One of the most important tools of every organization is
the strategy development process. A survey conducted among
960 organizations found that strategy development is applied
by 79 percent of them, and that these companies are very
satisfied with this technique: a 4.14 score on a scale of 1 – 5
[1]. A well-formulated strategy indicates the manner in which
an organization plans to anticipate on changes in its
environment and the consequences these changes will have on
the quality, price and delivery times of the products and
services of the company [2]. Since long, developing and
executing a strategy well has been recognized as a main
source of competitive advantage for organizations [3].
Without a doubt, the academic that gave the biggest push to
the field of strategy development was Michael Porter who
with his seminal work Competitive Strategy: Techniques for
Analyzing Industries and Competitors [4] put the importance
of the strategy process firmly on the agenda of top
management [5]. In addition, Porter introduced the notion of
generic strategies: any successful strategy can be labeled as
striving for low-cost, differentiation, or focus (sometimes
called market niche leadership). If an organization achieves
lower cost or higher quality (through differentiation of
products or services, or by being better in servicing the
customer) than the competition, it has something unique and
valuable and is therefore successful [6]. However, since the
publication of Porter’s book the business environment has
changed dramatically [7] through developments like
globalization [8], new technology [9], ascension of Asian
markets [10], environmental issues [11] and demographic
shifts [12]. These changes warrant the questions: How
important is strategy nowadays for an organization to become
and stay successful? and Are the generic strategies of Porter
still valid? This article aims at answering these questions by
using the results of the high performance organization
research, to evaluate which role strategy plays in creating and
sustaining a high performance organization (HPO).