Strategic management is the central activity of all successful organizations today. From the time when its conceptual foundations were laid in the 1960s, its theory and practice have been subjected to intensive research, argument and development under such headings as general management, business policy, corporate strategy and long-range planning. But, as J. I. Moore explains, no matter what its name, strategic thinking has always addressed the same issue: 'the determination of how an organization, in its entirety, can best be directed in a changing world'.