A Conceptual and Operational Framework for Business Strategy

Abstract

Strategy and strategic planning are children of the 1960s. Their fathers, Igor Ansoff and George Steiner, stressed the notion that strategy formulation is a top management function and that strategy making is a systems process where inputs lead to measured outputs. Strategy making, according to those early pioneers, was supposed to be a neat and orderly process. Porter and Hax, the following generation of strategy thinkers, introduced the notion of competition and strategic competitive behavior as dynamic forces within the strategy domain. Strategy became, then, the outcome of turbulence, creativity, competency, and the search for uniqueness within an ever-changing business arena. Others, whose writings appeared later, such as Prahalad and Mintzberg, stressed intent, core competency, sustainable competitive advantage, vision, all as underlying drivers of effective strategic behavior.