The Emerging Horizon

Abstract

The analysis carried out in Part II leads to the contention that the near future will witness a change, if not a fundamental shift, in many of the basic tenets of strategic thinking. Uncertainty will reach a level where future outcomes of possible strategy choices will be difficult to project. This will touch every aspect of strategic thinking: the way in which opportunities are unmasked, strategies are conceived, competencies are gained, structures are built, leadership is exercised, and control is conducted. Capital markets are likely to be the prime trigger. Institutions, instruments, policies, flows, players, and innovations will drive the process. Capital markets will induce change in competency profiles and, concurrently, create new market opportunities. Competencies will undergo similar change enhanced by regular research and disruptive findings. Strategies will be derived from both capital market forces and competency profiles. And strategic thinking will be dynamic, shorter in term, and opportunistic, and implementation will rely on a high measure of merger and acquisition (M&A). Control will be based on the achievable instead of the identified.