The idea of applying strategic management principles in business is often associated with people like Peter Drucker, who wrote 39 books on the subject as part of a stellar consulting career that ended with his passing in 2005.
 
In truth, however, strategic management—or at least primitive variants of it—is as old as business itself. What it takes is thoughtfully analyzing key objectives, then developing and implementing solutions to address them. In the early 1920s, one of the problems members of the Linen Supply Association of America (LSAA, renamed TRSA in 1979) were grappling with was linen losses—an ...