One of the reasons no plan survives contact with the enemy is that a plan
is always one part strategy and one part tactics. By definition, at least
in a military sense, strategy refers to those actions and arrangements made
before the enemy is engaged and tactics refers to those actions and
accommodations made after the enemy is engaged. Therein lies a key
difference between strategy in the military and strategy in the business world.
Engagements or battles are time bound, which is to say the enemy is never
continuously engaged. Fighting breaks off, one side withdraws leaving the
other to claim the field or victory or both, or perhaps one is defeated and
surrenders. In any event and for various reasons the fighting comes to an
end. Not so in the world of business.
In the world of business "engagement" is continuous, not discrete. The
line between strategy and tactics blurs. Arrangements, actions and
accommodations are all part of a never-ending stream of activity.
Perhaps that is why, now many years ago, while watching Tom Peters make a
presentation to an assemblage of executives at AT&T' palatial headquarters
in Basking Ridge, NJ -- and this was before In Search of Excellence had
been published -- one of the slides he used that day caught my attention
more than any other. It was a quote from a manager Tom had interviewed and
it said simply:
"Strategy is Execution."
In Michael Hammer's latest book, The Agenda, Hammer makes essentially the
same point: It (business success) is all about execution. In a customer
dominated economy, you simply have to do it [whatever it is] better than
your competitors.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
Senior Consultant
"Assistance at A Distance"
The Distance Consulting Company
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@att.net
(609) 490-0095