Strategic Decision-Making at Twitter: A Case Study Analysis

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LEADING STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Using the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model analyse the case evidence to interpret whether
Twitter's strategy shows signs of a weak or strong sense of mission..............................................4
Using relevant strategic decision-making theory, examine Twitter's existing strategic decisions to
interpret if Twitter has pursued a deliberate or emergent strategy. In your answer, discuss to what
extent you believe Twitter has built and sustained a long-term competitive advantage.................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Strategic decision-making refers to the process of taking decisions considering the big picture of
the company aligning the short-term objectives with the long-term goals, the mission and vision.
Under this approach, the decisions are taken as per the purpose or goals of the company. This
report will throw light on the strategic decision-making approach and theory of Twitter. The
report will mention the application of Ashridge Sense of Mission Model on the strategy of
Twitter for evaluating the sense of mission. Further, the current strategic decisions of Twitter
will analyse for determining the sustainable long-term competitive advantage.
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Using the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model analyse the case evidence to interpret whether
Twitter's strategy shows signs of a weak or strong sense of mission.
Ashridge Sense of Mission Model
Campbell and Yeung developed the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model in the early 1990s. This
model states that the mission of an organisation is constituted by certain key elements that are
inter-linked with each other. These elements entail the purpose, strategy, company values, and
behaviour standards of an organisation. Ashridge Mission Model clearly states that the
integration of all these four key elements proves a strong mission of a company. This model
assists in providing clear thinking of the organisational mission, analysing the current purpose,
and establishing a new mission. The mission statement of Twitter reflects the fact that the
company owns a strong mission statement.
Element 1: Purpose
Purpose defines the answer to the question regarding the existence of the company. This
statement means that the purpose element clarifies why the company exists. Integration of
purpose in the mission statement proves when the mission statement involves why the company
exists. The mission statement of Twitter can express as to provide the power for instant creation
and sharing the information as well as ideas to everyone without the existence of barriers
(Twitter, 2016). As per this model, such a mission makes the organisation with a higher ideal
mission statement. It has cleared that the mission statements mentions that all the people who
want to share or exchange information or ideas are the stakeholders of Twitter. For sticking to
the purpose, the company provides a global platform to the stakeholders such as content
developers, advertisers, data partners, and other users. Twitter is primarily known for providing
services such as live conversations, live commentary, and live connections. To give power to
everyone, Twitter sets its vision as becoming the first screen for every event or everything that is
happening currently (Aguilar-Barrientos, et al., 2015). The purpose of the company is evident
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from the fact that it strives towards the development of the largest audience daily on the entire
planet.
Element 2: Strategy
The component of the strategy is used for examining whether an impression of competitive
position is reflected in the mission statement. Strategy constitutes a vital element for Twitter that
should be considered high for achieving the mission of the company. The company has
developed different strategies for targeting different stakeholders such as users, advertisers, and
developers. The strategy of Twitter says providing the facility of live streaming and better tools
to the influencers and creators for establishing a better connection with the fans as well as the
audience using the platform of Twitter. The company should focus on enhancing market access
to the products and services provided to the users (Twitter, 2017). High investment by the
company management in the field of research and development and technology has been evident
to increase the effectiveness of the products and services while dealing with the competition. The
close competitors of Twitter are Facebook and Google, and Twitter keeps itself different from
Facebook by providing an open platform to any person who can interact with other people
without the need of mutual consent. It says that Twitter owns a robust strategy that strengths the
mission of the company.
Element 3: Values
Values refer to the moral principles and beliefs by which the company’s culture is developed.
The principles or values of Twitter derive a proud feeling to the employees as Twitter provides
an open platform to all the people for exchanging their views or information. It has been seen
that a positive impact can be placed when the facility of information exchange is provided in an
open manner (Babnik, et. al., 2014). The company believes that the corporate culture can lose
innovation, teamwork, and creativity if the company becomes unable to maintain the culture of
values and principles. Twitter believes that it would not be wrong to consider organisational
culture as the critical success factor. This element also involves the alignment of company values
with the values of the employees. This alignment can be seen on Twitter when the employees
want innovative culture, which is provided by Twitter, for their learning and growth. The
employees get the freedom of expression and growth which is also reflected from the mission of
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the company. The values of Twitter and purpose are inter-linked with each other (Twitter,
2018). The purpose can derive as providing an open platform to everyone for information
sharing instantly, and the values of the company also develop in a way that can support the
purpose.
Element 4: Behavioral Standards
Behavioural standards examine to determine whether the behaviours and standards support the
values and principles of the company. The main reasons for the actions of the employees within
the company Twitter are the purpose and the behavioural standards. It is due to the purpose and
strategy of Twitter that enhances the service and satisfaction of the employees (Ellis, & Miller,
2014). As the mission itself says to provide an open exchange of information, the employees
equipped with the opportunities to present their views, opinions, or feedback with the company
without any barrier. Honesty is evident within the context of delivering adequate and relevant
information to the users along with the employees from the company perspective. Freedom of
speech, expression, or growth to the employees regarding the company shows the essential
behavioural standards of the company. Twitter is the owner of a strong mission statement in
which integration of purpose, strategy, values, and behavioural standards can be evident. The
employees of Twitter are creative, passionate towards the work, and curious which implies the
alignment with the values of the company.
Moreover, Twitter is very well aware of the significance of having highly skilled personnel
within the company. That is why the company believes in the fact that future success is
dependent on the ability to identify, recruit, and retain highly skilled employees. On this belief,
the company responded by providing training and motivation to the employees and expect
retaining behaviour from their end (Twitter, 2018). However, the employees show positive
behaviour towards the work and the company as well.
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Using relevant strategic decision-making theory, analyse Twitter's existing strategic
decisions to interpret if Twitter has pursued a deliberate or emergent strategy. In your
answer, discuss to what extent you believe Twitter has built and sustained a long-term
competitive advantage.
Strategic Decision Making in Twitter
Twitter has become the largest company of micro-blogging services with more than 400 million
active users and more than 1.5 billion thoughts. There were numerous times when the strategic
decisions made that were proved either right or wrong from the company perspective.
 In 2008, the company refused the proposal of 500 million dollars from Facebook for a
company acquisition.
 In 2009, Twitter faced the problem of attack by a service denial that led the service of
Twitter down for various hours. Again in 2010, an attack has captured by the company
done by cross-site scripting. However, Twitter handled this problem in a quick manner,
but both the attacks were the proofs of bad decision-making (Ken, & Simon, 2013).
 Another bad decision was undertaken in 2011 for terminating the partnership with
Google. It resulted in the deletion of all the content of Twitter from the biggest search
engine Google. It affected Twitter to a large extent in a negative context. The company
instead of renewing this association between Twitter and Google decided for the
termination of this tie-up which proved wrong for Twitter.
 In 2012, Twitter terminated the permission to the developers for building the applications
that develop in the replication of the company’s timeline. However, the company took
this massive step in the hope of providing Twitter experience with consistency. It had
aroused the feeling of mistrust among the developers towards the company (WILLIAMS,
2016).
 Twitter added the blue conversation lines in 2013 as an attempt for assisting the users in
tying together conversations. This decision was effective for the company until the
change had implemented regarding the block option in the app. The users were still able
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to follow the attacked users even after getting blocked. This change had attracted hate
from a large number of people.
 In 2014, the company took another decision of introducing algorithmic timeline which
was not liked by the fans of Twitter. Such a decision was undertaken to make this social
platform more convenient and user-friendly.
 Finally, in 2016, the company undertake a new fresh start by facilitating the option to
switch off the algorithmic timeline as per the user discretion. This move has helped the
company in surfacing the interesting tweets that have missed (Ken, & Simon, 2013).
As per Twitter takes the decisions, it can say that these decisions were concerning the deliberate
strategy. It is because of the decisions made with the annual strategic thinking which means
modifying the strategy annually. It is seen that the decisions were not carried on for more than a
year or two. At the failure of these decisions, the company also re-analysed and re-planned the
strategy which implies the utilisation of deliberate strategy.
Difference between deliberate and emergent strategy
Deliberate strategy refers to the strategies developed for the specific plan that involves clearly
defined goals and timelines. On the other hand, emergent strategy implies strategies being
developed for dealing with the occurrence of the unexpected challenges or events whether
positive or negative (Kopmann, et. al., 2017).
The competitive advantage of Twitter
Twitter has gained an unmatchable competitive advantage over all the social media platforms. It
has provided an open platform to everyone for the utilisation as sharing and developing
information and ideas. It has offered different sources from where the users can connect to this
social media network by following it. It is seen that the users of Twitter belong to every social
class which means that it provides an open exchange of information to every person of the world.
Highest connectivity and open platform for information exchange make Twitter different and
competitive from other social media networking platforms.
Maintaining sustainability in the competitive advantage in the highly growing global market has
become vital for Twitter (Dubey, et. al, 2016). Since the establishment, Twitter has been dealing
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with the vast turmoil times, but it has also noted that it survived back with its strategies for
maintaining the competitive position within the global market. It would not be wrong to say that
Twitter has successfully developed a long-term and sustainable competitive advantage which is
evident with the growth of users connected with Twitter every year. The advertising services
provided to the advertisers have majorly contributed to the success of the sustainable competitive
advantage of Twitter. Certain factors affect the overall performance of the company. User
growth has been realised from the last few years with a rapid rate annually. Twitter is planning
for incrementing the investment in the international operations to expand the user base, user
engagement, and advertiser base (Ken, & Simon, 2013). Surviving with top position in the
competitive business environment, high investment in the infrastructure, high revenue growth in
seasonal times, and all the other factors have proven this fact that Twitter has developed a
platform for achieving competitive advantage sustainably in the long-run.
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Conclusion
Twitter considers as one of the largest online platforms for micro-blogging service. The mission
statement of Twitter integrates with the critical components of values, purpose, strategy, and
behavioural standards. It proves the possession of a strong sense of mission by Twitter. Twitter
has faced destructive times majorly in its whole lifetime mainly due to the decisions taken by the
management. It has realised that the company has used the approach of a deliberate strategy for
its decision-making. However, the company took wrong decisions significant times, but some
decisions contributed to the sustainable competitive advantage.
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References
 Aguilar-Barrientos, S., Robledo-Ardila, C., & Serna-Rodríguez, M. (2015). Multilatinas:
a content analysis of missión statements and its relation with the international
expansión. Revista Ciencias Estratégicas, 23(34).
 Babnik, K., Breznik, K., Dermol, V., & Trunk Širca, N. (2014). The mission statement:
organisational culture perspective. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 114(4), 612-
627.
 Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Childe, S. J., Wamba, S. F., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016).
The impact of big data on world-class sustainable manufacturing. The International
Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 84(1-4), 631-645.
 Ellis, J., & Miller, P. (2014). Providing Higher Education in Post-modern Times: what do
university mission statements tell us about what they believe and do?. Research in
Comparative and International Education, 9(1), 83-91.
 Ken, M., & Simon, P., (2013) "Case 26: Twitter" from Ireland, R. Duane et al, The
management of strategy: concepts and cases. pp.371-377, [United States]: South-
Western/Cengage Learning.
 Kopmann, J., Kock, A., Killen, C. P., & Gemünden, H. G. (2017). The role of project
portfolio management in fostering both deliberate and emergent strategy. International
Journal of Project Management, 35(4), 557-570.
 Twitter (2016) Annual Report 2015, Twitter, Inc.
https://investor.twitterinc.com/financial-information/annual-reports/default.aspx
 Twitter (2017) Annual Report 2016, Twitter, Inc.
<https://investor.twitterinc.com/financial-information/annual-reports/default.aspx>
 Twitter (2018) Annual Report 2017, Twitter, Inc.
https://investor.twitterinc.com/financial-information/annual-reports/default.aspx
 WILLIAMS, D., (2016). 10 years on: A history of Twitter’s biggest missteps. [Online]
Thenextweb.com. Available from: https://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/03/23/10-years-
history-twitters-biggest-missteps/ [Accessed on April 4, 2019].
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