Smart Business

APPENDIX C

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS

A Unifying Theory of Strategy

My view of strategy encompasses both traditional strategic thinking and future creative concepts. Traditional notions of strategy are built on economies of scale. Structured in a line or chain, a firm aims to control inputs and maximize efficiency, thus lowering the cost of outputs and raising its own value. The factors of production were capital, machinery, materials, and the labor and management to run it all. Because these factors were expensive and hard to assemble, they granted important competitive advantage. Formerly, long-term planning, good strategy, and effective organizations maximized competitive advantage. Building a successful firm took time, as did the production ...