Abstract
Contemporary strategic management models appear to include two striking paradoxes. First, strategies are assumed to emanate from the centre of firms (most often referring to the upper echelons). However, in reality the centre often opposes strategy change and creation and peripheral sections play the active and primary role. An examination of successful strategies in several Swedish multinational corporations (MNCs) reveals that peripheral sections were decisive for the strategies, while the corporate centres opposed them. A case that illustrates this is the development of the blockbuster drug Losee by Astra (Johanson and Vahlne 1992). It was developed by a peripheral section of Astra against the will of corporate management. A second anomaly is that factors peripheral to and outside a company’s traditional industry and resource spheres often play a crucial role in the creation of new strategies.