Strategy as improvisational theater

The metaphor of improvisational theater helps executives think about the way in which an entire organization can become an arena for staging experiments that can transform a company's overarching strategy. Six elements of strategic improvisation are discussed: 1. themes, 2. theaters, 3. actors, 4. audiences, 5. suspense, and 6. successive versions. How companies have made use of each one to get the most out of new technologies is illustrated. Although this approach does not advocate a big plunge into something totally new, it is anything but conservative.