I think it is convenient to close this series of articles related to Planning with the topic "strategy", a fundamental piece in all planning and a guide to its achievement.
The strategy
For several years now, the strategy has established itself as a useful, necessary and essential tool when starting any initiative, in the world of science, in the political, social and business world. Today, practically no profit or non-profit company is conceived, a private or state body, aimed at achieving specific objectives, which dispenses with strategies.
Etymologically, the term strategy comes from the Greek word “stratégós” (formed by stratos, which means army, and ag, which means to direct) and it served to designate the art of directing military operations. Its use dates back to the principles enunciated by Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great and earlier in Sun Tzu's classic treatise, "The Art of War" written around 500 years before the Christian era. However, it appears in the economic and academic field with the game theory of the hand of Von Newman and Morgenstern in 1944, the basic idea is competition, it is the performance against the adversary to achieve certain objectives.
The first works on the subject arose in the sixties from the pioneering works of Chandler Tilles and Ansoff and the common concern of these authors centered on the construction of a theory about business strategy, seeing the company as a whole.
From them, a considerable number of authors and authorities on the subject emerged, just to mention a few: Hofer and Schendel, Porter, Whittington, Kay, Bowman, Marrero, Morrisey and Buenos, among others.
AD Chandler (1962): "Determination of the basic long-term objectives and goals of a company and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources that are necessary to carry out said goals."
HI Ansoff (1965): "Active process of determination and guidance of the course of action of the company towards its objectives."
ME Porter (1980): “A way of relating the company with its environment and that includes an offensive or defensive action to create a defensible position against the competitive forces in the industrial sector in which it is present and thus obtain a superior performance over the company investment. "
Hofer and Schendel (1978): "Fundamental pattern of current and future resource allocation and interactions with the environment that indicates how the organization will achieve its objectives"
Personally, I consider that Grant's definition is the one that best fits the business world: " Strategy is the match that an organization makes with its internal resources and skills… and the opportunities and risks created by its external environment."
Grant emphasizes the role and importance of strategic analysis, highlights the need for clarity in the environment and direction, establishing simple, consistent and long-term goals. Know how long it took us to get somewhere and stay successful over time. In addition, we must have a deep understanding of the competitive environment, as in the example of General Vo Nguyen Giap (he used Mao Tse Tung's strategy: passive resistance, guerrilla warfare, counteroffensive and underground and thus, the Vietnam army in 1975 managed to The US Army will evacuate that country and withdraw its military and diplomatic personnel, causing the greatest humiliation of a world power before one of the poorest countries in the world), understanding and empathizing with its enemy and the combat conditions,he went out to look for them without being seen. He was sure that American citizens would not support such a prolonged war.
The eighties of the twentieth century were characterized on the one hand, by an escalation of technical progress and with it, the globalization of the market and, on the other hand, the powerful need to give the knowledge worker, the human being, the right value. These factors, acting as catalysts, placed the company at the very center of a random and unpredictable context, accelerating, in the competitive jungle, the need to maintain a close relationship with its commercial ally (the client, the usury), giving it a product and providing a quality service, highlighting the qualitative over the quantitative. The same competitive struggle forced the fact of serving "just in time", constantly and rapidly developing new products that satisfy the requirements, increasingly demanding of customers and users.
In this way, the clear leadership of the leader and the indisputable contribution of the knowledge worker for the success of the company emerged. And thus, as a product of the constant evolution, of its immediate antecedent, the "Management by Objective or Direction by Objectives" united, as a compact amalgam, with Strategic Planning, a new way of understanding and managing management emerges, the " Strategic Management or Strategic Management ”.
Being today, the last episode in the historical evolutionary process of participatory management, due to its interdisciplinary nature, Strategic Management is characterized by democratic, scientific and human management of management. In it, in addition to contemplating the formal aspects of any planning process, relating to the determination of objectives and the setting of strategies, all other elements of psychological, social, cultural, ideological and organizational behavior that belong to the sphere of informal, but in practice also significantly influence the strategies that the organization actually adopts.
Along these lines, Professor Álvaro Cuervo García, Professor of Business Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid, affirms that strategic management needs more than statistical relationships between abnormal returns, measured by market returns, and strategic measures as a consequence of research on competitive advantage. For this expert in the field, it is important to address the problems of strategy also from economics, sociology, psychology and ethics.
On the other hand, and rightly so, M Sc. Guillermo A. Ronda Pupo (Research Professor at the Center for Business Management Studies, University of Holguín, Cuba) in his excellent article «Strategic integration model. How to achieve the integration of the strategic level with the tactical and operational? » (http://www.gestiopolis.com/recursos/documentos/fulldocs/ger/modintegraestra.htm), define the strategic direction in the following terms: “… it is the iterative and holistic process of formulation, implementation, execution and control of a set of maneuvers, which guarantees a proactive interaction of the organization with its environment, to contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness in the fulfillment of its corporate purpose ”.
This new way of managing management costs three phases: planning, implementation and control, and is supported by an inverted organizational structure where the top is occupied by the commercial ally (the client, the usury), followed by the contact personnel, then the services (processes), then the technical and administrative staff, and finally, the strategic management or strategic direction, whose leadership, maturity, commitment, attitude, vision and ethics is vital for the economic, physical and mental well-being of any organization.
Bibliography
- Menguzzato Martina and Renau JJ (1991). The strategic direction of the company. An innovative approach to management. Ariel, Barcelona, Chandler A. (1962). Strategy and Structure. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Tilles Seymour (1963). How to evaluate corporate strategy. Harvard Business Review 1963: 111-121, Ansoff HI (1965). Corporate Strategy. McGraw-Hill, New York. Hofer C. and Schendel D. (1978). Strategy formulations: analytical concepts. West, St. Paul, Min. Porter M. (1980). Competitive Strategy. Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press, New York, Whittington Richard (2001). What is strategy? Really matters? Thomson International, Spain Kay J. (1994). Foundations of Business Success. The added value of the strategy. Ariel, Barcelona, Bowman Cliff (1996). The essence of strategic management. Prentice Hall.Garciga Marrero Rogelio (1999). Strategy formulation. An approach for managers. Edit. Felix Varela. Morrisey George L. (1996). Strategic thinking. Edit. Prentices Hall. Hispanoamericana SA.Buenos Campus E. (1996). Strategic direction of the company, Methodology, techniques and cases. Edit. Pyramid, Madrid Grant Robert M. (1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation. California Managem. Rev., Spring, pp. 114-135 Grant Robert M. (1996). Strategic Direction. Concepts, Techniques and Applications. Editorial Civitas, Madrid.Cuervo García Álvaro (1999). The strategic direction of the company. Reflections from the Business Economy. Papeles de Economía Española, n.78-79, pp.34-55.Morrisey George L. (1996). Strategic thinking. Edit. Prentices Hall. Hispanoamericana SA.Buenos Campus E. (1996). Strategic direction of the company, Methodology, techniques and cases. Edit. Pyramid, Madrid Grant Robert M. (1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation. California Managem. Rev., Spring, pp. 114-135 Grant Robert M. (1996). Strategic Direction. Concepts, Techniques and Applications. Editorial Civitas, Madrid.Cuervo García Álvaro (1999). The strategic direction of the company. Reflections from the Business Economy. Papeles de Economía Española, n.78-79, pp.34-55.Morrisey George L. (1996). Strategic thinking. Edit. Prentices Hall. Hispanoamericana SA.Buenos Campus E. (1996). Strategic direction of the company, Methodology, techniques and cases. Edit. Pyramid, Madrid Grant Robert M. (1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation. California Managem. Rev., Spring, pp. 114-135 Grant Robert M. (1996). Strategic Direction. Concepts, Techniques and Applications. Editorial Civitas, Madrid.Cuervo García Álvaro (1999). The strategic direction of the company. Reflections from the Business Economy. Papeles de Economía Española, n.78-79, pp.34-55.(1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation. California Managem. Rev., Spring, pp. 114-135 Grant Robert M. (1996). Strategic Direction. Concepts, Techniques and Applications. Editorial Civitas, Madrid.Cuervo García Álvaro (1999). The strategic direction of the company. Reflections from the Business Economy. Papeles de Economía Española, n.78-79, pp.34-55.(1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation. California Managem. Rev., Spring, pp. 114-135 Grant Robert M. (1996). Strategic Direction. Concepts, Techniques and Applications. Editorial Civitas, Madrid.Cuervo García Álvaro (1999). The strategic direction of the company. Reflections from the Business Economy. Papeles de Economía Española, n.78-79, pp.34-55.
