Born in 1918, in Vladivostok in Russia, Igor Ansoff at the age of 16 went with his parents to United States. Graduated in Mechanical Engineering and received a PHD in Applied Mathematics, at the Brown University in New York, Worked at the Rand Foundation, specialized in military subjects, and in the aerospace company Lockheed, where performed duties of general manager. Later chose to follow the academic career at Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he published his bestseller Corporate Strategy, considered today the bible in strategic planning. Was provost of Vanderbilt University and created a business school specialized in strategy.
He’s the main responsible for the formulation of the strategic management concept, based on the work developed by Alfred Chandler. His main contribution for management was the creation of the model or Ansoff mold of strategic planning, based on the expansion and corporate diversification through a sequence of decisions. In the base for the model are the variances analysis concepts – difference between the expected and the performed – and of synergy – exploitation of the combined skills of two department or companies.
