Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

3.3 Experimentation as Default Mode

Experimentation operates as a continuous, recursive, and constructive process rather than a temporary managerial technique.

In many managerial frameworks, experimentation is treated as a transitional phase used to reduce uncertainty before scaling (Ries, 2011). This assumes that stable configurations can eventually be identified and maintained. In template-free environments, this assumption does not hold. Stabilization may occur locally and temporarily, but the broader system continues to evolve.

Experimentation must, therefore, be reconceptualized.

Experimentation is a recursive process of action, feedback, and adjustment through which firms construct viable courses of action under conditions where neither goals nor means can be fully specified ex ante. This definition emphasizes three properties.

First, experimentation is recursive. It unfolds through repeated cycles rather than through linear progression.

Second, it is constructive. Firms do not merely test predefined options; they generate and reshape them through action.

Third, it is indeterminate. The space of action is not fully known in advance; alternatives emerge through engagement.

This distinguishes experimentation from simple trial-and-error. The relevant form of experimentation involves interpretation, selective commitment, and continuous adjustment under conditions of partial visibility. Firms are not selecting among known alternatives; they are discovering and enacting possibilities that only become visible through action. The mechanism is summarized by Table 2.

Table 2 Mechanism of experimentation under structural uncertainty

Phase	Function	Strategic implication
Trigger	Structural uncertainty undermines foresight	Action must precede full understanding
Probing action	Small-scale, reversible commitments	Controlled exposure to uncertainty
Feedback	Fragmented, mediated, partially opaque signals	Interpretation required
Adjustment	Amplification, abandonment, recombination	Strategy evolves through action
Iteration	Continuous cycling without final convergence	No stable endpoint of learning

Source: Author’s own elaboration.

The mechanism summarized in Table 2 should not be read as a linear sequence with a clear endpoint. Rather, it captures recurring moments in a recursive process of strategic action under structural uncertainty. Firms do not move from trigger to iteration once and for all; they cycle through these moments repeatedly as mediated feedback alters both the interpretation of prior action and the feasibility of subsequent moves. The importance of the mechanism lies precisely here: experimentation persists not because firms fail to learn, but because learning itself cannot stabilize sufficiently to displace further probing, adjustment, and reinterpretation.

This mechanism highlights why experimentation becomes persistent. It is not a temporary bridge between ignorance and certainty. It is the ongoing mode through which firms operate when certainty cannot be stabilized.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 204 4

Gazdaság

What happens when understanding comes only after action has already begun?

Traditional strategy rests on the assumption that organizations can understand their environment before deciding how to act. Yet the conditions that once allowed organizations to rely on benchmarking, best practices, and proven strategic templates can no longer be taken for granted. Today, organizations increasingly face situations for which no clear roadmap exists. Established assumptions become less reliable, familiar reference points lose their clarity, and strategic decisions must be made before their consequences can be fully understood.

Strategy Without Templates explores how organizations learn, adapt, and navigate environments in which uncertainty is pervasive and established templates are absent or no longer sufficient. Instead of treating strategy as a process of prediction and planning, the book explores how strategic paths take shape through action, experimentation, adjustment, and learning.

A central insight in the book is that temporary solutions are often necessary. What begins as a practical response to an immediate challenge may gradually shape future possibilities in unexpected ways. Some solutions create new opportunities and sources of advantage. Others become constraints that are difficult to overcome.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/hortovanyi-strategy-without-templates//

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