Every company used to have one. The curmudgeon whose habitual contribution to the strategy discussion was a slow intake of breath, a shake of the head, and a gloomy judgment on the latest plan: “We tried that in 1980: complete disaster.”
I say “used to” because now few employees have such perspective. Even those who do would be brave to voice it. Most executives sense the only way to avoid being overtaken by younger, nimbler competitors is to throw out the baggage of history and accelerate away from the past. For “institutional memory”, read “institutional inertia”.
The fast-moving forward-facers are only half-right. Strategy is the art of choosing the right path ahead. But companies that jettison their past altogether risk not only repeating historical errors but hobbling their advance.