Recent research has examined the strategic-management process and concluded that perhaps the most important “activity” is the feedback loop, because strategy must be thought of as a “verb rather than a noun.” The authors contend that strategy is a “living, evolving conceptual entity,” and as such much be engulfed in flexibility.

“Flexibility” should also be reflected in the structures put in place to monitor and modify strategic plans. Flexibility safeguards should increasingly be known and practiced throughout the firm, especially at lower levels of the organization. The stages of strategic management (formulation, implementation, and evaluation) are so fluid as to be virtually indistinguishable when one starts and the other ends.

(Rose, Wade and David Cray (2013), “The Role of Context in the Transformation of Planned Strategy into Implemented Strategy,” International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research, 4(3), 721-737).