Strategy is a useful concept

There are various interrelated concepts that include a strategic policy that takes a long-term view and focuses on medium to long-term implications. It emphasizes outcomes and the relationship between outputs and outcomes. Strategic planning examines external trends and forces that affect the community. Strategic management is concerned with getting alignment between the organization and external forces. Strategic thinking requires intuition and creativity to formulate a vision of where the organization should be heading. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions that shape the nature and direction of the organization, within legislative bounds.

Strategy is a useful concept, even in all its many variations. Strategic planning is a useful tool, of help in managing the enterprise, especially if the strategy and strategic plans can be successfully deployed throughout the organization. Thinking and managing strategically are important aspects of senior managers’ responsibilities, too. All these are part of what it takes to manage the enterprise. None of them is enough.  For most established firms, this can easily amount to 80 percent of the action. In other words, “strategic is-sues,” regardless of their importance, typically consume no more than 20 per-cent of the organization’s resources (although they frequently command 80 percent of top management’s time and attention). To paraphrase an old saw, “The strategy wheel gets the executive grease.” This is as it should be. Senior management should focus on the strategic issues, on the important issues facing the business, including where it is headed and what it will or should become. Others can “mind the store.” (Grant & Jordan, 2015).

References

Grant, R. M., & Jordan J. (2015). Foundations of strategy [PowerPoint slides]. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Mauboussin, M. J. (2014). The True Measures of Success. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/10/the-true-measures-of-success.