What Is A Strategy

What is a Strategy?
A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a specific goal.

SmartNotes
1.
fig. 1 Strategy Map
Example of a strategy map for a public-sector organization, showing how various goals are linked and providing trajectories for achieving these goals.
KEY POINTS
Strategic management is a set of managerial decisions that determine the long termperformance of a business enterprise. Strategy entails: specifying the organization's mission, vision and objectives; developing policies and plans; and allocating resources to implement those policies and plans. Strategy is all about gaining a position of advantage over adversaries or best exploiting emerging possibilities.
TERMS
strategy A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal. strategic management The art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating crossfunctional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. balanced scorecard The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic performance management tool that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions. strategic goals a combination of the ends for which the firm is striving
EXAMPLES
A company may want to expand their current operations into a new field, say one that produces widgets. The company may develop a strategy that involves analyzing the widget industry and other businesses producing widgets, developing a goal for how to enter the market and differentiate from competitors' products. They would next establish a plan to determine if the approach is successful.
Defining Strategy
A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a specific goal. Strategy is all about gaining (or being prepared to gain) an advantage over adversaries or best exploiting emerging possibilities. As there is always an element of uncertainty about the future, strategy is more about determining and prioritizing a set of options ("strategic choices") rather than about crafting a fixed plan.
Strategic Management
Strategic management analyzes the major initiatives taken by a company's top management, usually involving resources and performance in external environments. The process entails:

Specifying the organization's mission, vision and objectives Developing policies and plans, often in terms of programs that are designed to achieve these objectives Allocating resources to implement the policies and plans
"Strategic management is an ongoing process that evaluates and controls the business and industries in which the company is involved. It assesses its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors. It then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine whether it has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy." (Lamb, 1984:ix) Strategic management can depend upon the size of an organization, and the proclivity to change the organization's business environment.
Keeping Score
A balanced scorecard is a tool used to evaluate a business's overall performance. Recent studies have advocated that strategy must start with stakeholders' expectations, then use a modified balanced scorecard that includes all stakeholders. Another way to keep score of a strategy is to visualize it using a strategy map. The media image Strategy Map provides an example of this approach. Figure 1
Building Sensitivity and EtiquetteThe Importance of Strategy
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Key Term Glossary
Strategic management:
The art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives.
APPEARS IN THIS RELATED CONCEPT:
Overview of Types of Plans
strategic management:
The art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives.

APPEARS IN THESE RELATED CONCEPTS:
What is a Strategy? Balance Score Cards
balanced scorecard:
The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic performance management tool that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions.
What is a Strategy?
organization:
A group of people or other legal entities with an explicit purpose and written rules.

Common Areas of Change Learning Culture Basic Types of Organizations Assessing and Restoring Equity
uncertainty:
Doubt; the condition of being uncertain or without conviction.

Responding to Uncertainty Overview of Types of Plans and Tools for Planning
environment:
The surroundings of, and influences on, a particular item of interest.

The Environment SWOT Analysis
performance:
The act of performing; carrying into execution or action; achievement; accomplishment; representation by action, as the performance of undertaking a duty.

Setting Goals and Providing Feedback Measuring Performance
objectives:
The goals of an organization.

Strategic Management Process: Five Steps to Strategy: An Overview Setting Objectives and Standards
developing:
Of a country: becoming economically more mature or advanced; becoming industrialized.
The World Bank
Management:
The act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.
Differences and Commonalities Between Management and Leadership
strategic:
Of or pertaining to strategy.
Transfers
implement:
to bring about; to put into practice.
Setting Goals and Providing Feedback
strategy:
A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal.

What is a Strategy? Fulfilling the Planning Function The Overall Strategy The Environment Life Cycle Planning Defined Making Strategy Effective
external:
Concerned with the public affairs of a company or other organization.

Internal and External Melding Internal and External Analyses
mission:
A set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer.
The Core Mission
vision:
An ideal or a goal toward which one aspires.

Levels of Control: Strategic, Tactical, & Operational The Overall Strategy
Vision:
A clear, distinctive, and specific vision of the future, usually connected with a leader's strategic advances for the organization.

Steps to Smooth Change: Kotter Overview of Types of Plans Vision
plan:
A set of intended actions, usually mutually related, through which one expects to achieve a goal.
Planning Defined
goal:
A result that one is attempting to achieve.

Check out our Boundless alternatives to the following textbooks: MKTG by Charles W. Lamb, Joe F. Hair, Carl McDaniel Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong Management: A Practical Introduction by Angelo Kinicki, Brian Williams Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller Marketing by William M. Pride, O. C. Ferrell
Fulfilling the Planning Function Goal-Setting Theory Setting Objectives
Sources
Exploring Management by John R. Schermerhorn MGMT5 by Chuck Williams Management: Leading & Collaborating in the Competitive World by Thomas Bateman, Scott Snell Management by Robert Kreitner, Charlene Cassidy Management by Richard L. Daft

What Is A Strategy

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What Is A Strategy

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What is a Strategy?

A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a specific goal.

fig. 1 Strategy Map

APPEARS IN THIS RELATED CONCEPT:

Overview of Types of Plans