The What, Who, How and Why of Strategy...

Michael Watkins wrote an interesting post "Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why", he defines business strategy as:

"a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted in the organization, generates a desired pattern of decision making….. A good strategy provides a clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles or rules, that defines the actions people in the business should take (and not take) and the things they should prioritize (and not prioritize) to achieve desired goals."

In a nutshell, as illustrated below:

• Mission is about what will be achieved.
• The value network is about with whom value will be created and captured.
• Strategy is about how resources should be allocated to accomplish the mission in the context of the value network.
• Vision and incentives is about why people in the organization should feel motivated to perform at a high level.

Together, the mission, network, strategy, and vision define the strategic direction for a business. They provide the what, who, how, and why necessary to powerfully align action in complex organizations.