable. At the time, it was an interpretation of ambiguous signals, followed by consequential choices and sustained investment.
We are part of these patterns, too. A manager’s decision changes what a team pays attention to. A marketer’s message influences customer expectations. A frontline employee’s conversation can make a brand promise credible or expose a gap. Customers affect a business through what they adopt, reject, recommend, or adapt. Our actions help reinforce some patterns and weaken others.
So ask yourself: Where am I in this pattern? What am I reinforcing? What am I overlooking? Which connections are growing stronger because of the choices I make?
Try this exercise this week. Write down five customer or employee behaviours you have seen repeatedly. Ask what each one might reveal about what people value, need, avoid, or struggle with. Look for connections among them, then ask what the organization does that reinforces those behaviours and what one decision or small experiment could test your interpretation. Compare your observations with someone who sees the business from a different vantage point.
Strategy is already happening through the choices people make and the patterns those choices create. What will our next action make more likely?
References
Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. A. (1985). Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), 257–272. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250060306
O’Keeffe, D., Harris, K., & Kimson, A. (2024, March–April). How to succeed in an era of volatility. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2024/03/how-to-succeed-in-an-era-of-volatility
Olson, A. B. (2024, March 27). Why isn’t your strategy sticking? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2024/03/why-isnt-your-strategy-sticking
Seidl, D., Ma, S., & Splitter, V. (2024). What makes activities strategic: Toward a new framework for strategy-as-practice research. Strategic Management Journal, 45(12), 2395–2419. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3668
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