Emerald Management Reviews

Design/methodology/approach - Proposes a management system which comprises strategy development, strategy translation, operations planning, monitoring and learning, and testing and adapting. Includes a list of relevant books, and a generic strategy map divided into four themes: financial perspective, customer perspective, process perspective, and learning and growth perspective.

Findings - Strategy development involves managers focusing on the nature of the business, key issues, and competitiveness. Translating the strategy is aided by strategy maps and scorecards. Operations planning includes process improvements, a sales plan, a resource capacity plan, and dynamic operating and capital budgets. Monitoring and learning involve operational and strategy review meetings. Testing and adopting procedures comprise cost and profitability reports, statistical analyses, and consideration of new strategies.

Practical implications - Managers who adopt the system will be able to set clear strategic goals, allocate resources accordingly, set action priorities, and update goals if necessary.

Originality/value - Shows how strategy and operations, and the tension between them, can be managed by the closed-loop system.