“Strategy articulates the firm’s preferred environment and the type of organisations it is striving to become.” – Hiroyuki Itami. Discuss why an understanding of strategy and strategic management is fundamental to an organisations success.

There is no one specific and definitive meaning to the word strategy. You would generally consider strategy to be the process involved in setting goals and objectives and then, ultimately the way's of achieving these goals through the designated and limited resources. Strategy describes how a firm will achieve their goals using the necessary resources. The firms Strategy will generally be established by the leaders in an organisation. Strategy can be intentional or emergent.
Mc Keown argued that strategy is about shaping the future. Mintzberg thinks its a pattern in a stream of decisions. They both think strategy is a very important part of any firm and what the firm is striving to be.
The key steps in planning a strategy is usually coordinated by the top management. This involve Mintzberg's 5 P's for strategy: The consist of…. A plan, A pattern, A position, A prospective, A ploy.
Plan,
Strategy is a plan, usually an intended course of action, a way to deal with a situation. By this definition, strategies have two essential characteristics, they are made in advance of the actions to which they apply, and they are developed consciously and purposefully.
Ploy
Like plan, a strategy can be a ploy too, its really just a specific manoeuvre intended to outwit an opponent or competitor,example, let people know you are expanding your supermarket size in your area. This may scare competition out of setting up in the same location.
Pattern,
If strategies can be intended they can also be realised. Plans are intended strategy, whereas patterns are realised strategy. From this we can distinguish deliberate strategies, where