## Types of Strategic Control

Strategic control is the process of evaluating an organisation's strategy as it is being implemented and monitoring the strategy's outcomes.

> Note: This lesson covers Types 2–4 of Strategic Control. Type 1 (Premise Control) appears in the preceding section of the chapter.

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### 2. Strategic Surveillance

Nature: Unfocused — involves general monitoring of various information sources to uncover unanticipated information bearing on organisational strategy.
Methods: Reading financial and business newspapers, business magazines, attending meetings, conferences, and discussions.
Key point: Unlike premise control, it is not targeted at specific assumptions — it is capable of surfacing information relevant to strategy that was never originally anticipated.

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### 3. Special Alert Control

Trigger: Sudden, unexpected events — change of government, natural calamities, terrorist attacks, unexpected merger/acquisition by competitors, or industrial disasters.
Response mechanism: Organisations form crisis management teams to handle such situations through an immediate and intense review of strategy.

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### 4. Implementation Control

Purpose: Assesses the need for changes in the overall strategy as implementation proceeds step by step.
Nature: Continuously monitors the basic direction of the strategy.
Two forms:

Form	Description
Monitoring Strategic Thrusts	Helps managers determine whether the overall strategy is progressing as desired, or whether readjustments are needed.
Milestone Reviews	Involves a complete reassessment of the strategy; assesses whether to continue or refocus the organisation's direction.

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### Quick Comparison Summary

Type	Focus	Trigger	Response
Strategic Surveillance	Broad environmental scanning	Ongoing	Monitor widely across sources
Special Alert Control	Sudden crisis events	Unexpected, one-off event	Activate crisis management team
Implementation Control	Strategy execution progress	Ongoing milestones	Readjust thrusts or conduct full reassessment

Worked example

### Example 1

Strategic Surveillance: A beverage company's strategy team reads industry journals and attends health-trend conferences every quarter. They spot an emerging consumer shift toward sugar-free drinks — a trend not part of their original strategy assumptions. Acting on this unplanned insight, they pivot their product pipeline. This is strategic surveillance: broad, unfocused scanning that uncovers unanticipated strategic information.

### Example 2

Special Alert Control: A global airline's head of strategy is alerted at 6 a.m. that a competitor has announced an unexpected acquisition of a low-cost carrier. The CEO immediately convenes the crisis management team for an intense review of the competitive strategy. This is special alert control triggered by an unexpected merger/acquisition event.

### Example 3

Implementation Control — Milestone Review: Six months into a three-year digital transformation programme, the CFO calls a full milestone review. The review finds that the technology adoption rate is 40% below target. The board decides to refocus the strategy toward phased rollout rather than company-wide deployment. This is a milestone review — a complete reassessment leading to a direction change.

### Example 4

Implementation Control — Monitoring Strategic Thrusts: A retail chain implementing a 'premiumisation' strategy tracks quarterly data on average transaction value and premium SKU penetration as strategic thrusts. When both are trending positively, managers confirm the strategy is progressing as desired and no readjustment is needed.

⚠️ Common exam mistakes

Confusing strategic surveillance (broad, unfocused scanning) with premise control (focused monitoring of specific pre-identified assumptions). Strategic surveillance is purposely general; premise control is targeted.
Treating special alert control as a routine process — it is only activated by sudden, unexpected, often crisis-level events. It is not used for day-to-day monitoring.
Mixing up the two forms of implementation control: 'monitoring strategic thrusts' tracks whether the ongoing direction is correct, while 'milestone reviews' involve a complete reassessment of the strategy — they are not the same.
Forgetting that implementation control is continuous, not a one-time end-of-project review.
Describing special alert control without mentioning the formation of crisis management teams — this is the specific organisational response and is commonly tested.

Reference:

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