The business strategy

We need to spend a little time looking at business or corporate strategy, because it drives marketing strategy. Lest there be any confusion, business/corporate strategy and marketing strategy are not the same thing.

But, this is not a book on corporate strategy – that is a debate we can usefully avoid. The whole ‘ industry ’ was started by Ansoff in an article called ( ‘ Strategies for Diversification ’ , Harvard Business Review 1957), popularised by Porter (in the 1980s), widened by Mintzberg (in the 1990s) and now you have to beat off the strategy gurus with a large stick.