Strategy in Practice: A Practitioner's Guide to Strategic Thinking, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1Introduction to Strategy in Practice

It is important to remember that no one has ever seen a strategy or touched one; every strategy is an invention, a figment of someone's imagination…

—Henry Mintzberg

In this Introductory Chapter, We:

• define and explore fundamental notions related to strategy and the practice of strategy;
• review and frame key problems and issues contributing to the ongoing dilemma managers face with strategy;
• reflect on the centrality of value creation, delivery, and capture to strategy;
• introduce strategic thinking and the strategic thinking process in the context of strategy in the practice field;
• reflect critically on the differences between strategic thinking and strategic planning; particularly from the perspective of their relevance to strategy practice;
• introduce the strategy roadmap, and use it to briefly introduce and outline the subsequent chapters of this book;
• close with some caveats and useful pointers on strategy in practice.

Strategy: A Persistent Dilemma

Strategy – is it really a figment of someone's imagination? One would hardly come to that conclusion judging by the popularity of the word in the business media. Scarcely any business word is invoked more frequently and with greater fervor. Business leaders take great pride in referring to “their strategy.” A simple search for the word “strategy” in the Financial Times online (FT.com) for the 12-month period of 2014 results in 6,506 hits. The term is being used; in fact, ...