I recently had cause to re-read the Michael Porter classic ‘What is Strategy?’ [Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec 1996, pp. 61-78] - great of course on strategic positioning, which it contrasts with ‘operational effectiveness’, and while it describes OK the need for internal consistency in the ‘activity system’ that supports the strategy it says little about [...]

I was reminded by a recent conference of the one-time popularity of the idea that strategy is ‘crafted’ by leaders, rather than planned [we can thank Henry Mintzberg for that one]. But there’s a puzzle in all this. Henry and friends got this idea by watching and talking with management about how strategy actually develops. [...]

A few nice articles in the July-August edition of HBR [‘Honing Your Competitive Edge’] including Amy Edmonson on the Competitive Imperative of Learning, and Anita Elberse asking Should you Invest in the Long Tail? [the idea that modern markets and distribution can support very, very large numbers of low-volume products].
This last one is critically important, [...]