Making Strategic Leaders: Some Reflections

It is generally recognized that superior managerial skills that are rare and difficult to imitate are a valuable potential source of sustainable competitive advantage (Castanias and Helfat, 1991; Hart and Banbury, 1994). In particular, it has long been argued that strategic leaders — who by virtue of their roles make an organization-wide impact, and shape, orchestrate, or facilitate both the short-term and long-term future of the organization — make a vital contribution to organizational success or failure (Ireland and Hitt, 1999). Within a business context, it has been suggested that being able to exercise strategic leadership in a competitively superior manner facilitates the firm’s efforts to earn superior returns on its investment (Rowe, 2001).