What is strategy?

For many, strategy is a "fluffy" term and is defined in many different ways. The word originates from the art of campaigning, where in the old days it was about the military means of power in relation to political goals.

Translated to today, we can say that strategy is about having a goal, knowing where we're coming from, having a plan that takes us from our starting point to our destination.

In the MakeMyStrategy™ tool, we work by this definition:

"The path to the goal – through a pattern of actions that create competitiveness and added value"

Source: "Strategy in winning companies"

However, the concept of strategy must never stand alone. Strategy is linked to related concepts such as vision, mission, focus areas and activity plans / action plans.

Henry Mintzberg is a management theorist and he believes that we must understand the concept of strategy more nuanced and has therefore categorized the following five perspectives, which cannot stand alone, but which compliment each other.

The five perspectives are

  1. a plan
  2. a pattern
  3. position
  4. perspective
  5. trick

The strategy work is a balancing act because if the direction and associated activity plans are too locked, changes in our surroundings can cause the company to become unbalanced and have difficulty maintaining the competitive force. Similarly, a lack or too weak direction and inadequate activity plans can mean that the company "sails" out there – like a boat at sea without rudders and without charts. Therefore, it is a balancing act between creating clear direction and focus in our activities, while at the same time having an eye for important issues that give rise to improvement, renewal and change. In other words, we must be able to easily change our strategic plan as reality changes.

Great to have a facility we can tap into when it suits us

John Helt

CEO

WeITglobal

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