Lessons Learned from Week 1 Continued

Strategy: Definitions
A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. Strategy is differentiated from tactics, or immediate actions, with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed.- Wikipedia

"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations" - http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm.

Strategic: Definitions

Nature of strategy – dictionary.com
Strategics - the science or art of strategy - wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Me: Strategic is the very nature of a strategy i.e. the way in which a business strategy is to be implemented.

My View on Strategy
Strategy can therefore be a definitive plan on the way forward for any given organization. Contrary to the definition, an organizations strategy can indeed be short term taking into consideration emerging markets and evolving technologies. A strategy can start off being long term but with provisions to change directions as and when necessary as dictated by a few influences such as the environment, the economy, political changes, change in technology etc.

Organization

Organization as defined by wikipedia is “a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment”.

Laudon and Laudon in Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (10th Edition) suggests the above definitions are technical organizations and reveals there is a behavioral definition of an organization. This is: “A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that are delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution”.

My stance is that, in looking at and considering the definitions of an organization from both Wikipedia and Laudon, a good organization should have both the technical and behavioral attributes embedded in it. It should have a set of goals and objectives that its members understand and work towards achieving by following the strategy or strategies laid down by senior management toward the advancement of the organization and mainenance of it competitive advantage.