The internal environment includes assets such as finance, plant, machinery, capabilities, brands, market position, knowledge and patents; the external environment includes the industry characteristics, and other political, social, economic, technological and cultural issues. The actions may be defined as any project or initiative whose aim is the improvement of business performance and may include a change programme, business process re-engineering (BPR), a continuous improvement project or market and product/service development.
The strategy then defines a framework for guiding the choice of actions which should achieve the organisations goals, given the internal and external context the business finds itself in at a point in time. With respect to the turbulent conditions prevailing today, this framework or umbrella will be more effective if constructed and communicated in a flexible manner and is responsive to the internal and external influences. The resultant patterns of actions are known as emergent strategies.