ABSTRACT
One of the justifications given for subjecting a business to a process of strategic management is that it is the only satisfactory way of coming to terms with a changing world. Events in the environment in which the company operates have a direct effect on the success or failure of that company. Strategic management seeks, as one of its aims, to relate the company to its environment, and to identify in advance the threats and opportunities which environmental change brings. At the outset the unique character of each business should be stressed: the effect of change in factors outside the control of the company will vary not only between industries but also between companies in the same industry. What causes the effect to vary are not only the obvious things like the nature of business, countries of operation, and size of organisation: there are also the fundamental differences in the attitudes and abilities of various managements. What one manager views as a threat may be seized as an opportunity by another. Some accept the challenge of change as one of the factors which adds a stimulant to the task of management: others try ostrich-like to ignore it, or sit like Canute on the beach defying the inevitable movements of the tides of the times: still others see the change taking place and, like Nero, expend their energies on what – in the context of their problems – are frivolous activities. The Nero managers are the worst, because it is a management crime to see a threat and not to avoid it, to notice an opportunity yet not to understand it.
