Strategic planning, as well as setting the vision without the planning, shares an important purpose. It is to get managerial workers throughout the organization thinking strategically and wondering about how the firm adapts to its environment and how it will cope with its future. One of the central challenges of modern organizations is for leaders at all levels of the firm to think strategically—including seeing the overall picture as they go about their work.

A strategically minded worker at any level would think, “How does what I am doing right now support corporate strategy?” An example of high-level strategic thinking is the company leadership at Google saying it will continue “pursuing moon shots.” The phrases refer to the idea that as part of its strategy, the company will continue to pursue improbable projects that will require enormous amounts of cash and great leaps of faith.

A study of 231 upper level leaders in a large global company found that global work experience was associated with a stronger tendency to think strategically. The effect was more pronounced when the experience was in a culture distant from one’s own, such as an American being on assignment in Japan. Effective strategy begins with strategic thinking.