Using ‘simple rules’ may enable managers to take organizational decisions more rapidly. While prior research presents advantages of simple rule use during strategy formation, we lack insights into how firms can deliberately create simple rules and mitigate the challenges during strategy implementation. This is particularly interesting for established firms struggling to leverage their wealth of experience. We explore how managers of a multinational corporation deliberately create and use simple rules to implement the firm's growth strategy. Drawing on interviews and secondary data, we reveal the activities through which managers ensure the relevance and legitimacy of codified simple rules, yet also establish causality between simple rules and outcomes. Simple rule creation is accomplished via bottom-up identification and lateral validation, its use via consistent top-down guiding and timely adaptation. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research on the evolution of simple rules and aspects of strategy implementation more generally.

使用“简单规则”可以使管理人员更快地做出组织决策。虽然先前的研究展示了在战略形成过程中使用简单规则的优势，但我们缺乏对企业如何有意创建简单规则并减轻战略实施过程中的挑战的见解。这对于努力利用其丰富经验的老牌公司来说尤其有趣。我们探讨了一家跨国公司的经理们如何有意识地创建和使用简单的规则来实施公司的增长战略。利用访谈和二手数据，我们揭示了管理者通过哪些活动来确保编纂的简单规则的相关性和合法性，同时也建立了简单规则和结果之间的因果关系。简单的规则创建是通过自下而上的识别和横向验证完成的，通过一致的自上而下的指导和及时的调整来使用它。我们的研究结果有助于对简单规则的演变和更普遍的战略实施方面进行研究。