1 - The strategy concept

Summary

Learning points

1.  Discuss diverse strategy perspectives

2.  Trace the roots of strategic management

3.  Outline the analytical foundation of the field

4.  Provide a basis for further studies

Strategy is important. The term strategy or strategic is used every so often to give things a more imposing flair. Just think about terms such as strategic marketing, strategic operations, strategic human resource management, strategic finance, etc. So, something being “strategic” is supposed to indicate that this thing is more important than every other thing. How this came about is possibly worth a thought. After all, the academic field now commonly referred to as strategic management started out as something as mundane as “business policy.”

If we ask a group of intelligent people with managerial experience, say a class of MBA students, what their understanding of the term “strategy” is, a substantial portion of them will most likely answer: a plan. While this implies that strategy arises from conscious human deliberation, and that strategy makers think before they act, there are many other ways to interpret how strategy comes about. A reference from a prominent dictionary explains that strategy is “the art of planning operations in war, especially of the movement of armies and navies into favorable positions for fighting.” By comparison, a tactic is an “expedient; means of achieving an object”. A comparable source notes that strategy is “the art of planning and moving forces, etc. especially in war, politics, etc.” Or, strategy is “the science or art of military command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of large-scale combat operations” where a tactic is “an expedient for a goal; a maneuver.” The dictionary may also explain that strategy derives from the Greek word stratēgia, office of a general, and stratēgos, general.