Misunderstandings about the nature and purpose of strategy abound. Some business people confuse the analysis of competitive forces as the strategy itself. Others equate strategy with their annual budgeting plan. For many strategy remains a vague, powerless concept that does not apply to them.

At its purest, a strategy is what you want to accomplish as an organization and the steps you need to accomplish it. Strategy, therefore, is important to all organizations because it gives them a context for the everyday decisions that move the organization in the desired direction.  Michael Porter, the Harvard University strategy professor, states: “…strategy is completely useless unless the result of the strategy process… is understood broadly. The #1 purpose of strategy is alignment. It is really getting all the people in the organization making good choices, reinforcing each other’s choices because everyone is pursuing the common value proposition, the common way…” Continue reading →