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July 08, 2004

Strategy vs. Tactics

BusinessPundit: Strategy - It's Hard To Stick With It Business Pundit highlights an age old issue that made me think of this week's quote (one of our all time favorites):

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu (Chinese General, circa 500 BC)

So what is strategy and what are tactics. For fun below is a short outline of an explanation we've used to clarify this supposedly easy but often devilshly tricky distinction:
-------------
Objectives 101
. What is an objective?
. What is a goal?
. What is a strategy?
. What is a tactic?
. What is a plan?

Objectives and Goals
. Objective a : something toward which effort is directed : an aim, goal, or end of action b : a strategic position to be attained or a purpose to be achieved by a military operation
. Goal a : the end toward which effort is directed : AIM (Also a specific, measurable achievement behind an objective)

Context
. Business: How to make money from spending money - Engineering, Finance, Operations, Marketing Sales
. Marketing: How to build demand with the market place - Product, Price, Place, Promotion
. Communications: How to promote effectively - Messaging, Media
. Personal: How to contribute to all of the above

Strategy
. Strategy a : The science of military command, or the science of projecting campaigns and directing great military movements; generalship.
. The set of decisions made to best ensure achievement of the desired objectives, based on an assessment of:
... one's own current situation/position; capabilities & shortcoming; competitive position
... options/alternatives -- risks
... timing

Tactics
. Tactic a : a device for accomplishing an end; b : a method of employing forces in combat
. The set of requirements for a plan to take effect

Tactical vs. Strategic:
. Always relative to one another
. Tactics: the set of actions taken to fulfill a strategy

Plan
. Plan a : a scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project; as, the plan of a constitution; the plan of an expedition.
. The combination of objectives, strategies and tactics
. The specific articulation of how the tactics will support the strategies that will achieve the objectives in time
. The rationale that supports this course of action

Anyway, we've found this little glossary useful in the past. Let us know if you think it makes sense.

Posted by johnza at July 8, 2004 04:33 PM

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