Lords of Strategy

10.

Struggling to MakeSomething ActuallyHappen

BY THE EARLY 1980S, the glorious phase of the strategy revolution was drawing to a close. The original lords had largely completed their foundational work. The essential paradigm had been created, widely installed, and rendered preeminent in the sense that every self-respecting corporation by this time knew it had to have a strategy. The consulting firms and academic departments that were to dominate the field had been established.

What happened next was what one would expect by way of a second, consolidating phase. Its unfolding proceeded simultaneously along two occasionally intersecting lines. The thrust of the first was carrying the gospel further into the world, to where it could change behavior; ...