STRATEGY is used in general to explain how a set of objectives, whether short or long- term, will be achieved. However, there is no general consensus on the definition of strategy or of the strategy concept with regard to its use in various settings, whether in business, government, sports, or civic society.
The dynamism and complexity associated with addressing constantly changing environmental pressures, and the long-term perspective that strategy should have, are some of the reasons it is difficult to have a standardised definition of strategy. The strategic ambition, which is defined by the mission and vision, is another consideration that is important in determining strategy.
Both business and public policy settings develop strategies to achieve success; however, the term strategy is defined differently across these settings. Business involves the establishment and management of an enterprise to provide products and/or services mostly for a profit or for a defined benefit, whereas public policy settings are the various legislative and public institutions directly under the control or working alongside government in the delivery of products and services to the wider society. Having an aligned definition of strategy and of its use would be helpful for various stakeholders in communicating the strategy’s intent and thereafter its implementation. Over and above the benefit of alignment, this would facilitate the better allocation of resources in the process of implementing the strategy.
Levels of strategy
There are four levels of strategy, and these are grand strategy, corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy. In this article grand strategy is positioned along with the other levels of strategy. The different levels of strategy are interlinked and are, to a large extent, dependent on each other..
Grand strategy is a plan for a country or a regional bloc to achieve its set objectives in relation to prevailing geopolitics and to its desired economic benefits. It was defined by Feaver (2009) as a collection of plans and policies to achieve a county’s national interests.
He further stated: “Grand strategy blends the disciplines of history (what happened and why?), political science (what underlying patterns and causal mechanisms are at work?), public policy (how well did it work and how could it be done better?), and economics (how are national resources produced and protected?).”
Grand strategy is relevant in both times of war and peace, thus it is argued that grand strategy has two focus areas (i) warfare (military strategy) — these are engagements with other nations to gain an advantage through military means and (ii) political and/or economic — engagements with other nations or foreign organisations geared towards gaining a national competitive advantage through the use of the nation’s resources (Balzacq and amp; Krebs, 2021).
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Considering that grand strategy is positioned at the higher country and/or regional level, it is important to have insight into grand strategy when formulating and implementing the other levels of strategy, such as corporate strategy or business strategy.
The understanding and consideration of grand strategy as it relates to the other levels of strategy is important for policymakers, business executives, consultants, and society at large. From a policymaker’s perspective, it is important to set policies with a view to how they will be implemented, to consider the fit of the combination of policies that are adopted, and also to consider how they impact business and society, since the collective position of these policies determines the grand strategy of the respective region or country.
The Gross Domestic Product of a country is the most common, and somewhat standardised, measure of performance in order to compare performance across countries and also to project their respective citizens’ levels of prosperity. While it is not a perfect measure, it is the most widely used, and so it can also be used to assess the level of success of the respective grand strategies that regions or countries adopt.
Corporate strategy is a process of determining what businesses to pursue and how they are managed, whereas business strategy is applicable to single stand-alone businesses or separate identifiable business units. Business strategy is primarily concerned with the achievement of a competitive advantage.
Functional strategy is the plans and choices set by divisions or departments within an organisation, such as finance, marketing, human resources, information technology, facilities management, procurement, and research and development, to achieve the respective functions’ goals and objectives in support of the delivery of the business strategy. Functional strategy is also commonly known as “operational strategy”. Operational or functional strategies are normally focused on the short term; thus their planning time horizon ranges from about a year to two years.
Defining strategy
Strategy is ultimately how an organisation moves from its current position to a desired future position within the confines of its mission, vision, capabilities, and environment. And the “how” is informed by the choices it makes about (i) who the customers are and (ii) what products and services to offer. The choices that determine the preferred strategy have to be those that enable the organisation to achieve the most benefit from the combination of strategic options available to it, taking into consideration the fit of the combination of chosen options.
For an institution in a public policy setting, which will likely have a separation between the customer and the recipient of the products or services, a different question can be posed: “Who are we meant to serve?’ rather than ‘Who are the customers?” – or the questions can be asked in combination.
From a grand strategy perspective, developing countries would benefit from having well- defined grand strategies, in order to achieve the highest level of competitiveness and to ensure that their national interests are well-defined as they interact and trade with other nations. This would also enable the communication of their national interests to key stakeholders, and align the nation’s interests with the corporate strategies developed by organisations that operate within their borders or by those intending to do business or operate within their borders.
