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A 'strategy' is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed.
The word derives from the Greek word ''stratēgos'', which derives from two words: ''stratos'' (army) and ''ago'' (ancient Greek for leading). ''Stratēgos'' referred to a 'military commander' during the age of Athenian Democracy.

Contents

Interpretation

Application

Noted Texts On Strategy

See also

Notes

External Links

Interpretation

Strategy is adaptable by nature rather than a rigid set of instructions. The simplest explanation of this is the analogy of a sports scenario. If a football team were to organize a plan in which the ball is passed in a particular sequence between specifically positioned players, their success is dependent on each of those players both being present at the exact location, and remembering exactly when, from whom and to whom the ball is to be passed; moreover that no interruption to the sequence occurs. By comparison, if the team were to simplify this plan to a strategy where the ball is passed in the pattern alone, between any of the team, and at any area on the field, then their vulnerability to variables is greatly reduced, and the opportunity to operate in that manner occurs far more often. This manner is a strategy.
Strategy may be practiced by the strong or by the weak. But the practice of strategy by the weak or the underdog was excluded from philosophical discourse by Aristotle, who dismissed it as 'the way of thinking of women and the vanquished.'

Application

Originally confined to military matters, the word has become commonly used in many disparate fields, such as:

★ Strategic management (or Business Strategy)

★ Economic strategy

★ Geostrategy

★
★ Grand strategy

★
★ Military strategy

★ Marketing strategies

★ Trading strategy

★ Technology strategy

★ Digital strategy

★ Political strategy

★ Game theoretical strategy

★
★ Chess strategy

Noted Texts On Strategy

The nature of historic texts differs greatly from area to area, and given the nature of strategy itself, there are some potential parallels between various forms of strategy (noting, for example, the popularity of the ''Art of War'' as a business book). Each domain generally has its own foundational texts, as well as more recent contributions to new applications of strategy. Some of these are:

★ Political strategy

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★ ''The Prince'', published in 1532 by Niccolò Machiavelli

★
★ ''Arthashastra'', written in the 4th century BC by Chanakya

★
★ ''The Book of the Courtier'' by Baldassare Castiglione

★ Military strategy:

★
★ ''The Art of War'', written in the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu

★
★ ''Strategikon'', written in the 6th century AC by the Byzantine emperor Maurice

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★ ''Taktikon'', by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise

★
★ ''On War'', by Carl von Clausewitz (19th century)

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★ ''Strategy'', by Basil Liddell Hart

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★ ''On Guerrilla Warfare'', by Mao Zedong

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★ ''The Influence of Sea Power upon History'', by Alfred Thayer Mahan

★
★ ''The Air Campaign'', by Colonel John A. Warden, III

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★ Makers of Modern Strategy edited by Peter Paret

★
★ Strategy written by Edward N. Luttwak

★ Economic strategy

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★ ''General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money'', published in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes

★ Business strategy

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★ ''Competitive Strategy'', by Michael Porter

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★ ''Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy'' and ''Strategy Concept II: Another Look at Why Organizations Need Strategies'', by Henry Mintzberg

★
★ ''Winning In FastTime'' by John A. Warden, III and Leland A. Russell, 2002.

★ General strategy

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★ ''Strategy Safari'', by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel.

★
★ ''Political Strategy and Tactics'' by Laure Paquette

★ Strategic Theory

★
★ ''Strategy generative'' by Jean-Paul Charnay

★
★ ''Strategy and Ethnic Conflict'' by Laure Paquette

★ Others

★
★ Marcel Détienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, ''Les Ruses de l'intelligence'', Paris: Flammarion, 1993 (on the role of the Greek ''Metis'')

See also

★ American football strategy

★ Board of directors

★ Military tactics

★ Morphological analysis

★ Nuclear strategy

★ Plan

★ Planning

★ Poker strategy

★ Strategy game

★ Strategic planning

★ Strategic bombing

★ Strategy dynamics

★ Sustainable competitive advantage "Strategic advantage"

★ Synergy

★ Tennis strategy

★ Thought

Notes

External Links

★ for Strategic Innovation, see http://www.zooz.co.il/eng/marketing_article11.shtml

★ for underdog strategy, see http://www.lakeheadu.ca/~polisci/index.html

★ for strategy vs tactics, see Article on Strategy Vs Tactics

★ for business strategy, see http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm or http://www.strategyinstitute.com/