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The Evolution of Strategy

Every era gets the strategy it needs. Porter solved the biggest problem of the 1980s — it isn't the biggest problem anymore. So what's the missing piece for ours?

Mayank N Gupta

Founder, Strategic Edge

July 17, 2026

6 min read

Strategy

Michael Porter solved the biggest strategy problem of the 1980s. It isn't the biggest strategy problem anymore.

For most of us, strategy is taught as a collection of frameworks. Drucker. Ansoff. Porter. Mintzberg. Prahalad and Hamel. Kim and Mauborgne. Christensen. Rumelt. Roger Martin. McGrath.

We learn their models, their matrices, their theories. We read their books.

But perhaps there is another way to understand the history of strategy — not as a collection of theories, but as a series of missing pieces, added one at a time.

Every time the business world changed, yesterday's strategy became insufficient. And a thinker emerged to address the new problem.

The Missing Piece, Decade by Decade

Peter Drucker

Responded to the rise of the large corporation

Management

Igor Ansoff

Responded to the challenge of corporate growth

A framework for growth choices

Alfred Chandler

Responded to organisational complexity

Structure aligned with strategy

Michael Porter

Responded to intensifying competition. He gave leaders a way to understand industry forces, competitive positioning and the creation of advantage. But the market did not stop changing.

Competitive Strategy

Henry Mintzberg

Challenged the assumption that strategy could simply be planned

Emergent Strategy

Prahalad & Hamel

Looked inside the organisation. The source of advantage was not only where you competed — it was also what the organisation could do uniquely well.

Core Competence

Kim & Mauborgne

Challenged the assumption that companies had to fight within existing competitive boundaries. Perhaps the answer was not to compete harder — perhaps it was to create a new space.

Blue Ocean Strategy

Clayton Christensen

Showed how successful companies could be destroyed by doing exactly what good management told them to do

Disruptive Innovation

Richard Rumelt

Brought strategy back to its essence. Strategy was not ambition. It was not a list of goals. It was choice.

Diagnosis, Guiding Policy & Coherent Action

Rita McGrath

Challenged the idea that competitive advantage could be sustained indefinitely. The question was no longer simply how do we build an advantage — but what comes next when that advantage begins to fade?

Transient Advantage

Look at the pattern in how "strategy" evolved over the decades:

Management → Growth → Structure → Competition → Emergence → Capabilities → New Markets → Disruption → Choice → Reinvention

Every major thinker added something the previous era could not fully explain. Not because the earlier thinkers were wrong or not smart… because the world had changed.

And this is perhaps the most important lesson from the history of strategy:

"
Every strategic breakthrough solved yesterday's problem. None could solve tomorrow's.
The Lesson From a Century of Strategy

What Is the Missing Piece for Our Era?

So here is the question I have been asking: what is the missing piece of strategy for our era?

I have spent the last few years exploring that question. The answer begins with a fundamental change in the market: customers no longer merely choose — they compare. And increasingly, they compare everything.

And A.I is allowing that comparison to happen at a scale not known before.

Want to read the history of the Evolution of Strategy in detail?

Download the free PDF booklet — link given on this page.

Download the Free PDF Booklet →

The Evolution of Strategy

The Missing Piece, Decade by Decade

What Is the Missing Piece for Our Era?

Want to read the history of the Evolution of Strategy in detail?

Mayank N Gupta

Why "No Edge Over Rivals" Is the First Trap Every Growing Business Falls Into

Customers Compare: How A.I Turned Every Purchase Into a Side-by-Side

"In an era of A.I enabled comparison, play where comparison breaks."

The Evolution of Strategy

The Missing Piece, Decade by Decade

What Is the Missing Piece for Our Era?

Want to read the history of the Evolution of Strategy in detail?

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Mayank N Gupta

Why "No Edge Over Rivals" Is the First Trap Every Growing Business Falls Into

Customers Compare: How A.I Turned Every Purchase Into a Side-by-Side

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"In an era of A.I enabled comparison, play where comparison breaks."