On Strategy
Strategy is derived indirectly from the Greek strategos “general”, which does not carry the connotation of our modern word. The Greek equivalent for our strategy would have been strategon sophia or “general’s wisdom”.
Si vis pacem, para bellum. “If you want peace, prepare war” goes the Latin tag attributed to Roman wisdom. We are told that a prepared ability to fight dissuades attacks that weakness could invite, thereby averting war.
This blatant contradiction would not work in any other sphere of life. Only in strategy, which encompasses the conduct and consequences of human relations in the context of actual or possible conflict, have we learned to accept paradoxical propositions as valid.
As the study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, strategy applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through the understanding of the physics, politics and psychology of conflict.
Strategy is not only about war, but also about peace, for it is a tool for understanding the very roots of conflict and resolution. Modern peace advocates might then say, si vis pacem, para pacem.
We are also living in an economic age for which most people are largely unprepared. Massive shifts in economic activities and incredible dislocations of businesses and industries are taking place all over the world. Being either an employer or an employee today is like being a longtailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs.
Creating strategy imposes a sense of order on your business life. The purpose of strategic planning in a corporation is to reorganize and restructure the activities and resources of the company so as to increase the “return on equity”, or return on the money invested and working in the company.
Excellent organizations behave like self-renewing systems, finding continual nourishment, internally and externally. They are alert to subtle or profound changes in the environment inside or outside the organization that can be intelligently adapted to.
This is the strategic imperative for success in the age of unprecedented acceleration.
