9. Golden Strategies in Practice

The existence of key channels of flowing stream strategy could be witnessed in the corporate world in terms of some strategic practices that are in vogue. An inductive study of the strategic practices in a number of leading organizations operating globally, supported by interviews with senior executives, resulted in identification of strategies that deal with continuity and change in a conjunctive manner. These strategic practices are clustered into certain categories that are termed as golden strategies. These golden strategies are found to be rooted in one or more of the key channels, as discussed in the previous chapter, and are presented in subsequent sections as divert, shift, partition, and integrate strategies, respectively. Each golden strategy is discussed in terms of the basic approach, case illustrations, and the forces of continuity and change that are balanced in its implementation. The methodology and tools to select and interpret the right combination of these strategies with innovation are dealt with in Part IV of the book. The golden strategies discussed in coming sections are a handful of lead strategies evolving on the scene. Each organization is to adapt a combination of these strategies or innovate its own strategies to put different channels of flowing stream strategy in practice in a phased manner.