Making Media Strategy in Times of Uncertainty.

Abstract

The future of the media industry has never been more uncertain. The rise of digital content generation and delivery has resulted in unpredictable and unfamiliar market conditions and encouraged an invasion of new, non traditional entrants which has increased competition and choice for the public. In such a turbulent competitive environment, visibility of the future is clouded and the strategic way forward for media organisations remains unclear. The process of making strategy in media organisation may well be compounded by constantly shifting competitive conditions. Existing literature on the process of strategy making in such unfamiliar and complex environment conditions is concentrated within the ‘Learning’ School’ of strategic management. This school of thought suggests that strategy making is a process of emergent learning over time, where strategy makers critically reflect on past experience, and current events, and adapt their strategies accordingly. Learning from action, change and reflection, is therefore, considered to be more useful in strategy making than formal analysis and subsequent strategy formulation. This paper proposes that conceptualizing the strategy making process as one of ‘learning’ from uncertainty. It further argues that action learning can be used as a tool that can be used effectively to develop media strategy, particularly as many media organizations are operating in competitive environments that are characterized by change, complexity and unpredictability.