Strategic planning as inter-unit coordination: An in depth case study in Thailand

We extend strategy-as-practice and strategy process studies of strategic planning by detailing empirically how its execution can take on an inter-unit coordination role in multi-business, multi-unit firms. In our case study of a firm in Bangkok, Thailand, we show how practitioners in diverse business and functional units coordinate their respective internal planning processes in a differentiated network of inter-unit strategic planning links. We specify four types of inter-unit planning link according to relative hierarchical level and function of the interacting units. Based on interviews covering 125 of these links, we analyse interactions between managers during the planning process, focusing on the practices they adopt including a newly identified practice we refer to as facilitating. We articulate patterns of interaction by link type, and ultimately show how managers combined these practices in four generic interaction patterns: bilateral, cohesive facilitation, ambassadorial coordination, and supervisory. These interaction patterns vary in the degree of horizontal and vertical inter-unit coordination they contribute to the business. We analyse how usage of the patterns varied across the firm, and hence set out more fully than prior literature how interactions driven by individual managers enable strategic planning to enrich inter-unit coordination through and across a business.