The Merriam-Webster definition of strategy that best applies to business tells us that strategy is “a careful plan or method: a clever stratagem” or “the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal.” Even more specifically applied to business, Johnson and Scholes, in Exploring Corporate Strategy, define strategy as “the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term, which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations.”
In business, we think of strategy in multiple dimensions, but generally at the top level, most business thinkers divide strategy into business strategy and corporate strategy. Often, strategic business units will employ specific strategies that are different than, but often complement, a corporation’s strategy. Cascading down from the top level, we find functional-level strategy: marketing strategy, brand strategy, product strategy, IT strategy and so on. However, as we get to functional level strategy-making, we find that these “strategies” are most often supporting implementations of top-level strategy. One of the challenges of management is at least to make sure that they are.
Business Strategy concerns itself with what business the company competes in. It is externally focused in that it takes into account competitors, markets and the overall business environment.
Corporate Strategy involves the internal organization of the company, that is how to structure the corporate entity to maximize desired business outcomes.
As I develop this blog, I will develop various ways to understand, analyze and develop strategy, at the top level as well as functional levels. I will also provide resources and case studies.
