231
n
Management happens
geous to own multiple business lines in that particular set of
countries, but without a thorough explanation of why these
countries (and not others), and these lines of business (and not
others), and why it is benecial to have them all, that’s what it is;
an oversized game of Risk, but with real money, and real people.
“Framing contests”: what really happens in strategy
meetings
So, if strategy development is usually not a rational, structured
process, in which options are developed, analyzed, and decided
upon, what does happen in strategy-making meetings?
One of the rst series of strategy-making meetings I ever attended
was in a large newspaper company. I was basically a y on the
wall, watching the process unfold with a mixture of curiosity,
puzzlement, and amazement, like a Martian watching a cricket
game (or so I imagine). It quickly struck me that there seemed
to be a number of pre-formed sub-groups, with their own
opinions and agenda. You had the people who wanted to take the
company public, those who thought they should diversify into
other areas of business, those who thought they should become
a “green company”, and so on, and those who thought they
shouldn’t care out of a matter of principle.
Of course there were some political motives at play, but mostly
these people seemed genuinely convinced that their opinion
was what was best for the future of the company. And, rather
than coming up with new ideas, the strategy meetings seemed
to consist of the various people trying to convince each other to
believe in their view of the company, its future, and the changes
required.
Many years later, I read the PhD dissertation of Sarah Kaplan,
a former McKinsey consultant turned Professor at the Wharton
Business School. Sarah described such strategy meetings as
“framing contests”. Framing contests, she said, concern “the way
actors attempt to transform their personal cognitive frames into
predominant collective frames through a series of interactions in