In this volume, we have brought together some of the best writings on strategy produced over the past two decades by McKinsey consultants. Inevitably, in making our selections, we have omitted many fine articles. But the 24 contained here provide a good representation of the breadth and depth of McKinsey’s strategic thinking.
The anthology is organized into three parts, corresponding to the main phases in the development of our work on strategy. The first set of articles in the anthology contains articles from the period 1978-89, the early years of the strategy practice. These articles include:
These were years of remarkable creativity, when some of the best minds at McKinsey worked together to refresh and extend the Firm’s approach to the development of strategy and to reaffirm McKinsey’s role as a leader in the field. Many of these articles first appeared as internal staff papers and are being published here, in abridged form, for the first time.
During the period covered in this section the explosion of new research on strategy gave rise to many key conceptual breakthroughs, including the development of frameworks and...