Deliberate or emergent? Why you need both strategies to build your brand

In recent years, the time horizon for strategy has shrunk dramatically. There was a time, long ago, when ten-year strategic plans were a standard exercise in both corporate boardrooms and personal career planning. That horizon was first cut to five years, then to three, and today we often navigate without a clear time-frame at all. In some circles, you can even hear whispers of what seems a heretical idea: perhaps we should abandon strategy altogether. After all, how can we formulate sensible assumptions when the context is so unstable, so unpredictable?

Yet, abandoning strategy is not a viable option. Not for organisations, and certainly not for individuals. In a chaotic environment, strategy becomes more necessary—not less. Without it, we drift. We react to events instead of shaping our path. We confuse motion with direction. And we dilute our brand.

When the past no longer explains the future

Roger Martin, in A New Way to Think, challenges the traditional strategic paradigm that treats the future as a logical continuation of the past. He critiques managers who believe that, with enough data, they can predict what’s coming next. But the future, Martin argues, is not a line we can extend from past events. The best data tells us what has already happened. It says nothing about what might emerge.

Instead of asking what is likely to happen, Martin suggests that strategists should ask: what future would we like to bring into being? In his words, strategy is not about extrapolation; it is about imagination. A good strategy does not predict the future—it creates the conditions to influence it.

This is particularly relevant to personal branding. If you are shaping a professional brand, especially in the context of a portfolio career or polyworking identity, you are not playing a game of probabilities. You are inventing a space in which your voice matters, your value is needed, and your identity resonates.

Deliberate and emergent strategy

To put this in practice, it helps to turn to another strategic thinker: Henry Mintzberg. In his classic distinction, Mintzberg proposes that strategy is not a single process, but a balance between two complementary approaches:

• Deliberate strategy: this is the plan. It’s rational, analytical, often formalised in goals, roadmaps, and KPIs. It reflects what leaders intend to do.

• Emergent strategy: this is what actually happens. It arises from patterns of action, intuition, learning, and adaptation. It reflects what people discover by doing, often in response to change.

Mintzberg’s central insight is this: real strategy is rarely pure. It’s a blend. We need both. The deliberate gives us intention and coherence. The emergent gives us agility and relevance.

But these two approaches require different mindsets:

• The deliberate strategy mindset is forward-looking but grounded in structure. It works with analysis, models, scenarios. It is most useful when the environment is relatively stable, or when we must act with strong focus and conviction.

• The emergent strategy mindset is attuned to change. It senses weak signals, experiments, reads feedback, and adapts. It works best in complexity, where not everything can be planned, and where agility is a strategic advantage.

Personal branding: a double strategy

What does this mean for your personal brand?

It means you need both. You must take the time to articulate a deliberate strategy, one that helps you visualise the professional future you want to build. As Martin recommends, this is not about predicting—it is about imagining. What space will you occupy in your market? What value will you offer? What will you be known for? What will your legacy look like?

This is your strategic hypothesis. Your best attempt at a desirable future.

But once this is imagined and expressed, you must switch to an emergent mindset. Life will not follow your script. Projects will arise, new collaborators will appear, unexpected problems will need solving. You will learn things you didn’t know when you wrote your strategic plan. A personal brand that remains rigid in front of change quickly becomes irrelevant.

To thrive in a dynamic world, your brand must be simultaneously:

• Rooted in a long-term vision (deliberate strategy);

• Responsive to evolving realities (emergent strategy).

Just like successful companies adapt to shifting markets without losing their identity, successful individuals adapt to changing opportunities without betraying their identity. This is a higher form of strategic thinking. One that recognises that direction and flexibility are not enemies—they are partners.