Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves

advantages in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and

competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations.

Five Definitions

A consciously and purposefully developed plan;

A ploy to outmaneuver a competitor,
A pattern in a stream of actions, whether intended or not;
A position defined either with respect to a competitor, in a context of a number of
competitors, or with respect to market; and as
A perspective, i.e. a certain mindset of how to perceive the world. Henry Mintzberg,
(1987)

Strategy as Plan

To any one who want to ask, strategy is a plan- some sort of a guideline to deal with a
condition. A child use strategy to cross a fence, a company has to capture market.
Understanding these strategy has two characteristics: they are made in advance of the actions
to which they apply, and they are developed intentionally and purposefully. To Drucker,
strategy is purposeful action; to Moore design for action, in essence, conception
preceding action.

In military strategy deals with preparing the plan of war, shaping the individual war
and within these, deciding the individual actions.
In game strategy is a complete plan which indicates what alternatives player must
make to deal with all situations.
In management strategy is unified, complete, and combined plan to achieve the
enterprise objectives.

Strategies as Plan might be general or specific. When Ryan air was facing the bankruptcy in
the early 90s they were following plan of action to change the business model from standard
airline to Southwests no frills business model. Jan Rivkin vividly explain how top management
of ryan air used four alternative plans of action to end the bankruptcy: 1) become southwest
airline of Europe, 2) they add business class, 3) become a feeder airline working from
Shannons airport, 4) exit exit the industry. It gives the different business model a new logic
of firm and how it generates value for its stakeholders. Casadesus-Masanell (2010)

In summary strategy state the contingent plan as which business model will be used. It means
strategy contain provisions as to what to do even for contingencies that not take place.

Strategy as Perspective
While the fifth definition looks inside the organization, its content involving not just of a
chosen situation, but of a rooted way of understanding the world. Some organizations create
new technologies and exploiting new markets other build the protective shell in stable
established markets on the basis of political influence. Philip Selznick define the character of
organizations commitments to way of acting and responding that are built on it.
Psychologists define the person mental frame, cognitive structure and other patterns to
experience the world, as indicates in the words of Weltanschauug, perspective is shared by
the members of an organization, through their intentions and actions. We are entering the
territory of the collective mind- persons who have common thinking and behavior. The issue
is how to read that collective mind to understand how goals diffuse through the system
known as organization how actions come to exercised. Boal, K. B (2000)

Organic perspective which combines the perceptions and rationality of the mechanistic
perspective with the more related idea. The Organic perspective provides improved, united
and better view on strategy core matters. Farjoun, M. (2002)

Approach or a Framework or something Else

According to Whittington, for classicists profitability is the main goal of business and rational
planning to get it. Classical strategy based on profit. In his biography My Years with General
Motors he said:
The strategic aim of a business is to earn a return on capital, and if in any particular case the
return in the long run is not satisfactory, the deficiency should be corrected or the activity
abandoned. (1963:49)

Classical approach demands to be ready and use profit maximizing strategies through rational
planning.

On the other hand, evolutionary approaches do not stick on to the upper management skills
and rationality, they believe that market will determine the profit and not managers.
Whatever methods the managers will adopt; the best performance will be the ones that
survive. (Einhorn and Hogarth 1988:114).

Processual approaches also do not subscribe to rational strategy-making forwarded by

Classical approach. However, they do not agree with the evolutionary perspective either of
leaving the profit-maximizing outcomes to the market. To them, organizations and markets
are wrought with confusion and mess. The best Processual method is not to strive for the
ideal but to work with what the reality offers.

Systemic theorists believe that the organization is capable of planning and acting effectively.
According to them economic activity cannot be separated from social relations such as family,
state or religion. These social factors influence the the means and ends of a systemic approach
and define what is the suitable behavior for their members.

As leaders, designers, and innovators, our role is not only to solve problems,
but also to shape our world. To accomplish this, we must not only design
the methods and approaches people will use to solve problems, but also renew
the ways in which we interact with and educate our students. G.P. Peterson

The Strategic Framework is a comprehensive picture of the organization's strategy. It clarifies

how individual efforts and team projects can be connected to achieve the best outcome. It
includes meaningful target measures and a sequence of activities that help focus on the key
efforts that implement the strategy.

Companies whose employees understand the mission and goals enjoy a 29 percent greater
return than other firms (Watson Wyatt Work Study)

With aim to implementing framework research was conducted on two international hotel
groups and found the conceptual frame work found to be very useful when implementing
strategic decisions. Okumus, F. (2001)

So Strategy is not the mission its the plan that allows the company to accomplish the
mission.

Conclusion

After the study of all definitions, approaches, research studies I can easily elaborate there is
no Universal definition available which defines the strategy as Economist said Nobody really
knows what strategy is.

Word Counts 1012

References

Henry Mintzberg, "Five Ps for Strategy" in The Strategy Process, pp 12-19, H Mintzberg and
JB Quinn eds., 1992, Prentice-Hall International Editions, Englewood Cliffs NJ.

Casadesus-Masanell, R., & Ricart, J. E. (2010). From strategy to business models and onto
tactics. Long range planning, 43(2), 195-215.

Boal, K. B., & Hooijberg, R. (2000). Strategic leadership research: Moving on. The Leadership
Quarterly, 11(4), 515-549.

Okumus, F. (2001). Towards a strategy implementation framework. International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality Management, 13(7), 327-338.