Creative SMC in a Norwegian ICT company: managerial interaction with sources of realised strategies

In recent years, telecommunications have represented one of the world's most dynamic industries. This report describes a study of the Strategic Management Control (SMC) of a software supplier in this sector. Over the three-year study period, the company's market value fluctuated between NOK 2.5 and 10 bn., and it went through major strategic changes. Based on conventional ideas, managers influencing processes of strategic importance were expected to form the core of SMC. However, the study showed that managers saw SMC as a creative process in which the essential challenge was to establish processes that would influence them by attracting and interacting with other players. This creative process employed the traditional SMC procedure, but the manner in which it was used, differed from the literature prescriptions.