Beyond Magic Conjectures on the Nature of Strategy in the Late 1990s

In this paper, we examine contemporary models of strategy as planning and learning. We argue that neither is likely to stimulate radical change in an organisation, because the possibilities that both express are bound by the existing language of the business and the habits of thought laid down in that language. We propose that the most significant developments in strategy in the later 1990s will address this conundrum and constitute a new approach: strategy as translation. The role of strategist will be to release businesses from the framework of their existing language by translating from wholly different modes of business and from modes of human experience outside the world of business.