The strategy is omnipresent, and it the history of its development has roots in antiquity. As stated by Carter, Clegg and Kornberger (2008), in older times, it played a significant role primarily in military endeavours. As such, the modern word “strategy” derives from two ancient Greek words “Stratos” and “again,” which mean “army” and “lead” respectively (Carter et al., 2008). Overall, the etymology indicates that original strategies implied the planning of troops’ positioning, defence manoeuvres, attack timing, and so forth.
It is possible to say that the same strategic components are implemented in the contemporary business environment as well, but instead of leading armies, managers now guide their teams and protect their organisations from environmental influences which, however, can be as offensive and devastating as a military onslaught.
Although the context of strategic management and forces driving it have substantially changed, some affinity between ancient methods proposed by such prominent early strategists as Machiavelli and modern approaches to leadership and management can still be found. For example, Machiavelli stated that a successful leader must “engage in practical geography” or, in other words, he must know well the environment in which they rule and leads the army (Carter et al., 2008, p. 13).
Additionally, he emphasised the importance of discipline and expertise in war (Carter et al., 2008). Similarly, a modern leader is expected to have profound competence in his or her professional field, know the market environment, and implement critical thinking skills to navigate through various obstacles.
It is worth mentioning that a lot of leaders throughout the 19th and 20th centuries utilised a warlike approach to strategic management and aimed to defeat competitors. However, such methods were often counterproductive and insensitive to public and stakeholder interests and needs. As Carter et al. (2008) note, many of them included deceit, devastation and plagiarism and, therefore, were highly questionable in terms of ethics. The present-day market situation requires businesses to be accountable and transparent in order to remain competitive and profitable. Thus, modern leaders may find greater interest in less aggressive strategies.
A lot of executives and corporate managers aim to incorporate various ethical principles and methods in their business strategies. One of them is corporate governance which seeks to ensure that boards of directors control their corporations ethically and take into account the interests of a wide range of stakeholder groups: employees, shareholders, local communities, and others (Clegg, 2017). The theory that can explain the concept of corporate governance best is agency theory.
It suggests that the conflict between principals and agents, who serve to represent the best interests of principals, arise when their interests are not aligned (Clegg, 2017). For instance, when employees (agents) violate professional norms, they act against the interests of the employer (principal). It is suggested that corporate governance policies and strategies allow minimising the risk of such and similar ethical hazards and optimise agency relationships in the company.
Overall, strategies nowadays serve multiple purposes: they help to lead organisations through intensely competitive environments to future success by minimising numerous risks and threats to companies’ well-being. It is clear that leaders should pay significant attention to external situations and changes. Nevertheless, it is also important to ensure that strategies address numerous internal factors, such as compliance with ethical and professional standards. The combination of both strategic orientations may be regarded as key to the increased competitiveness of a business.
Reference List
Carter C, Clegg S, & Kornberger M 2008, ‘Once upon a time’, in C Carter, S Clegg & M Kornberger (eds), A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying strategy, SAGE, Los Angeles, CA, pp. 1-20.
Clegg, S 2017, ‘Strategy and corporate governance’, in S Clegg, J Schweitzer, A Whittle & C Pitelis (eds), Strategy: theory and practice, 2nd edn, SAGE, London, UK, pp. 272-312.