STRATEGIC APPROACH- GET CLOSER TO GOALS

WORKING WITHOUT A STRATEGY IN MIND IS LIKE TRYING TO CONSTRUCT A    BUILDING WITHOUT A BLUE PRINT...   MASTER MENTORS.

A strategy is defined as the road map chosen to achieve the end goals.

Successful Organizations ensure that every action of theirs is a part of a strategy or a tactic which is further a part of an overall grand plan to achieve their goals.
Lack of Strategic approach leads to shooting in the dark or straying from the path of right direction leading to wastage of resources, suboptimal utilization of resources and ultimate failure.
Strategic planning is applied to every element of functioning of successful organizations.

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its roadmap or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular course of action. Generally, strategic planning deals with at least one of the three key questions:

1. "What do we do?"
2. "For whom do we do it?"
3. "How do we excel?"

In many organizations, this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next year or—more typically—3 to 5 years (long term), although some extend their vision to 20 years. (Source- Wikipedia).

Strategy also guides the organization in deciding "What not to do?" as this may distract the organization from the right path and from going after the goal set.

The reason for failures at most organizations is the inability of the management or the persons responsible for achieving the goals, to choose the right strategy.

Strategic thinking can be similar to the approach, a chess player adopts to win a chess game.

In chess every move made by a player is aimed at improving from the present position to capture the competitor's king. The players undertake a number of tactical moves depending on the situation to overcome the opposition. The tactical moves should not only keep in mind the immediate situation and the position surrounding the pieces moved, but also the overall position of all the pieces in the game of both sides and the emerging situation. Further, the players have to think 4-5 steps in advance by analysing the likely responses of the competition to survive and stay ahead. Innovation, sacrificing short term gains for long term gains (gambits), choosing offensive or defensive strategies depending on the risk taking ability of the principals, trade off between own pieces versus competition depending on their importance are some more important features of chess that are relevant to strategic decision making. Further in Chess, all the resources need to act in tandem and the one who is able to harness their collective power to achieve the ultimate objective of capturing the competitor's king, wins the game.

Similarly in organization, it is imperative to focus the energies of all resources as per a set plan to achieve the ultimate goals.

A successful strategy should take into account:

i) Goal to be achieved, ii) Resources in hand, iii) Tactics to be adopted, iv) Coordinated approach, 

v) Likely response from the environment and other players in the system that may affect the execution and contingent response plan, vi) medium term, short term and long term nature of the goals and the corresponding time frames, vii) cultural aspects of the people involved and  viii) risk bearing ability of the principals creating the strategy.

Successful Organizations inculcate strategic thinking approach and a win-win approach to attain the objective of value creation, value capture, wealth maximization for their stakeholders, customers, vendors and the society, thus helping them to stay on track to attain their vision.