"Given the uncertainty in the world, strategy cannot be about gambling on one possible outcome five or ten years down the road. Grand master plans have a habit of not being fulfilled. In my view, strategy is about buying the right options that will give us a shot at competing in the future - that will give us the right to play if we decide we want to when it becomes clearer what the game is about."

John Browne, CEO British Petroleum Company
Reprinted from Harvard Business Review
September - October 1997