In Search of a New Paradigm for Strategic Thinking

Abstract

Conceptual frameworks for strategy formulation and strategy choice are running out of steam. They are losing a great deal of relevance within rapidly and radically changing environments. Decades of largely positive, fairly stable, and reasonably consistent growth in output and trade are giving way to widespread dramatic decline in economic activity and retreat of trade across the globe. Capital markets that once delivered an era of easy credit, massive leveraged buyouts, and a thriving private equity industry have been rudely interrupted by the powerful forces of economic instability. This change in fundamentals is leading to the search for more compatible models for strategy analysis, formulation, choice, and implementation.