Demystifying Strategy in Brief

What is Strategy?

A strategy is a set of guiding principles when communicated and eventually adopted in an organisation, generate the desired pattern of decision making. A strategy is therefore about how people throughout the organisation should make decisions and allocate various resources in order to accomplish key objectives. A good strategy provides a transparent clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles or rules, that define the actions employees in the business should take (and or not take) and the things they should prioritise (and or not prioritise) to achieve the desired goals.

So a strategy is just one element of the overall strategic direction that leaders must define for their organisation.

What Strategy is NOT:

A strategy is not a mission, which is what the organisation’s leaders want it to accomplish; missions get elaborated into specific goals and performance metrics.

A strategy is also not the value network — the web of relationships with suppliers, customers, employees, and investors within which the business co-creates and captures economic value. A strategy is not a vision, which is an inspiring portrait of what it will look and feel like to pursue and achieve the organisation’s mission and goals. Visioning is part of what leaders do to motivate employees in an organisation — the ability to plan something for the future.

Therefore in a nutshell, a strategy is about how resources should be allocated to accomplish the mission in the context of the value network. Incentives and vision are about why employees in the organisation should feel motivated to perform at a very high level. All combined, the mission, network, strategy and vision define the strategic direction for a business. They provide the what, who, how and why necessary to align the goals and action in organisations.

Every organisation needs a strategy.

Don’t forget to give me your 👏 !

For more ‘exclusive content’, please join my Patreon https://patreon.com/PMAdvisory