Editing Strategic management (section)

==Definitions==
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|quote=Strategy has been practiced whenever an advantage was gained by planning the sequence and timing of the deployment of resources while simultaneously taking into account the probable capabilities and behavior of competition. 
| source = [[Bruce Henderson]]<ref>{{cite web| author = Henderson, Bruce | date = January 1, 1981 | title=The Concept of Strategy|url=https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/Classics/strategy_concept_of_strategy/|access-date= April 18, 2014|publisher= [[Boston Consulting Group]]}}</ref>
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In 1988, [[Henry Mintzberg]] described the many different definitions and perspectives on strategy reflected in both academic research and in practice.<ref>Mintzberg, Henry "Crafting Strategy", Harvard Business Review, July/August 1987.</ref><ref>Mintzberg, Henry and Quinn, J.B. ''The Strategy Process'', Prentice-Hall, Harlow, 1988.</ref> He examined the strategic process and concluded it was much more fluid and unpredictable than people had thought. Because of this, he could not point to one process that could be called [[strategic planning]]. Instead Mintzberg concludes that there are five types of strategies:
* Strategy as plan – a directed course of action to achieve an ''intended'' set of goals; similar to the strategic planning concept;
* Strategy as pattern – a consistent pattern of past behavior, with a strategy ''realized'' over time rather than planned or ''intended''. Where the realized pattern was different from the intent, he referred to the strategy as ''emergent'';
* Strategy as position – locating brands, products, or companies within the market, based on the conceptual framework of consumers or other stakeholders; a strategy determined primarily by factors outside the firm;
* Strategy as ploy – a specific maneuver intended to outwit a competitor; and
* Strategy as perspective – executing strategy based on a "theory of the business" or natural extension of the mindset or ideological perspective of the organization.

In 1998, Mintzberg developed these five types of management strategy into 10 "schools of thought" and grouped them into three categories. The first group is normative. It consists of the schools of informal design and conception, the formal planning, and analytical positioning. The second group, consisting of six schools, is more concerned with how strategic management is actually done, rather than prescribing optimal plans or positions. The six schools are entrepreneurial, visionary, cognitive, learning/adaptive/emergent, negotiation, corporate culture and business environment. The third and final group consists of one school, the configuration or transformation school, a hybrid of the other schools organized into stages, organizational life cycles, or "episodes".<ref>Mintzberg, H. Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J. ''Strategy Safari : A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management'', The Free Press, New York, 1998.</ref>

[[Michael Porter]] defined strategy in 1980 as the "...broad formula for how a business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what policies will be needed to carry out those goals" and the "...combination of the ''ends'' (goals) for which the firm is striving and the ''means'' (policies) by which it is seeking to get there." He continued that: "The essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment."<ref name="Porter1980"/>

Some complexity theorists define strategy as the unfolding of the internal and external aspects of the organization that results in actions in a socio-economic context.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Stacey|first1=R. D.|title=The science of complexity - an alternative perspective for strategic change processes |journal=Strategic Management Journal|date=1995|volume=16|issue=6 |pages=477–495|doi=10.1002/smj.4250160606}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Terra|first1=L. A. A.|last2=Passador|first2=J. L.|title=Symbiotic Dynamic: The Strategic Problem from the Perspective of Complexity|journal=Systems Research and Behavioral Science|volume=33|issue=2|pages=235–248|doi=10.1002/sres.2379|year=2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Morin|first1=E.|title=Introduction à la pensée complexe|date=2005|publisher=Éditionsdu Seuil|location=Paris}}</ref>

[[Michael D. Watkins]] (2007) argued that strategic management operates as a critical bridge between an organization's mission, vision, and execution. He asserted that if the mission statement and goals answer the 'what' question, and if the vision statement answers the 'why' questions, then strategy provides answers to the 'how' question of business management. In other words, strategy encompasses the methods, frameworks, and decision-making processes that enable a company to translate its aspirations into concrete actions and competitive success.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Watkins |first1=Michael D. |title=Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why |journal=Harvard Business Review |date=10 September 2007 |url=https://hbr.org/2007/09/demystifying-strategy-the-what |publisher=HBR |access-date=10 March 2022}}</ref>