Criticisms of Strategic Management
Although a sense of direction is important, it can also stiffle creativity, especially if it is rigidly
enforced. In an uncertain and ambiguous world, fluidity can be more important than a strategic
compass. When a strategy becomes internalized into a corporate culture, it can lead to group think.
It can also cause an organization to define itself too narrowly. An example of this is marketing
myopia.
Most theories of strategic management seem to have a lifespan less than that of the latest teen
music idol. Many critics claim that this is because they generally do not work. Keep in mind that this
article describes only the 50 or so most successful theories. For every theory that gets incorporated
into strategic management textbooks there are 100 that are quickly forgotten. Many theories tend
either to be too narrow in focus to build a complete corporate strategy on, or too general and
abstract to be applicable to specific situations. The low success rate is fueled by the management
talk-circuit in which hundreds of self-appointed gurus sell their books and explain their
“revolutionary” and “groundbreaking” theories to audiences of business executives for a notinsignificant fee. (See business philosophies and popular management theories for a more critical
view of management theories.)
Some critics take the opposite approach claiming effectively that there are not enough theories, and
when they arrive they are too late. These commentators remind us that the basic purpose of
strategic management is to match a company's strategy with the business environment that the
organization is in. Because the environment is constantly changing, effective strategic management
requires a continuous flow of new theories suitable for the new circumstances. The problem with
most theories is that they solve yesterday’s problems.
Gary Hamel (2000) coined the term strategic convergence to explain the limited scope of the
strategies being used. He laments that strategies converge because the more successful ones get
imitated by firms that do not understand that the strategic process involves designing a custom
strategy for the specifics of each situation.
Journals devoted primarily to strategic management

Strategic Management Journal

Harvard Business Review

The Journal of Business Strategy

Long Range Planning
Journals that frequently contain strategic management articles

Management Science

Sloan Management Review

Journal of Marketing

European Management Journal

Administrative Science Quarterly

Journal of Marketing Research

American Economic Review

Academy of Management Review
Magazines that frequently contain strategic management articles

Forbes

The Economist

The Wall Street Journal

Harvard Business Review
Web sites with significant strategic management content

The Journal of Business Strategies (http://COBA.SHSU.edu/jbs/)

A strategic marketing plan example (http://www.businessplanning.ws/learn/business-plan-
strategy-implementation.html/)

McKinsey & Company (http://www.mckinsey.com/)

strategy+business (http://www.strategy-business.com/)

Value Based Management (http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/)