Top 100 Strategy Thinkers

100people

Five Forces, Generic Strategies, Value Chain

Good Strategy / Bad Strategy; the kernel (diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action)

Hamilton Helmer

7 Powers (Counter-Positioning, Scale Economies, Network Economies, Switching Costs, Branding, Cornered Resource, Process Power)

Clayton Christensen

Disruptive Innovation, Jobs-to-be-Done

Blue Ocean Strategy

Renée Mauborgne

Blue Ocean Strategy, Value Innovation

Henry Mintzberg

Strategy Safari, emergent vs deliberate strategy, 5 Ps

Strategic Intent, core competence, strategy as revolution

Core Competence of the Corporation, Bottom of the Pyramid

Ansoff Matrix (product/market growth)

Bruce Henderson

BCG Growth-Share Matrix, Experience Curve

3Cs Model (Customer, Company, Competitor); The Mind of the Strategist

Playing to Win, Integrative Thinking, Strategy Choice Cascade

Crossing the Chasm, technology adoption lifecycle

Resource-Based View, VRIN/VRIO framework

Theory of the Growth of the Firm (foundation of RBV)

Theory of the Firm, transaction costs

Alfred Chandler

Strategy and Structure ("structure follows strategy")

Theodore Levitt

Marketing Myopia, globalization of markets

Strategic Inflection Points, Only the Paranoid Survive

Richard D'Aveni

Hypercompetition, 7S framework for hypercompetitive markets

Adam Brandenburger

Co-opetition, value nets, game-theoretic strategy

Co-opetition, game theory in business

Constantinos Markides

Strategic Innovation, business-model reinvention

Costas Markides

All Strategy is Local; Fast Second

Cynthia Montgomery

The Strategist; purpose-driven strategy

Scenario Planning (Shell)

The Art of the Long View, scenario planning

W. Edwards Deming

System of Profound Knowledge, PDSA

Toyota Production System (foundation of lean strategy)

The Art of War (classical strategic doctrine)

Carl von Clausewitz

On War; friction, center of gravity

Indirect Approach

Paradoxical logic of strategy

Lawrence Freedman

Strategy: A History

Modern Strategy

S-Curves of innovation, Creative Destruction (with Sarah Kaplan)

Joseph Schumpeter

Creative Destruction, entrepreneurial innovation

Friedrich Hayek

Knowledge problem; price as information system

Exploration vs Exploitation

Balanced Scorecard, Strategy Maps

Balanced Scorecard, Strategy Maps

Discovery-Driven Planning, Transient Advantage

Discovery-Driven Planning, entrepreneurial strategy

Information Rules, network effects, lock-in

Information Rules, two-sided markets

Dynamic Capabilities, profiting from innovation (PFI)

Innovation strategy, manufacturing-as-strategy

Henry Chesbrough

Open Innovation

Eric von Hippel

User Innovation, lead users

Saras Sarasvathy

Effectuation (entrepreneurial strategy logic)

Customer Development, Lean Startup foundations

Simple Rules, active inertia

Kathleen Eisenhardt

Simple Rules, strategy as structured chaos

2030 frameworks, lateral thinking in strategy

Michael Tushman

Ambidextrous Organization, dominant designs

Charles O'Reilly

Ambidextrous Organization, exploit/explore

James Utterback

Dominant Design, mastering dynamics of innovation

William Abernathy

Productivity Dilemma, A-U model (with Utterback)

Strategy Paradox, The Innovator's Solution (with Christensen)

Profit from the Core, Adjacency strategy

Founder's Mentality (with Zook)

Content Trap, connections-over-content strategy

Wisdom of Finance applied to strategy

Complexity-based strategy, NK landscapes for strategy

Daniel Levinthal

NK fitness landscapes, organizational adaptation

Evolutionary theory of the firm (with Nelson)

Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

Andrew Campbell

Parenting Advantage, corporate-level strategy

Parenting Advantage, strategic control styles

Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Better, Simpler Strategy; value-based strategy (WTP-WTS)

Creating Shared Value (with Porter)

Vijay Govindarajan

Reverse Innovation, Three-Box Solution

Reverse Innovation, execution of strategic experiments

Sustainable Value Framework, Bottom of the Pyramid

Industry change trajectories (radical, progressive, creative, intermediating)

Pankaj Ghemawat

Commitment, sustainable advantage (second arc; classic work)

Institutional Voids, emerging-market strategy

Emerging-market strategy, business-group analysis

Michael Cusumano

Platform strategy, Strategy Rules; Microsoft / Toyota studies

Annabelle Gawer

Platform Leadership, industry platforms (with Cusumano)

Carliss Baldwin

Design Rules, modularity as strategy

Design Rules, dominant designs (with Baldwin)

Rebecca Henderson

Architectural innovation, Reimagining Capitalism

Time-Based Competition, Hardball strategy (BCG)

Blown to Bits, deconstruction of value chains

Blown to Bits (with Evans), information economics of strategy

Strategic alliances, fast strategy, multinational mission

Sumantra Ghoshal

Managing Across Borders, transnational strategy

Christopher Bartlett

Transnational strategy (with Ghoshal), I-R framework

Resource allocation process, From Resource Allocation to Strategy

Robert Burgelman

Strategy as ecology, internal corporate venturing

Howard Stevenson

Entrepreneurial management; pursuit of opportunity beyond resources

Hidden Champions, pricing as strategy

Aligning Strategy and Sales

Tilt: downstream-anchored strategy

Mohanbir Sawhney

Network-centric strategy, marketing-as-platform

The Art of Action, mission command applied to business

The Lords of Strategy (history of the strategy industry)