Is there a complexity beyond the reach of strategy: Vol. 2, núm. 1

A quick overview of the development of strategy over the past three decades suggests that it has been getting steadily more complex (Stacey, 1993; Garratt, 1987). This is both a subjective and an objective phenomenon. Objectively speaking, causal empiricism points to a world that is increasingly interconnected and in which the pace of technological change has been accelerating. The arrival of the internet is evidence of increasing connectivity--some managers find upward of 200 emails waiting for them each morning when they arrive at the office. The persistence and replication of Moore's Law are evidence of accelerating technical change. The spirit of Moore's Law--which stated that the speed of computer chips would double every 18 months and that their costs would halve in the same period--has now spread out beyond the microprocessors and memory chips to which it was first applied (Gilder, 1989) and has started to invade a growing number of industries (Kelly, 1998). As a result, corporate and business strategists are today expected to deal with ever more variables and ever more elusive, nonlinear interaction between the variables. What is worse, in a regime of "time-based competition," they are expected to do so faster than ever before. This often amounts to a formidable increase in the objective complexity of a firm's strategic agenda.