The migrating locus of strategy

摘要

It's been a few years since the frenzy of the 1990s, when the pace of change seemed destined forever to accelerate, and when decentralization and "de-conglomeration" in the name of efficiency seemed unlikely ever to stop. In the political sphere, we have seen some of the less pleasant results of over-Balkanization, in Chechnya, in the gangster capitalism of Russia itself, and, come to think of it, in the Balkans themselves. In business, for far too many companies, "sticking to the knitting" -selling off all extraneous assets to concentrate on one's supposed "core competency" - was too often the prelude to hostile takeover by a larger and more efficient firm of the same type. And even these super-concentrated huge specialized firms were exposed to strategic disaster. At the end of the day, any strategy based on efficiency is in danger of becoming a strategy of price war.