Strategy

Strategy is one of the most commonly used words in business and possibly one of the least understood. It is the role of the leader to define strategy and implement it throughout the organization. Strategy defines the action you are going to take to achieve your goals.
Given below is an example on strategy under the title ‘The Vietnam War’ from the book, ‘Turning it On’ by Robin Speculand. We trust that the readers will find it as an interesting one.
Twenty years after the Vietnam War ended, an American colonel returned for the first time to Vietnam. During the visit, he met with one of his counterparts from the Viet Cong.

The American colonel asked curiously, “How did you manage to move your men around the country when we kept bombing your bridges?” The Vietnamese colonel explained the Viet Cong strategy. “We realized that if we rebuilt our bridges every time you bombed them, then you would bomb them again. We would then rebuild them and you would bomb them again. This was a battle we could never win because you had a superior air force, so we had to change our strategy.” The American colonel asked what their strategy was.

“We rebuilt our bridges one foot under the water, so they could not be spotted from the air, but our men could still cross the bridge!” When developing your strategy, you must not develop it in ignorance of your competition. You must identify your competition’s strength and counter it.

“Companies fail to successfully implement strategy, Not because of bad strategy but bad execution” - Anon