| David Ulrich considered that competitive advantage can be generated from within the
organization rather than from outside (or from a competitive strategy standpoint) Ulrich's thinking is closely designed with the idea of 'resource based' competitive advantage. In this perspective, the most central insights on strategy are held to come out of a company's resource base, and not from competitive market place. Ulrich takes this idea one step further by suggesting that the softer aspects of the resource base - the organization - are actually central in understanding competitive position. David Ulrich's second major contribution to strategy was that of his emphasis on HR's role as being more than that of consultant/ facilitator, rather than Personnel Administration. Ulrich saw HR as potentially being there to facilitate the implementation of business strategy and maybe even to give its own input on business strategy. Wack was important in promotion of scenario development not within the shell but to the outside world as well. One of Shell's notable successes with the scenarios as a process of story-telling was in anticipating the oil crisis of 1970's Not only was shell able to anticipate the disruptive event but was also able to deal with it through contingency strategies. This allowed it to react much faster than its competitors - the other major oil companies of that time. Scenario story telling is a dynamic process. Scenario story-telling is a fluid process possibly drawing from PEST factors, the growth drivers and porters five forces. But it is helped considerably by Mitroff's uncertainty-importance grid, as used also by Shell. ack Welch introduced the concept of 'work out' which involved problem solving within every level of the work force. Welch also pioneered the first real downsizing in the US in the 1980's simultaneously with implementing a cultural revolution in the organization. Welch's focus on idea generation and dissemination extended to the use of total quality management, and preparation for the Internet based organization. GE might be one of the very few good examples of learning based rganizations. Welch, arguably personified Hamel and Prahalad's idea of 'Strategy as Stretch' being awesome in his challenging style. George Yip's 'Total Global Strategy' is now considered a standard text for global strategy. He allows us the technique to discriminate between the extent to which markets are truly global, by looking at different drivers including: - Market drivers
- Competitive drivers
- Cost drivers
- Governmental drivers
He also looks at the costs/ benefits of being global, across products and services, marketing, competitive moves, and organization. He does not recommend any direct course of action but is more diagnostic in his conclusions. He also takes the contingency approach to the applicability of being global since it all depends on context. | 
