Purpose – To provide a practical overview of strategic thinking concepts and practices for marketing and other managers that can help them improve their strategy making. Design/methodology/approach – The raw materials of strategic thinking are illustrated by case studies and examples from a...

Purpose – To streamline the process of opportunity recognition and make it more effective by clarifying the meaning of opportunity and making its elements explicit. Design/methodology/approach – Clarifying opportunity is effected by providing a model and illustrating its effectiveness...

Purpose – Looks at how to find the best marketing mix for a particular company and how to track and measure marketing activities for return on investment. Design/methodology/approach – Opinion piece. Findings – Six guidelines will help to identify and implement the best marketing mix: Set...

Purpose – To provide the author's opinions about key issues in strategy and the future to the readership, in a humorous way. Design/methodology/approach – Opinion column. Findings – Review of three recent books relevant to critical business issues Research limitations/implications –...

Purpose – Identifies issues to consider when designing a corporate entrepreneurship strategy, discuss the triggers of corporate entrepreneurship, and describe an internal work environment that supports corporate entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the extant literature,...

Purpose – To provide a critical perspective on the robustness of strategic account management (sometimes called key account management) strategies as an approach to managing relationships with large and very large customers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on exploratory...

Purpose – Shareholders, investors and potential employees, all attach special importance to understanding a company through its annual report, the status of which has evolved over the years: from providing information for the adepts of competitive intelligence, it now provides information...

Purpose – This article examines the relationship between budgeting and strategic management, especially in terms of strategic planning. Strategic management presents managers with a process for making decisions and guiding a firm's actions, while budgeting provides information on funding and...

Purpose – Artistry has been suggested by many authors to be a characteristic of exemplary practitioners in any discipline; however, few have defined artistry, or described how it might be employed and developed. The purpose of this paper is to explain the role of artistry in practice and how it...

Purpose – Acquisitions can be a powerful tool to achieve growth, enter new markets and expand the range of a firm's capabilities. But with the highly competitive market for acquisitions and the correspondingly high acquisition prices, all too often transactions fail to create value for...