Strategy under attack

Abstract Future-oriented management has been expected of executives and boards for 40 years. This responsibility to conceptualize a futurity for their organizations, and then lead their organizations toward it, has been an uncomfortable burden not always carried well. Now the concept of future orientation is being severely challenged from a combination of four philosophical and pragmatic forces. Today's executives are diverted by these forces, shaken in their commitment to proactive strategic management. Executives must understand the nature of these clashing ideas and accommodate them intelligently. However, they must reject the reactive theme of powerlessness over the future which runs through all of them.