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Where Do Great Strategies Really Come From?

Author

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  • Adam Brandenburger

    (Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, New York 10012; NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, New York 11201; NYU Shanghai, Pudong, 200122 Shanghai China)

Abstract

In courses on business strategy, students draw maps of organizations and the landscapes on which they operate, and they learn various classification schemes for strategies, such as different kinds of market positions or organizational capabilities. But these activities do not achieve much when it comes to developing a sense for where great strategies come from in the first place. The missing ingredient is recognizing that strategy-making is a creative act. We know this intuitively. It is the “aha” feature of brilliant strategies that first draws many of us to the topic. In this essay, we look at some examples of great business strategies and view them as creative leaps. We organize the examples into a proposed framework which involves four sources for creativity: contrast, combination, constraint, and context (4 C’s). The hope is that this framework works as a mental prompt for finding new strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Brandenburger, 2017. "Where Do Great Strategies Really Come From?," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 220-225, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:2:y:2017:i:4:p:220-225
    DOI: 10.1287/stsc.2017.0039
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adam M. Brandenburger & Harborne W. Stuart, 1996. "Value‐based Business Strategy," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 5-24, March.
    2. Markus C. Becker & Thorbjørn Knudsen, 2002. "Schumpeter 1911: Farsighted Visions on Economic Development," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 387-403, April.
    3. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt & Jeffrey A. Martin, 2000. "Dynamic capabilities: what are they?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(10‐11), pages 1105-1121, October.
    4. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gino Cattani & Daniel Sands & Joe Porac & Jason Greenberg, 2018. "Competitive Sensemaking in Value Creation and Capture," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 632-657, December.
    2. Giovanni Gavetti & Joe Porac, 2018. "On the Origin of Great Strategies," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(1), pages 352-365, March.
    3. Moshe Farjoun & Peer C. Fiss, 2022. "Thriving on contradiction: Toward a dialectical alternative to fit‐based models in strategy (and beyond)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 340-369, February.

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