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home • JUL 27, 2023

What is Strategy?

Every battle is won before it is fought.
Sun Tzu

The discipline of strategy inherits from a lineage of generals of war. Just like sending a man to the moon develops technology that enables many civilian applications, once conceptually clarified and grasped, you can deploy strategy at multiple layers in daily life.

However, what strategy is seems to depend on who you ask. Almost every business leader and university professor comes up with his own narrative about what strategy is. I have been studying the subject for a while trying to sift through the ideas. The best encapsulation of the idea — for me — came from Richard Rumelt.

A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to — and approach for overcoming — the obstacles to progress.
The heart of a good strategy is insight — into the true nature of the situation, into the hidden power in a situation and into an appropriate response.
Richard Rumelt

Let’s look at the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of strategy:

Strategy
A careful plan or method: a clever stratagem. The art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal.

Stratagem
An artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy. A cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end.

Overcoming the obstacles is the goal — the path to progress. Of course, the obstacles depend on what you are trying to accomplish — that is in the territory of purpose. Arriving at your purpose is not strategy but leadership. The job of strategy is to find ways of overcoming obstacles that stand in your way in pursuing your purpose.

There are elements of insight and cleverness involved. In almost all cases, there is an enemy and confusion. Your aim is victory over the enemy. There is a need for leadership, skill and judgement.

The task of strategy is to gain clarity and plan action.