Strategy: a simple definition
Strategy is your logic for success.
Strategy conjures many mental images. We imagine battles, generals and schemers. Board games like chess also come to mind. But what is strategy? Playing a computer game connected the dots for me, in a practical sense. Based on that, I’ve arrived at a concise definition of strategy.
Strategy — in theory
In an organizational context, strategy has become synonymous with many things. When we talk about strategy, a number of models like Porter’s 5 forces, SWOT, PESTLE and Roger Martin’s Strategy Cascade would spring to mind for some people. While these are time tested models, and relate to strategy for sure, we are still left wanting for precision.
To search for something more precise, we can look at some literal and popular definitions of strategy.
The Cambridge English dictionary defines strategy as:
- A detailed plan for achieving success in situations
- A way of doing, or dealing with, something
Being a dictionary definition, it shows how the term strategy is used everyday language. The issue with it is that it contains two parts — the two parts that are often conflated!
Strategy is often equated with high-level planning. Roger Martin’s viral video explains why this is not the case, and why a plan is not a strategy. Martin’s definition zeroes in on the core tension — choice:
an integrative set of choices that positions you on a battlefield of your choice, in a way that you win.
Richard Rumelt in his fantastic book Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, defines strategy with a more integrated manner:
The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action.
Renowned management thinker Henri Mintzberg takes are more temporal view, describing strategy as “a pattern in actions over time”.
The above definitions give a broad picture. But what really is strategy? What is its core essence? What does it really mean?
The answer started to form after playing a computer game, which in an ironically fitting way, was a strategy game.
Strategy — in action
I got firsthand experience of strategy playing Soccer Stars on Miniclip. It is a real-time game. Each team has five players (discs). Each disc can move in any direction, at any angle (including rebounds). The aim, like in soccer, is to score the most goals within the stipulated time.
There are other strategy games out there. The most popular one is chess. Chess is turn-based. In every turn, a piece has to be moved, as per piece rules. Soccer Stars is turn-based but not “turn and rule based” like chess. There are 1–2 sacrosanct rules like no scoring from kickoff. Outside that, everything is open to creativity. Indeed, it’s also possible to skip a turn i.e., do nothing, if we feel that is advantageous for us.
Strategy formulation is a broad canvas.
As Soccer Stars shows, in real world strategy, only a handful of laws that need to be adhered to. Outside of that, everything is dynamic and ripe for creative orchestration.
Depending on the opponent, we can play defensively or offensively. Each strategy has its pros and cons. Attack-oriented play has opportunity costs. Continual defence is also not viable because you have to score to win. The opponent also arrives with a strategy. Some are very aggressive, others defensive, while others are simply disruptive.
Just having the right plan is not enough. The moves we make, of the ball or disc, must have the required precision and power to be effective. The right plan with the wrong execution, can be very frustration, and hilarious even! Strategy is execution.
Strategy —in its distilled essence
Soccer Stars is challenging game, requiring rapid mental assessments and good motor skills to execute our intentions precisely. I was making and executing strategies in real time. I was also learning about what strategy fundamentally boils down to.
Strategy is logic.
Strategy is your logic.
Logic for success.
Let’s take the example of driving from A to B. The trip takes 30 minutes via the motorway in normal time. We can also go via the back-streets. That takes 40 minutes in normal time. If the motorway is blocked, taking the back-streets might become viable. Choice, win/success, diagnosis and pattern of action. All these elements combine to form our logic, or rationale for how we are going to do something and why.
Strategy is inseparable from execution. Since success is an outcome, the logic for success must incorporate both thought and action.
Based on this, we can expand our definition to make it more practical:
Strategy is your logic for success.
It’s how you’re going to do something — and why you’re doing it that way.
Based on my realization, the above is a precise definition. Anything less would not be adequate. Anything more, superfluous.
