I have been thinking a lot about the word strategy and how often it gets used. It seems like everything today is tagged with the word strategy. For example, “We scheduled a strategic planning meeting for tomorrow,” or “an emergency product strategy session has been called,” or “we had our company’s yearly strategic business plan announced today.”
Strategy or the various forms of the word are very popular in our business vocabulary in the 21st century. I often wonder if the word is being properly allocated or overused, is it a verb or is it a noun, and do we say it complacently because it is a popular buzz word and it makes things sound more important…or do people say it because we really are thinking and acting in a more deliberate and focused way?
I am interested in what others think about the word strategy and what it actually means to them and their business activities. Is it something that is only done at the top of the corporate ladder or does it happen at other levels in the business too? Is it formal and deliberate, is it difficult and time-consuming, or can it be simple and applicable on an everyday basis?
Leave me your thoughts in the comments section below.
This is a good point. It seems that there are so many times I hear the word Strategy and never am sure what is meant by it. It could be a technique or a future thinking plan. Not sure who’s to decide on the final definition or if it’s up to us to ascribe the meaning that makes most sense to us in our circumstance.
Personally, when I talk about developing a strategy it means that I am seeking the big picture so that I can then get into the hows…which, by the way, I find come a lot easier once I have determined my strategy.
[...] Come learn more about CMOE’s Workshop on New Strategic Thinking. Also, click to read CMOE’s latest blog post: What Is Strategy? [...]
[...] Come learn more about CMOE’s Workshop on New Strategic Thinking. Also, click to read CMOE’s latest blog post: What Is Strategy? [...]
That is one thing I notice about the increased vocabulary of the English language and the diversity of businesses these days.
What one word may seem to one business can mean something entirely different to another business.
The same is true for the level of posistion one works in, whether it is at entry level or executive level.
Strategy for me seems to define a means to an end, successful or not.
The reason why I keep it that simple is because not all strategies succeed, some do fail.
Either way, the goal is to accomplish something instead of leaving it half-completed.
Strategy is simply a plan that drives / defines / articulates how an organization / person will allocate limited resources to achieve a goal.
There are different levels of strategy within a business organization. For example, the organization should have a defined “business strategy” for achieving marketplace success. The business strategy defines / drives how the organization will allocate its capital investment and operating resource dollars to develop competitive advantages and sustain long-term profitability.
A business organization should also have “operational strategies” that express how resources will be allocated to achieve production and short-term profitability targets.
Key points that are needed in expressing a good strategy include:
– a definition of the target destination (i.e. end-state vision)
– a definition of how the organization plans to reach its target destination (e.g., strategic objectives, strategic roadmap)
– the reasoning of why the organization / person will be successful by reaching its target destination and why the organization / person will be successful executing the plan
If you have any questions, just drop me an email.