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Module: Business Strategy
Unit: Strategy Planning
Lesson: Strategic Concepts and Terminology

Strategic Concepts and Terminology

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Strategic Contexts and Terminology

What does strategy mean to you?

Bruce and Langdon (2000) relate strategy to military campaigns, describing an original definition of strategy as:
"The art of planning and directing military movements and the operations of war."
In terms of a business, they define strategy as:
"A strategy maps out the future, setting out w hich products and services you w ill take to which markets - and how."

The overall strategy of a business is what gives a business direction and a way forward. This in turn relates to the ability of a firm to identify how …show more content…

- The objectives.
2. How can we ensure the business gets there? - The strategy or strategies.
Strategy is used to direct a company.

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Strategic Concepts and Terminology

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Visions, missions and mission statements
In practice, business strategy comprises a hierarchy of objectives outlined as:

1. The company's vision.
2. The company's mission or mission statement.
3. Corporate objectives for areas such as profit, growth and areas of scope.
4. Individual market objectives.
It is the organisation's vision and mission that will link the values and objectives of a business for all those individuals and groups w ho have an interest in or w ho are affected by the business - its stakeholders.

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Strategic Concepts and Terminology

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The organisation's vision
Vision is different from a company's mission or mission statement, in that it is an attempt to establish an ideal future - rather than to provide a challenging but strict guide for management decision-making.
The primary role of the company's vision or of visioning is to establish a dream to which all employees and other stakeholders will subscribe, and to the attainment of which they w ill enthusiastically direct their efforts.
Creating a vision calls for creativity, and Lambert (1996) suggests that to create a vision, answ ers to a series of questions should be sought:

1. What w ill the organisation be like in 5 - 15 years time?
2.

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