Abstract
To maintain durably an activity during twenty-three years doesn't act as itself but it takes to know how to model together : though and action, control and learning, stability and change. The elaboration of a strategy, by a SME, follows a process of its own that is adapted to its technological and organizationel capacities but it must also be connected to the opportunities seized by the manager.Based one's argument on the case study of a small cooperative cellar, we illustrate the elaboration process of a strategy. We retain the story line of the manager who served as chairman of the board of directors of the cooperative and also as managing director of this small firm. We shall see that this functional originality allowed the organization to combine innovation and sustainability on all fields of activity. This helped it to continue the development of its wine industry, in spite of the functional problems or the evolutions of his Market.To study "the innovation being made" has brought to the foreground one after the other the events-keys, which shaped the corporate policy led from 1988 to 2011, and allowed to highlight the role of the actors at the heart of the process of strategic Learning.