Chapter 1

1

What is strategy?

MANY PEOPLE, EVEN IN BUSINESS, are very confused about what strategy really means. It is a word we use a lot to mean a wide variety of things, most of which have nothing to do with the real meaning. The casualty of this confusion is the quality of strategy in our organisations.

The word strategy is used in a variety of domains including business, personal or career development, politics and sport. Jerome recently heard the coach of a national football team saying: ‘To win this championship, our strategy is to win all our matches one after the other.’ This was not a great help to the team who already knew that winning matches was important. At a recent rally, a famous politician was asked about his ...

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