Corporate strategy development and related management development: the case for the incremental approach, part 2 – implications for learning and development

Purpose – To examine the case for the incremental development of corporate strategy and the implications for management learning and development. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use their background in consultancy and management development in the UK and abroad to examine the potential dangers of comprehensive innovations in corporate strategy and the potential benefits of an incremental approach. In Part 2 of the article they rely on their academic experience in a wide variety of institutions in the UK and abroad to consider the related issues of management learning and development. Findings – The two main dangers with the development of a comprehensive corporate strategy were explained in Part 1 of this article. Sometimes the narrowness of the consideration of corporate issues may be replicated in taught programmes in business schools where the human factors in particular may not be given sufficient attention. A broad based consideration of corporate strategy may create a greater emphasis on the incremental approach. A related issue is that there may be a mismatch between the needs of the client group on taught programmes and syllabus coverage, particularly because of the perceived branding value of the term “strategy”. Research limitations/implications – The authors have relied partly on case study examples to make their case for a greater emphasis on the incremental development of corporate strategy and related academic coverage of the subject. Their main thesis is that if the process whereby strategy is developed is deficient, then the results may well be counter‐productive. One of the ways to try and prevent this is to ensure that related learning and development is appropriate. Originality/value – The two part article is a necessary examination of the dangers of corporate strategy development that is based on too narrow a range of functions and disciplines. The same limitations can be replicated in academic coverage of the area. The article is meant to engender a necessary scepticism about the way corporate strategy can be realistically developed and covered academically. Constructive advice is also given about broad based strategy development and related management learning and development.