The Problem in Practice

Abstract

Having just presented the strategic challenge of preparedness in the context of the history of strategic management, we now reflect carefully on what happens in practice when an unexpected change stretches beyond the limits of an organization’s knowledge and response capability. We begin this process of reflection with a quote from a post-9/11 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) report that succinctly enunciates the practical problem confronting strategists and organizational leaders who face the need for preparedness: ‘We could spend our entire GNP on preparedness and still be unprepared.’¹⁵