Module: Business Strategy
Unit: Strategy Planning
Lesson: Strategic Concepts and Terminology

Strategic Concepts and Terminology

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Strategic Contexts and Terminology

What does strategy mean to you?

Bruce and Langdon (2000) relate strategy to military campaigns, describing an original definition of strategy as:
"The art of planning and directing military movements and the operations of war."
In terms of a business, they define strategy as:
"A strategy maps out the future, setting out w hich products and services you w ill take to which markets - and how."

The overall strategy of a business is what gives a business direction and a way forward. This in turn relates to the ability of a firm to identify how …show more content…

5. What w ill be their key attitudes or behaviours?
6. What w ill be the shared values of the organisation?
7. What w ill be the culture of the organisation?
8. What w ill it feel like to be a member?
9. How will those involved talk about or present the organisation to outsiders?
10. How will the organisation be perceived by:
11. Its members and employees?
12. Its customers/ clients?
13. Its community?

Using the Lambert questions, find out what your organisation's vision is for the future.
Talk to your HR Manager or another applicable senior manager and establish as many answers as you can to the questions.
Capture your findings.

Hopefully your current employer has a vision for the future. In your interview w ith the HR Manager or another source within your organisation, it may well be that you were able to gain enough information to identify with the vision of the company.
Even though your organisation may not have had answers to hand for all of the questions asked, it should be a key part of any company's strategy to have a vision for the future. If it is apparent that your organisation doesn't have a vision, perhaps your work on this course will be of help to them going forw ard!

Writing in his book 'Thriving on Chaos' in 1987', Tom Peters highlights the key features of any vision:

1. Effective visions are inspiring.
2. Effective visions are clear and challenging.
3. Effective visions make sense in the