Strategy is an integrated model of actions designed to achieve the objectives of the enterprise. The content of the strategy is a set of decision rules used to determine the main directions of activity. Typically, the strategy is developed over several years, is specified in the various projects, programs, practices and actions implemented in the course of their execution. Any strategy includes general principles on which the managers of the organization can make interrelated decisions to ensure the coordinated and orderly achievement of the objectives in the long run.
The strategy can be broadly defined as a set of decisions and operations actions taken to achieve the objectives assigned. However, these actions and operations require an allocation of resources and commitment on the part of the company over the long term.
The resources may be human, technological, industrial, commercial or financial. However, financial resources have a characteristic of their own; they allow the acquisition of other resources. It is therefore clear that the ability of financing and debt of a company allows it to have greater strategic flexibility. It actually involves two things:
A significant allocation of resources,
A long-term commitment or final fate of the company.
Several definitions exist, but according to Michael Porter (1980) the strategy defines the general guidelines allowing the company to have a sustainable competitive advantage. The strategy should enable the company to achieve its objectives in terms of competitiveness and profit. This is a discussion between the business-environment relationship that involves choice in terms of activity and resource allocation. These choices are significant for the company because they involve a commitment of financial resources, human and material to be quantified (Harfield 1999, pp. 1). The strategy; therefore, reflects company policy that brings together members of a company around a single project (Bradley 2003, P. 82).
The 5 P's Strategy
Strategy and Plan: These courses of action are exactly determined in order to introduce you to a specific situation.
Strategy and Action Guideline: This strategy can be used as a kind of maneuvering in order to have a better use than the competition.
Strategy as Pattern: These strategies are already defined from the beginning so firms can create a kind of habit so it can have an appreciation for the effort that is being done.
Strategy as Position: Strategy as position is a method to get a sense of where an organization is located.