Perspectives on Strategy

Shu Wei Wong - Oct 04, 2007

The word strategy is derived from the Greek word “strategos”, which is in turn, derived from 2 words: stratos - meaning army and ago - meaning leading. Strategos also referred to a ‘military commander’ during the age of the Athenian Democracy.

Besides the war/military inspired definition, strategy is simply known as a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often a "winning" one. Specifically, strategy is a pattern of major objectives and goals and the essential policies and plans for achieving these goals.

Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions as it is extensively premeditated, due to the heavy investment in planning involved and is often practically rehearsed.

For a organisation, strategy is a match between its internal self and its external environment. A strategic plan is only successful if there is alignment in the internal goals with the environment that the organisation is operating in.

The perspectives on strategy can come in many facades. Firstly, it is planned and analytical as issues need to be thoroughly analysed and assessed before decisions can be made. Secondly, strategy encompasses stretched goals. It should be visionary at least and seeks to inspire. A company is looking at its 5 year strategic plan and it should have stretched goals to reach which would have strong incremental power on the company. Of course, not being inspiring would only make your strategy as exciting as canoeing in calm water, when it could be a thrilling white water raft ride.

Lastly, strategy should hold energy and be embraced with opportunism and flexibility. The dynamism of the external environment means that there is a need for flexibility in formulating the strategy. The strategy need to be tweaked and finetuned along the way if the external environment changes, as well as if the internal environment of the organisation changes.

Shu Wei Wong works as a planner/strategist. She writes just about anything that interest her or writes on issues highly related to her field of work, especially on strategy and leadership. Find more of her thoughts at http://360strategyleadership.blogspot.com/