Is strategy back? It has not been fashionable recently for chief executives to offer grand strategic visions. Growth and profitability are the market’s immediate priorities, driven by the demands of impatient hedge funds and institutions. Who has time for strategy when “execution” is all that really matters?

Last week, though, Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone, was criticised for failing to deliver a convincing plan for the struggling mobile phone operator, even though he had been presented on his appointment in 2003 as a cool strategic thinker. Shareholders are running out of patience with businesses that seem to be floundering in a time of rapid change.