All companies have a competitive strategy, whether intentional or not. An intentional strategy results from company-wide planning, performance measurement, and feedback loops to sharpen the strategy. An unintentional strategy results from various teams within a firm pursuing their own incentives, doing whatever they did in prior years, or following industry or professional norms. An unintentional strategy is rarely the best and often exacerbates communication and coordination problems present at every company, although the approach might perform well in areas such as discovery-oriented research.
