10/22/2019 Strategy - Wikipedia

Strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία stratēgia, "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship"[1]) is a high
level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art of the general," which
included several subsets of skills including tactics, siegecraft, logistics etc., the term came into use in the 6th century C.E.
in East Roman terminology, and was translated into Western vernacular languages only in the 18th century. From then
until the 20th century, the word "strategy" came to denote "a comprehensive way to try to pursue political ends, including
the threat or actual use of force, in a dialectic of wills" in a military conflict, in which both adversaries interact.[2]

Strategy is important because the resources available to achieve these goals are usually limited. Strategy generally involves
setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions.[3] A strategy
describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources). Strategy can be intended or can emerge as a
pattern of activity as the organization adapts to its environment or competes.[4] It involves activities such as strategic
planning and strategic thinking.[5]

Henry Mintzberg from McGill University defined strategy as a pattern in a stream of decisions to contrast with a view of
strategy as planning,[6] while Henrik von Scheel defines the essence of strategy as the activities to deliver a unique mix of
value – choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals.[7] while Max McKeown
(2011) argues that "strategy is about shaping the future" and is the human attempt to get to "desirable ends with available
means". Dr. Vladimir Kvint defines strategy as "a system of finding, formulating, and developing a doctrine that will
ensure long-term success if followed faithfully."[8] Complexity theorists define strategy as the unfolding of the internal and
external aspects of the organization that results in actions in a socio-economic context.[9][10][11]

Contents
Components of strategy
Formulating and implementing strategy
Military theory
Management theory
Strategies in game theory
Counterterrorism Strategy
See also
Further reading
References
External links

Components of strategy
Professor Richard P. Rumelt described strategy as a type of problem solving in 2011. He wrote that good strategy has an
underlying structure he called a kernel. The kernel has three parts: 1) A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of the
challenge; 2) A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge; and 3) Coherent actions designed to carry out the guiding

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policy.[12] President Kennedy illustrated these three elements of strategy in his Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation
of 22 October 1962:

1. Diagnosis: "This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on
the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive
missile sites are now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to
provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere."
2. Guiding Policy: "Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to prevent the use of these missiles against this or any
other country, and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western Hemisphere."
3. Action Plans: First among seven numbered steps was the following: "To halt this offensive buildup a strict quarantine
on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba
from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back."[13]
Rumelt wrote in 2011 that three important aspects of strategy include "premeditation, the anticipation of others' behavior,
and the purposeful design of coordinated actions." He described strategy as solving a design problem, with trade-offs
among various elements that must be arranged, adjusted and coordinated, rather than a plan or choice.[12]

Formulating and implementing strategy

Strategy typically involves two major processes: formulation and implementation. Formulation involves analyzing the
environment or situation, making a diagnosis, and developing guiding policies. It includes such activities as strategic
planning and strategic thinking. Implementation refers to the action plans taken to achieve the goals established by the
guiding policy.[5][12]

Bruce Henderson wrote in 1981 that: "Strategy depends upon the ability to foresee future consequences of present
initiatives." He wrote that the basic requirements for strategy development include, among other factors: 1) extensive
knowledge about the environment, market and competitors; 2) ability to examine this knowledge as an interactive
dynamic system; and 3) the imagination and logic to choose between specific alternatives. Henderson wrote that strategy
was valuable because of: "finite resources, uncertainty about an adversary's capability and intentions; the irreversible
commitment of resources; necessity of coordinating action over time and distance; uncertainty about control of the
initiative; and the nature of adversaries' mutual perceptions of each other."[14]

Military theory
In military theory, strategy is "the utilization during both peace and war, of all of the
nation's forces, through large scale, long-range planning and development, to ensure Subordinating the political
point of view to the military
security and victory" (Random House Dictionary).[6]
would be absurd, for it is
policy that has created
The father of Western modern strategic study, Carl von Clausewitz, defined military war...Policy is the guiding
strategy as "the employment of battles to gain the end of war." B. H. Liddell Hart's intelligence, and war only
definition put less emphasis on battles, defining strategy as "the art of distributing the instrument, not vice-
versa.
and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy".[15] Hence, both gave the
On War by Carl von
pre-eminence to political aims over military goals. U.S. Naval War College instructor
Clausewitz
Andrew Wilson defined strategy as the "process by which political purpose is
translated into military action."[16] Lawrence Freedman defined strategy as the "art
of creating power."[17]

Eastern military philosophy dates back much further, with examples such as The Art of War by Sun Tzu dated around 500
B.C.[18]

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Management theory
Modern business strategy emerged as a field of study and practice
in the 1960s; prior to that time, the words "strategy" and The essence of formulating competitive
strategy is relating a company to its
"competition" rarely appeared in the most prominent management environment.
literature.[20][21] Alfred Chandler wrote in 1962 that: "Strategy is
Michael Porter[19]
the determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and
the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources
necessary for carrying out these goals."[22] Michael Porter defined
strategy in 1980 as the "...broad formula for how a business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what
policies will be needed to carry out those goals" and the "...combination of the ends (goals) for which the firm is striving
and the means (policies) by which it is seeking to get there."[19]

Henry Mintzberg described five definitions of strategy in 1998:

Strategy as plan – a directed course of action to achieve an intended set of goals; similar to the strategic planning
concept;
Strategy as pattern – a consistent pattern of past behavior, with a strategy realized over time rather than planned or
intended. Where the realized pattern was different from the intent, he referred to the strategy as emergent;
Strategy as position – locating brands, products, or companies within the market, based on the conceptual framework
of consumers or other stakeholders; a strategy determined primarily by factors outside the firm;
Strategy as ploy – a specific maneuver intended to outwit a competitor; and
Strategy as perspective – executing strategy based on a "theory of the business" or natural extension of the mindset
or ideological perspective of the organization.[23]

Strategies in game theory

In game theory, a strategy refers to the rules that a player uses to choose between the available actionable options. Every
player in a non-trivial game has a set of possible strategies to use when choosing what moves to make.

A strategy may recursively look ahead and consider what actions can happen in each contingent state of the game—e.g. if
the player takes action 1, then that presents the opponent with a certain situation, which might be good or bad, whereas if
the player takes action 2 then the opponents will be presented with a different situation, and in each case the choices they
make will determine their own future situation.

Strategies in game theory may be random (mixed) or deterministic (pure). Pure strategies can be thought of as a special
case of mixed strategies, in which only probabilities 0 or 1 are assigned to actions.

Strategy based games generally require a player to think through a sequence of solutions to determine the best way to
defeat the opponent.

Counterterrorism Strategy
Because counterterrorism involves the synchronized efforts of numerous competing bureaucratic entities, national
governments frequently create overarching counterterrorism strategies at the national level.[24] A national
counterterrorism strategy is a government’s plan to use the instruments of national power to neutralize terrorists, their
organizations, and their networks in order to render them incapable of using violence to instill fear and to coerce the
government or its citizens to react in accordance with the terrorists’ goals.[24] The United States has had several such
strategies in the past, including the United States National Strategy for Counterterrorism (2018);[25] the Obama-era
National Strategy for Counterterrorism (2011); and the National Strategy for Combatting Terrorism (2003). There have

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also been a number of ancillary or supporting plans, such as the 2014 Strategy to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant, and the 2016 Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism
in the United States.[24] Similarly, the United Kingdom's counterterrorism strategy, CONTEST, seeks "to reduce the risk to
the UK and its citizens and interests overseas from terrorism, so that people can go about their lives freely and with
confidence."[26]

See also
Concept Driven Strategy
Odds algorithm (odds strategy)
Strategy game
Strategy pattern
Strategic planning
Strategic management
Strategist
Strategy Markup Language

Further reading
Burgleman, James. Strategy is Destiny (2002): Strategy Is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company's
Future (https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Is-Destiny-Strategy-Making-Companys/dp/0684855542)
Freedman, Lawrence. Strategy: A History (2013): Strategy: A History 1st Edition (https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-A
-History-Lawrence-Freedman/dp/0199325154/)
Heuser, Beatrice. The Evolution of Strategy (2010): The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the
Present (https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Strategy-Thinking-Antiquity-Present/dp/052115524X/ref=sr_1_1?s=book
s&ie=UTF8&qid=1409208658&sr=1-1&keywords=Beatrice+Heuser+Evolution+of+Strategy#reader_052115524X)
Kvint, Vladimir. Strategy for the Global Market: Theory and Practical Applications (2016): Excerpt from Google Books
(https://books.google.com/books?id=mb5n8O9y6YIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Vladimir+Kvint&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HNP
AUpnZKPOssQSinYDgDQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Vladimir%20Kvint&f=false/)

References
1. στρατηγία (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dstrathgi%
2Fa), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
2. Freedman, Lawrence (2013). Strategy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-932515-3.
3. Freedman, L 2015 Strategy: a history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Freedman, L 2015 Strategy: a history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Mintzberg, Henry and, Quinn, James Brian (1996). The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases. Prentice Hall.
ISBN 978-0-132-340304.
6. Henry Mintzberg (May 1978). "Patterns in Strategy Formation" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131019210811/http://fa
culty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charlesw/LongStrat2010/papers/class%2010/Patterns%20of%20Strategy%20Formulation.pdf)
(PDF). Management Science. 24 (9): 934–48. doi:10.1287/mnsc.24.9.934
(https://doi.org/10.1287%2Fmnsc.24.9.934). Archived from the original (http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charlesw/Long
Strat2010/papers/class%2010/Patterns%20of%20Strategy%20Formulation.pdf) (PDF) on 19 October 2013. Retrieved
31 August 2012.
7. Henrik von Scheel and Prof Mark von Rosing. Importance of a Business Model (pp. 23–54). Applying real-world BPM
in an SAP environment. ISBN 978-1-59229-877-8
8. Kvint, Vladimir (2009). The Global Emerging Market: Strategic Management and Economics (https://books.google.co
m/?id=mb5n8O9y6YIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+global+emerging+market#v=onepage&q=the%20global%20eme
rging%20market&f=false). Routeledge. ISBN 9780203882917.
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9. Stacey, R. D. (1995). "The science of complexity – an alter-native perspective for strategic change processes".
Strategic Management Journal. 16 (6): 477–95. doi:10.1002/smj.4250160606 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fsmj.425016
0606).
10. Terra, L. A. A.; Passador, J. L. (2016). "Symbiotic Dynamic: The Strategic Problem from the Perspective of
Complexity". Systems Research and Behavioral Science. 33 (2): 235–48. doi:10.1002/sres.2379 (https://doi.org/10.10
02%2Fsres.2379).
11. Morin, E. (2005). Introduction à la pensée complexe. Paris: Éditionsdu Seuil.
12. Rumelt, Richard P. (2011). Good Strategy/Bad Strategy (https://archive.org/details/goodstrategybads00rume). Crown
Business. ISBN 978-0-307-88623-1.
13. "American Rhetoric: John F. Kennedy – Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation" (http://www.americanrhetoric.co
m/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html).
14. Henderson, Bruce (1 January 1981). "The Concept of Strategy" (https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/Classics/st
rategy_concept_of_strategy/). Boston Consulting Group. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
15. Liddell Hart, B. H. Strategy London: Faber, 1967 (2nd rev ed.) p. 321
16. Wilson, Andrew (2012). Masters of War: History's Greatest Strategic Thinkers. The Teaching Company.
17. Freedman, Lawrence. Strategy : a history (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/858282187). Oxford. ISBN 9780199349906.
OCLC 858282187 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/858282187).
18. G ,L The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Special Edition Books. 2007.
19. Porter, Michael E. (1980). Competitive Strategy. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-684-84148-9.
20. Kiechel, Walter (2010). The Lords of Strategy. Harvard Business Press. ISBN 978-1-59139-782-3.
21. Ghemawat, Pankaj (Spring 2002). "Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective". Business History
Review. SSRN 264528 (https://ssrn.com/abstract=264528).
22. Chandler, Alfred Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the history of industrial enterprise, Doubleday, New York, 1962.
23. Mintzberg, H. Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J. Strategy Safari : A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic
Management, The Free Press, New York, 1998.
24. Stigall, Dan E.; Miller, Chris; Donnatucci, Lauren (7 October 2019). "The 2018 U.S. National Strategy for
Counterterrorism: A Synoptic Overview" (https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3466967). American University National
Security Law Brief. Washington DC – via SSRN.
25. "2018 U.S. National Strategy for Counterterrorism" (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NSCT.p
df) (PDF). White House. October 2018. Archived (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NSCT.pd
f) (PDF) from the original on |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help).
26. "Counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) 2018" (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counter-terrorism-strateg
y-contest-2018). GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 October 2019.

External links
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