Sam Felton, founder of the Strategic Management Database and counselor to Strategy & Leadership

Liam Fahey (Leadership Forum, Inc)

Strategy & Leadership

ISSN: 1087-8572

Article publication date: 21 March 2016

809

Citation

Fahey, L. (2016), "Sam Felton, founder of the Strategic Management Database and counselor to Strategy & Leadership", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 44 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-01-2016-0010

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Sam Felton, founder of the Strategic Management Database and counselor to Strategy & Leadership

Article Type: CEO advisory From: Strategy & Leadership, Volume 44, Issue 2

Liam Fahey

Liam Fahey, a former editor of Strategy & Leadership, is Executive Director of the executive education firm Leadership Forum, Inc. (liam.fahey@leadershipforuminc.com).

It is with great sadness that I report that Samuel M. Felton, founder of the Strategic Management Database and long-time counselor to Strategy & Leadership, died on December 24th. He was 89 years old. For the past 25 years, he lived in Bar Harbor, Maine.

His more than 30-year corporate career in such roles as vice president strategy and planning, vice president corporate development and group vice president included 10 years as Director, Midwest Management Consulting practice of SRI International. In later years, Sam devoted himself to learning all he could about the broad fields of business strategy and planning. His knowledge of these fields was encyclopedic. His breadth of reading was truly astounding; two years ago he donated to a local library his collection of some 1,300 books that he had summarized and incorporated into his unique Strategic Management Database. His commitment to enhancing his knowledge and enabling others to learn is perhaps best reflected in this data base of some 10,000 entries for more than 5,000 individuals that he began several decades ago and updated weekly until a few years ago. It was a truly valuable source for strategy practitioners and academics searching articles, books, conference reports, research and interviews. It was the first place many of us went when we wanted to answer the inevitable question: who has written what in the field of strategic management and planning? Of course, the follow-up conversation with Sam provided the background and context to the authors’ sources, prior work and research interests. And, Sam never had to be pushed to give you his own “take” on various authors’ insights–and perhaps their limitations.

In addition to the Strategic Management Database, Sam was well known for his many roles in and contributions to strategy and planning professional organizations. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a leader of the NACSP (National Association of Corporate Strategic Planning) chapter in Chicago. His unrivalled knowledge of business strategy enabled him to make important contributions when he became involved in the largest national organization of strategic planners, the Planning Forum, later to become the Strategy and Leadership Forum. He served as a Director and CEO and then co-chaired the highly successful annual Planning Forum conference for more than 10 years. He helped transform it into the not-to-be-missed annual strategy idea exchange, the opportunity for thought leaders, consultants and practitioners to interact and be heard. For many years, he served as a contributing editor of this publication, now called Strategy & Leadership, originally named Planning Review.[1]

After moving to Maine, Sam worked with the Camden Conference, a community forum for exchange of ideas on global issues that sponsors an annual meeting of renowned diplomats, policy makers, journalists and others for a discourse on world affairs. Until recently Sam served as Camden Conference Program Committee Booklist Editor.

Those of us who had the pleasure of working with Sam over the last three decades found that behind his great trove of knowledge lay a supremely generous soul. He never said no to any request; he always endeavored to help a researcher, author or strategist see an issue from many perspectives, and he’d frequently get back to you hours or days later with follow-up comment. As an indication of his intellectual generosity, those he helped will long remember the question he liked to interject in a conversation about theory and practice. “Well what do you think?” Sam, we’ll truly miss you.

No remembrance of Sam Felton would be complete without a mention of his extraordinary athletic achievements. He competed for the United States in two Olympics, winning fourth place in the hammer throw in 1948 and 15th place in 1952. As an undergraduate at Harvard University he was an outstanding track and field athlete, winning the NCAA hammer throw in 1948. After graduation he became the AAU hammer throw champion from 1949-51.

Note

1. Samuel Felton and William Finnie, Strategy & Leadership, “Knowledge is today’s capital: Strategy & Leadership interviews Thomas A. Stewart,” Vol. 31, No. 2, 2003.

Corresponding author

Liam Fahey can be contacted at: Liam.Fahey@leadershipforuminc.com

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