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Criticisms of strategic management

 Although a sense of direction is important, it can also
stifle creativity, especially if it is rigidly enforced. In an uncertain and
ambiguous world, fluidity can be more important than a finely tuned strategic
compass. When a strategy becomes internalized into a corporate culture, it can
lead to group think. It can also cause an organization to define itself too
narrowly. An example of this is marketing myopia.

 Many theories of strategic management tend to undergo only
brief periods of popularity. A summary of these theories thus inevitably
exhibits survivorship bias (itself an area of research in strategic
management). Many theories tend either to be too narrow in focus to build a
complete corporate strategy on, or too general and abstract to be applicable to
specific situations. Populism or faddishness can have an impact on a particular
theory's life cycle and may see application in inappropriate circumstances. See
business philosophies and popular management theories for a more critical view
of management theories.

 In 2000, Gary Hamel coined the term strategic convergence to
explain the limited scope of the strategies being used by rivals in greatly
differing circumstances. He lamented that strategies converge more than they
should, because the more successful ones get imitated by firms that do not
understand that the strategic process involves designing a custom strategy for
the specifics of each situation.[94]

 Ram Charan, aligning with a popular marketing tagline,
believes that strategic planning must not dominate action. "Just do
it!", while not quite what he meant, is a phrase that nevertheless comes
to mind when combatting analysis paralysis.