Strategy Managers

Experimentation with management practices began in the 1700s, following the Industrial Revolution. English potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, for example, could be considered an early strategy manager. He developed methods to improve efficiency in his pottery business by coming up with a goal of mass-producing articles of consistent quality. To achieve this, he also organized and monitored the relationships between people, material, and events in his pottery factory, analyzing how they interacted and determining what could be changed to improve the interactions.

In the 1800s, U.S. inventor and engineer Frederick W. Taylor focused even further on efficiency in the workplace with his invention of the "differential piecework" plan. This plan incentivized workers to increase their productivity by giving higher pay to those who increased their work pace. Taylor conducted studies of the Midvale Steel plant in Pennsylvania, reviewing the jobs and the time it took to complete the different parts of jobs, which helped determine the areas where efficiency could be improved. Many companies hired Taylor to help them develop and manage goals for improving productivity and efficiencies.

Today, personal computers, software programs such as scientific and analytical software and database query software, the Internet, mobile devices, and other technological innovations provide strategy managers a more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the companies they work for. Many industries now hire strategy managers to help them set and achieve goals that are realistic and beneficial for companies. The types of companies strategy managers work for include automotive, banking, entertainment, finance, government agencies, health care, information technology, manufacturing, among numerous others.