Biography
Ansoff was born in Leningrad, Russia, in 1916. He moved to the United States in 1933 and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked for several companies in the aerospace and defense industries before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1965.
Ansoff retired from Vanderbilt in 1993, but he continued to write and consult on strategic management. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2002.
Contributions to Strategic Management
Ansoff is considered one of the pioneers of strategic management. He made significant contributions to the field, including:
- The Ansoff Matrix: This is a tool used to analyze and plan an organization's growth strategies. The matrix plots a company's current products and markets on two axes and then identifies four possible growth strategies: market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification.
- The Strategic Gap Analysis: This is a tool used to assess the gap between an organization's current position and its desired future position. The gap analysis helps organizations identify the strategies they need to implement to achieve their goals.
- The Strategic Issue Analysis: This is a tool used to identify and analyze an organization's strategic issues. The strategic issue analysis helps organizations prioritize the issues they need to address and develop plans to resolve them.
Ansoff's work has had a profound impact on the field of strategic management. He is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the field and his ideas are still used by organizations around the world.