Strategy Totally Explained

Everything about Strategy totally explained

A Strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. Strategies are used to make the problem easier to understand and solve.
The word derives from the Greek word stratēgos, which derives from two words: stratos (army) and ago (ancient Greek for leading). Stratēgos referred to a 'military commander' during the age of Athenian Democracy.

Interpretation

Strategy is about choice, which affects outcomes. Organizations can often survive -- indeed do well -- for periods of time in conditions of relative stability, low environmental turbulence and little competition for resources. Virtually none of these conditions prevail in the modern world for great lengths of time for any organization or sector, public or private. Hence, the rationale for strategic management. The nature of the strategy adopted and implemented emerges from a combination of the structure of the organization (loosely coupled or tightly coupled), the type of resources available and the nature of the coupling it has with environment and the strategic objective being pursued. Strategy is adaptable by nature rather than rigid set of instructions. In some situations it takes the nature of emergent strategy. The simplest explanation of this is the analogy of a sports scenario. If a football team were to organize a plan in which the ball is passed in a particular sequence between specifically positioned players, their success is dependent on each of those players both being present at the exact location, and remembering exactly when, from whom and to whom the ball is to be passed; moreover that no interruption to the sequence occurs. By comparison, if the team were to simplify this plan to a strategy where the ball is passed in the pattern alone, between any of the team, and at any area on the field, then their vulnerability to variables is greatly reduced, and the opportunity to operate in that manner occurs far more often. This manner is a strategy. In the field of business administration it's possible mention to the "strategic consistency." According to Arieu (2007), "there is strategic consistency when the actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in turn are with the market and the context."

Noted texts on strategy

Classic texts such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War, written in China 2,500 years ago, the political strategy of Machiavelli who wrote The Prince in 1513, or German military strategists such as Clausewitz in the nineteenth century, are still well known and highly influential. Today, we acknowledge the profound influence of John Boyd (military strategist), though he tends only to be known by the military and students of modern strategic theory. In the twentieth century, the subject of strategic management has been particularly applied to organisations, most typically to business firms and corporations.
The nature of historic texts differs greatly from area to area, and given the nature of strategy itself, there are some potential parallels between various forms of strategy (noting, for example, the popularity of the Art of War as a business book). Each domain generally has its own foundational texts, as well as more recent contributions to new applications of strategy. Some of these are:

Political strategy
- The Prince, published in 1532 by Niccolò Machiavelli
- Arthashastra, written in the 4th century BC by Chanakya
- The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione
Military strategy:
- The Art of War, written in the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu
- Strategikon, written in the 6th century AC by the Byzantine emperor Maurice
- Taktikon, by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise
- On War, by Carl von Clausewitz (19th century)
- Strategy, by Basil Liddell Hart
- On Guerrilla Warfare, by Mao Zedong
- The Influence of Sea Power upon History, by Alfred Thayer Mahan
- The Air Campaign, by Colonel John A. Warden, III
- Makers of Modern Strategy edited by Peter Paret
- Strategy written by Edward N. Luttwak
Economic strategy
- General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes
Business strategy
- Competitive Strategy, by Michael Porter
- Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy and Strategy Concept II: Another Look at Why Organizations Need Strategies, by Henry Mintzberg
- Winning In FastTime by John A. Warden, III and Leland A. Russell, 2002.
General strategy
- Strategy Safari, by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel.
- Political Strategy and Tactics by Laure Paquette
Strategic Theory
- Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd by Frans Osinga
- Strategy generative by Jean-Paul Charnay
- Strategy and Ethnic Conflict by Laure Paquette
Others
- Marcel Détienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, Les Ruses de l'intelligence, Paris: Flammarion, 1993 (on the role of the Greek Metis)

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