MBA 685 Corporate Strategy

Strategic thinking

What is strategic thinking?

The term ‘strategic’ has become a much over-used word in business today. You may have observed that the term is increasingly attached to people’s job titles and is used to dignify roles and elevate the status of projects that might otherwise not be regarded as sufficiently important. The dilution of the term strategic is unfortunate because one of the key functions of general managers in all organisations is to engage in strategic thinking.

Strategy has a long heritage. The word ‘strategy’ comes from the Greek word for generalship. This betrays the origins of strategy, which lie in the military. Indeed, long before companies were said to have strategies, strategy was a well-developed art within the military sphere. The first writer on strategy is generally held to be the Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, whose most popular work, The Art of War, is widely read to this day (Sun Tzu, 2005). In Sun Tzu’s view, the art of generalship was about outmanoeuvring your opponent, convincing them that you were strong in places where you were weak and, conversely, that you were weak in places where you were strong. It was about luring the opposition into a position of weakness before battle was engaged, so that even if you possessed weaker forces, you could overcome the enemy through guile and cunning.

Military writers often make a distinction between strategic decisions and tactical decision-making.

Activity 1.1 Strategic and tactical decisions Pause here to reflect. Try to identify some differences between strategic and tactical decisions.

Generally speaking, strategic decision-making is about the big picture. In the military, for example, it is about how you plan the campaign, rather than how you engage in battle on the day. There is also a time dimension, because