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- Defining strategy as a vision.
Mission and vision statements are elements of strategy, but they aren't enough. They offer no guide to productive action and no explicit road map to the desired future. They don't include clear explicit choices about what businesses to be in and not to be in. There's no focus on sustainable competitive advantage or the building block of value creation.
- Define strategy as a plan.
Plans and tactics are also elements of strategy, but they aren't enough either. A detailed plan that specifies what the firm will do (and when) does not imply that the things it will do add up to sustainable competitive advantage.
- Denying that long-term (or even medium-term) strategy is possible.
The world is changing so quickly, some leaders argue, that it's impossible to think about strategy in advance and that, instead, a firm should respond to new threats and opportunities are they emerge. Emergent strategy has become the battle cry for many technology firms and startups, which do indeed face a rapidly changing marketplace. Unfortunately, such an approach places a company in a reactive mode, making it easy prey for more-strategic rivals. Not only is strategy possible in times of tumultuous change, but it can be a competitive advantage and a source of significant value creation.
- Defining strategy as the optimization of the status quo.
Many leaders try to optimize what they are already doing in their current business. This can create efficiency and drive some value. But it isn't strategy. The optimization of current practices does not address the very real possibility that the firm could be exhausting its assets and resources by optimizing the wrong activities, while more strategic competitors pass it by. Optimization has a place in business, but it isn't strategy.
- Defining strategy as following best practices.
Every industry has tools and practices that become widespread and generic. Some organizations define strategy as benchmarking against competition and then doing the same set of activities but more effectively. Sameness isn't strategy. It is a recipe for mediocrity.
