Managing the Design Process-Concept Development

Chapter 4Strategic Thinking

Design and Strategy

In the broadest sense, strategy is a plan for how to achieve a goal. You’ll hear the word used often—referring to military, political, economic, and, of course, business plans of action. In business, strategy is what bridges the gap between policy (a plan governing action, that could be referred to as “ends”) and tactics (a set of techniques, that could be referred to as “means”). George Steiner, a professor of management considered to be one of the fathers of modern business strategy, explains in his 1979 book, Strategic Planning, that the word “strategy” is used to refer to what a business does ...