Empresas globalizadas

Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage and Business History
Robert E. Ankli 1

University Guelph of

Strategic planningas a formal discipline originated the 1960sand in early 1970s.It soonbecamea fad, but faded equallyquicklywhen the promisedsuccesses not materialize[See 3, 13, 14, and 17 for recent did examples]. Japanese success not seem depend planning muchas did to on as it did on quality, corporate national and culture, and management itself[12]. Yet the needfor planning remains, asPeterDruckerreminds for, us: Managementhas no choicebut to anticipatethe future, to attemptto mold it, and to balanceshort-range long-range and goals....Theidea behind long-rangeplanning is that [the question] "Whatshould our business be?"can and shouldbe worked anddecided itself, on by independent thethinking of on
"What is our business?" and "What will it be?" There is some

senseto this. It is necessary strategic in planningto start separately all threequestions. with Whatis thebusiness? What will it be? What should it be? These are, and should be

separate conceptual approaches. With respect "WhatshouM to our business be?"the first assumption mustbe that it will be different. Long-range planning should prevent managers from uncritically extending presenttrendsinto the future,from assuming that today's products, services, markets, technologies be the and will products, services, markets, and technologies tomorrow,and of aboveall, from dedicating their resources energies the and to defense yesterday pp. 121-2]. of [2, As business historians would, course, you of agreewith the lastsentence, but you might be wondering why I think it necessary even repeat it. to Nevertheless do so for goodreason. I

1Iwould to thank Inwood James like Kris and Ingham helpful for comments.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC HISTORY, Second Series, Volume Twenty-one, 1992.
Copyright 1992by the Business (c) HistoryConference.ISSN 0849-6825.
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My interest business business in and