Strategy

For other uses, see Strategy (disambiguation).

Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked. How a battle is fought is a matter of tactics: the terms and conditions that it is fought on and whether it should be fought at all is a matter of strategy, which is part of the four levels of warfare: political goals or grand strategy, strategy, operations, and tactics.

Etymology

First attested in English 1810, the word strategy derives from the French stratégie, which is the romanization of the Greek "στρατηγία" (strategia), "office of general, command, generalship", in turn from "στρατηγός" (strategos), "leader or commander of an army, general", a compound of "στρατός" (stratos), "army, host" + "ἀγός" (agos), "leader, chief", in turn from "ἄγω" (ago), "to lead".

Strategies in game theory

In game theory, a strategy refers to one of the options that a player can choose. That is, every player in a non-cooperative game has a set of possible strategies, and must choose one of the choices.

A strategy must specify what action will happen in each contingent state of the game—e.g. if the opponent does A, then take action B, whereas if the opponent does C, take action D.

Strategies in game theory may be random (mixed) or deterministic (pure). That is, in some games, players choose mixed strategies. Pure strategies can be thought of as a special case of mixed strategies, in which only probabilities 0 or 1 are assigned to actions.

Noted texts on strategy

Classic texts such as Chanakya's Arthashastra written in the 3rd century BC, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, written in China 2,500 years ago, the political strategy of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, written in 1513, or Carl von Clausewitz's On War, published in 1832, as with the Japanese classic The book of five rings by Miyamoto Mushashi written in 1645, are still well known, and highly influential. In the 20th century, the subject of strategic management has been particularly applied to organizations, most typically to business firms and corporations.

Designing Organization for Higher Performance published in 1988; It is a good guide to develop higher levels of performance since it offers strategies that are viable in large organizations.

The nature of historic texts differs greatly from area to area, and given the nature of strategy itself, there are some potential parallels between various forms of strategy—noting, for example, the popularity of The Art of War as a business book. Each domain generally has its own foundational texts, as well as more recent contributions to new applications of strategy. Some of these are:

• Political strategy
  • The Prince, published in 1532 by Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Arthashastra, written in the 4th century BC by Chanakya
  • The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione
• Military strategy:
  • The Art of War, written in the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu
  • The Art of War, written in the 19th century AD by Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini
  • The Book of Five Rings, written in the 17th century AD by Miyamoto Musashi
  • Strategikon, written in the 6th century AD by the Byzantine emperor Maurice
  • Taktikon, by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise
  • On War, by Carl von Clausewitz (19th century)
  • Strategy, by B.H. Liddell Hart
  • On Guerrilla Warfare, by Mao Zedong
  • The Influence of Sea Power upon History, by Alfred Thayer Mahan
  • The Air Campaign, by Colonel John A. Warden, III
  • Makers of Modern Strategy, edited by Peter Paret
  • Strategy, by Edward N. Luttwak
  • OODA, by John Boyd
• Economic strategy
  • General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes
• Business strategy
  • Demystifying Competitive Intelligence, Estelle Metayer, Ivey Business Journal, Nov 1999
  • Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, 2005
  • Competitive Strategy, by Michael Porter
  • Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy and Strategy Concept II: Another Look at Why Organizations Need Strategies, by Henry Mintzberg
  • Winning In FastTime by John A. Warden, III and Leland A. Russell, 2002.
  • Designing Organization for Higher Perfromance by David P. Hanna, 1988.
  • Exploring Corporate Strategy by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes, 2001.
• General strategy
  • Strategy Safari, by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel.
  • Strategic Studies-Intelligence and strategy, by Gagliano Giuseppe, Uniservice, Nov 2009
• Others
  • Marcel Détienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, Les Ruses de l'intelligence, Paris: Flammarion, 1993 (on the role of the Greek Metis)

See also

• American football strategy
• Business biomimetics
• Fabian strategy
• Mutually Assured Destruction
• Nuclear strategy
• Odds algorithm (Odds strategy) Template:Nb10
• Plan

• Poker strategy
• Strategic planning
• Strategy game
• Synergy
• Tactics
• Telesis

External links

• Strategic Theories and Concepts
• Strategy Definition and Fundamentals
• Math Strategies
• Strategy and Planning