The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

Understand Business Strategy Fundamentals

There is no one definition of strategy. As Harvard Business School professor and strategy guru Gary Hamel says, the real problem with strategy is that while we can all recognize a great one when we see it, no one really knows where it comes from (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 2005).

Many companies around the world have adopted some form of Kaplan and Norton's (2001) famous “balanced scorecard,” which calls for strategic objectives in four areas—customer loyalty, employee engagement, employee efficiency, and process excellence—all leading to profitability or, in a not-for-profit's case, realization of its mission. The rationale for including the four areas is that it is not enough to focus on profit ...