Historical Account of Strategic Management - Essay Example

Business strategies are quite analogous to military strategies wherein the strategic framework is used to provide a vision and direction to the company for its future. The origins of strategy can be found in the military war rooms where extensive planning and strategising are required for preparing themselves against their enemies so as to gain strategic advantage over their enemies. In the context of business organization strategy formulation essentially implies the fulfilment of similar set of objectives; however the only difference being the fact that the strategy formulation takes place inside business board rooms rather than war rooms and battlefields.

Strategies are also essential as they help in generating better co-ordination among the team members within an organization. This is very crucial in order to gain competitive advantage in the turbulent and highly competitive business environment. Some of the characteristics of strategies include the aspect of importance, the range of commitment to the resources of the company and the fact that these strategic decisions are largely irreversible or difficult to revert. Authors have however pointed out that the difference of principles between the military and business organizations has perhaps led to the very absence of any general theory on strategy.

The present study would try to analyse the basis of business strategy including analysing the origins and the historical background of business strategy. It would also include a comparison of various schools of thought on the aspect of strategic management that is being used by business organizations to gain organizational excellence and generate competitive advantage in the market. Historical Perspective of Strategic Management Strategic management has its roots based in strategy, this term ‘strategy’ has its origins in ancient Greece from the Greek word named ‘strategia’ that in general implies and means general ship.

The aspect of strategy comes from the aspect of ‘army’ and ‘leading’. The first recorded writing about strategy dates back to 500 BC to a work named the ‘Art of War’ written by Sun Tzu. The earlier research on strategy was limited to analysing military strategies. However with competition emerging immensely in the business markets, the aspect of strategy is business has gained prominence amongst researchers (Grant, 2005, p.14). However the aspect of business strategy gained populace among the researchers in the last 20 years where a number of strategic thoughts in business have come up widely.

Authors like Porter, Mintzberg and some others have stated strategy as a top level decision making concept that is associated with the management of an entire organization. All these authors have essentially stated that strategy is a managerial aspect and involves the top management in an organization. These views have been severely criticised by authors like Camerer, Evered, Keichel, Mitroff, Manson, Tinker and Lowe (1984). These authors have slammed the managerial orientation of the topic of strategy and have stated this school of thought as ‘atheoritical’.

They have also stated that the views of Porter and others are largely jargon based and largely derived out of commonsense (Srivastava, 1986, p.363). Authors like Ackoff, Ansoff and others have stated that the present literature on strategic managem