A SYSTEMATIC METHOD TO ARTICULATE STRATEGIC VISION: AN ILLUSTRATION WITH A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER-MANAGER

Abstract

The concept of strategic vision has attracted growing interest in recent years. However, very few methods exist to help enterprise leaders make their strategic vision more explicit. The goal of this research is to present and illustrate a new systematic method to help enterprise leaders articulate and question their strategic visions. The method is based on cognitive mapping, and can be broken down into four phases: an exploration phase, in which the leader explores his or her own ideas using a specially designed grid; a validation phase, to verify the credibility or "validity" of the cognitive map resulting from the first phase; an analysis phase, where the semantic network formed by the concepts and links of the map are analyzed using the Decision Explorer software; and a finalization phase, where the leader, after being informed of the results of validated map analysis and the researcher's interpretation of them, confirms or modifies the strategic vision. The paper contains a detailed description of the four phases together with the results obtained with the owner-manager of a small manufacturing business in Québec. Since the method described supports thinking and thus action, it is likely to be of interest to practitioners and consultants. Academics may also benefit from it, since it can be used to study strategic vision and its impact.