For too many years, companies have been hobbled by the vicious cycle of busy thinking, frenetic activity, bureaucratic planning, and other hallmarks of corporate strategies. Research confirms the negative effects these conditions have on strategic output. Recognizing that new thinking was needed to reclaim strategy, A.T. Kearney set out to write the next chapter and set a new course for the future of strategy. A.T. Kearney’s FutureProof Strategy offers a solution for organizations facing profound strategic challenges. Based on the combination of three fundamental principles—drawing inspiration from the future, being organizationally inclusive, and creating a portfolio of competitive opportunities—a new future for strategy has been written.

1. The History of
Strategy and Its
Future Prospects

2. The History of Strategy and
Its Future Prospects
Strategy’s light has dimmed since its heydays
of the 1970s and 1980s: A staggering 80% of
executives now think “agility” is at par or more
important for future success than strategy.
What happened to strategy, and what
can be done to make it relevant again
for today’s organizations?

3. Strategy’s origins are often attributed
to the military.
The truth is that military strategy
was as much about avoiding
wars as winning them.
Sun Tzu
465 BC
Von
Clausewitz
1831

4. For most of its history, strategy wasn’t
exciting—it was all about exclusivity and
monopolies.
• Land rights
• Mineral rights
• Rents
• Levies
• Tolls
• Guilds
• Taxes
• Patents
• among others

5. Blockbuster medication
and Big Pharma
To this day, exclusivity makes for some of
the most simple and powerful strategies.

6. Revolts against Rockefeller's Standard
Oil marked the beginning of a new era
in strategy
The History
of the
Standard Oil
Company
– Ida Tarbell
The end of
monopolies
1904
Around 1900,
Standard
Oil and its
subsidiaries
controlled
90% of North
American
refining
capacity. 90%

7. However, Standard Oil’s industrial
prowess lived on in the next era of
Scientific Management or ”Taylorism.”
1911
The Principles
of Scientific
Management
– Frederick
Winslow
Taylor

8. In the late 1960s, strategy became
a proper discipline with concepts,
practitioners, and methodologies.
Outside-in, inside-out, resource-based,
measurement, and change capabilities
were all in place.
Experience
curves and
growth-share
matrix
– Bruce
Henderson
1968 1980
The Core
Competence
of the
Corporation
– Prahalad
and Hamel
1980/1985
The Core
Competence
of the
Corporation
– Prahalad
and Hamel
Competitive
Strategy
and The
Competitive
Advantage
– Michael Porter
1992
The Core
Competence
of the
Corporation
– Prahalad
and Hamel
The Balanced
Scorecard
– Kaplan &
Norton
1996
The Core
Competence
of the
Corporation
– Prahalad
and Hamel
Leading
Change
– John P.
Kotter

9. The strategy heydays were short-lived:
In 1993, business process reengineering
barged onto the scene…
Reengineering
the Corporation
– Michael M.
Hammer and
James Champy
1993

10. …closely followed by a flood of strategic
phenomena.
Note: This overview is by no means exhaustive.
Reengineering
the Corporation
– Michael M.
Hammer and
James Champy
1993
1994
Hyper-
competition
– Richard
D'Aveni
1997
The War for
Talent
– Michaels,
Handfield-
Jones, &
Axelrod
2000
1997
Cannibals
with Forks –
The Triple
Bottom Line of
21st Century
Business
Blown
to Bits
– Evans and
Wurster
2001
The Internet
Bubble
– Perkins &
Perkins
2005
The Black
Book of
Outsourcing
How to Manage the
Changes, Challenges
and Opportunities
– Brown&Wilson
2005
The New Age
of Innovation
Driving Co-created
Value Through
Global Networks
– Prahalad
& Krishnan
2005
2006
The Triple
Bottom Line
– Andrew Savitz
& Karl Weber
2005
The Wisdom
of Crowds –
Why the Many
are Smarter
Than the Few
– James
Surowieki
2004
Corporate
Social
Responsibility
Doing the Most Good
for Your Company
The World
Is Flat –
A Brief History of
the Twenty-First
Century
2008
Wikinomics –
How Mass
Collaboration
Changes Everything
– Tapscott
& Williams
2010
The Big
Short –
Inside the D
Machine
– Michae
Lewis
2010
Winning in
Emerging
Markets
– Khanna
& Palepu
2009
Enterprise 2.0
How to Manage
Social Technologies
to Transform Your
Organization
– Andrew
MacAfee
2011
Ground
Winning in
Transforme
Social Tech
– Charlen
& Josh
2007
The Black
Swan
The Impact of the
Highly Improbable
Fragility
2013
Big Dat
A Revolutio
Transform H
Live, Work,
– Mayer-

11. Book image copyright of Havard Business Press
“It's tough to
identify any big
new strategy
ideas since 1995.”
—Walter Kiechel
There were strategies for everything,
but no one strategy for everything
together.

12. There are plenty of smart recipes for
dealing with this overload, but none
is a substitute for strategy.
2009
Start With
Why –
How Great Leaders
Inspire Everyone
to Take Action
– Simon Sinek
2012
The
Strategist –
Be the Leader Your
Business Needs
– Cynthia
Montgomery
2011
HBR’s
10 Must
Reads – On
Leadership
– Drucker et al
2009
The
Upside of
Turbulence –
Seizing Opportunity
in an Uncertain
World
– Donald Sull
Authentic
leadership
2001
Profit from
the Core –
Growth Strategy
in an Era of
Turbulence
– Zook and
Allen
2013
Playing
to Win –
A Practical
Approach to
Winning Strategy
– Lafley and
Martin
2005
Blue Ocean
Strategy
– Kim and
Mauborgne
“Slice-the-pie”
approaches
2008
Fast Strategy
– Doz and
Kosonen
Agility
2001
Good to
Great –
Why Some
Companies Make
the Leap... and
Others Don't
– Jim Collins
2003
The Loyalty
Effect and One
Number You
Need to Grow
– Frederick
Reichheld
2002
Lean Six
Sigma –
Combining Six
Sigma Quality with
Lean Production
Speed
– Michael George
2004
The Toyota
Way
– Jeffrey Liker
Independent,
self-sufficient
approaches

13. Three promising recent lines of strategic
thinking—when combined—hold the key
to reclaiming strategy.
Organizational
inclusion
Portfolio of competitive
opportunities
Future
inspiration

14. 1. Taking future inspiration directly
into strategy formulation
From outside-in
and inside-out
analyses to…
Future-in
strategic
inspiration
Observation: Individual
drivers of change are
relatively simple; it is
their combination that
creates the dynamics.
The Living
Company
– Arie de Geus
1997 2008/2009
Design
Thinking
and Change
by Design
– Tim Brown

15. Making sure strategy is truly inspired
by the drivers of change most affecting
the company.
Fundamental drivers of change
Competitive impact
Speed of
change
Strategy
formulation

16. 2. Drawing on the organization for better
insights and more achievable results.
From cascading
strategies
down to…
Organizational
inclusion
Insight: Organizational inclusive-
ness eliminates the handover
hurdle between strategy form-
ulation and strategy excecution.
2012
Accelerate!
– John P.
Kotter

17. Tapping the collective knowledge and
firsthand experience of the organization
using the latest technologies
Strategy
formulation

18. Organizational Inclusion hits all the
motivational boxes—autonomy, personal
growth, sense of purpose.
“The
puzzle of
motivation”
—Daniel Pink
“What makes
us feel good
about work?”
—Dan Ariely

19. Implication: If competitive
advantage is transient, then new
competitive opportunities must
be identified at different stages
of the company’s life cycle.
2013
The End of
Competitive
Advantage
– Rita
Gunther
McGrath
3. Adopting a portfolio approach to
competitive advantage.
From single,
linear strategy
to managing…
Portfolio of
competitive
opportunities

20. A portfolio approach means that strategy
output is no longer a single plan but a
portfolio of strengths managed continually.
Growing Mature Sunset
AdvancedLagging
Competitive life cycle matrix
Life cycle stage
Companyposition
Strategy
formulation

21. FutureProof marks the start of a new
strategic era where strategy turns
from a plan on paper into a guiding
organzational energy.
1900 1968 1995 Today
Exclusivity
and
monopolies
Scientific
management
Strategy
heydays
Strategic
proliferation
Future
Proof
Organizational
inclusion
Portfolio of competitive
opportunities
Future
inspiration

22. For more information
about A.T. Kearney’s
FutureProof Strategy,
please visit:
www.thefutureofstrategy.com