<\/p>\nStrategy is something that people spend a lot of time talking about and numerous books have been written about it. Yet, it is something that many people don\u2019t understand well.<\/p>\n
When asked to define strategy, many people either get stuck or give a long complex response that demonstrates they don\u2019t know how to express what strategy is. Often they confuse strategy and tactics.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Simply put, strategy is a plan to achieve a long-term goal. This means strategy requires two things \u2013 a long-term goal and a plan to achieve it. In other words: \u201cwhere we want to go and how we want to get there\u201d.<\/p>\n
There is nothing mysterious about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncrease sales by 20%\u201d is not a strategy \u2013 it\u2019s just an objective. The important part that many leaders forget is the \u201chow\u201d. If your strategy doesn\u2019t spell out the \u201chow\u201d \u2026you\u2019ve an issue.<\/p>\n
When it comes to crafting strategy there are many different approaches. They range from the upfront analysis approach of what Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel call the \u201cdesign school\u201d to the \u201clearning school\u201d that involves learning as you go and modifying tactics \u2013 which focus on the immediate \u2013 in much the same way as a Mississippi Steamboat Captain did while navigating to the sea down an ever changing river.<\/p>\n
The best strategies tend to result when leaders combine approaches, using some analysis on how to best leverage their organization\u2019s capabilities while retaining the flexibility to allow strategic learning to influence strategy. Accordingly, excellent organizations should review and refine their thinking to ensure that realized strategy doesn\u2019t overlook any strategic learning.<\/p>\n
For more information on the various schools see Strategy Safari<\/strong> by Mintzberg et al. \u2026it gives a comprehensive overview of the various approaches and their pros and cons.<\/p>\n Strategy is something that people spend a lot of time talking about and numerous books have been written about it. Yet, it is something that many people don\u2019t understand well. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excellence","category-strategy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessexcellence.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Amazon.com<\/a><\/h2>\n
Amazon.com<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"