Strategy & Tactics

By Rich Horwath

The use of strategy has literally changed the map of the world and caused the rise and fall of many a nation and its people. The unique combination of wisdom, science and craft have made strategy creation and its application a universally sought after skill. Let’s take a look back at where it all began and the use of strategy and tactics today.Strategy sprung from the need for people to defeat their enemies. The first treatises that discuss strategy are from the Chinese during the period of 400 – 200 B.C. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, written in 400 B.C. has received critical acclaim as the best work on military strategy, including those that have followed it centuries later. However, unlike the theoretical treatises that followed, the Chinese works took the form of narratives, including poems and prose accounts. An example of this prose form of strategy can be seen in the poem by Lao Tzu, the father of Tao-ism:

Once grasp the great form without a form
and you will roam where you will
with no evil to fear,
calm, peaceful, at ease.
The hub of the wheel runs upon the axle.
In a jar, it is the hole that holds water.
So advantage is had
from whatever there is;
but usefulness rises
from whatever is not.

The term “strategy” is derived indirectly from the Classic and Byzantine (330 A.D.) Greek “strategos” which means “general.” While the term is credited to the Greeks, no Greek ever used the word. The Greek equivalent for the modern word “strategy” would have been “strategike episteme” (general’s knowledge) or “strategon sophia” (general’s wisdom).

The word retained this narrow meaning until Count Guibert, a French military thinker, introduced the term “La Strategique” in 1799, in the sense that is understood today. Consequently, neither the military community before Count Guibert nor the business community before H. Igor Ansoff (Corporate Strategy, 1965), could see the strategic element in their domains clearly enough to give it a name.

The complementary nature of strategy and tactics has defined their intertwined existence. In the military realm, tactics teach the use of armed forces in engagements, while strategy teaches the use of engagements to achieve the goals of the war. Just as the term “strategy” originated with the Greeks, so too did the term “tactics.”

The original meaning of “tactics” is “order”, literally the “ordering of formations on the battlefield.” Chinese General Sun Tzu described the difference this way: “All the men can see the tactics I use to conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which great victory is evolved.”

Fast forward to business today and we see the two terms misused, confused and abused in many different ways. The difference between strategy and tactics is often described as “strategy is long-term and
tactics are short-term.” While the two terms may adopt these characteristics at certain times, this is an inaccurate and incomplete way of explaining their meanings.Strategy and tactics are both how you will achieve your goals and objectives. Strategy is our path or bridge for going from where we are today to our goal. It’s our general resource allocation plan. It might be to engage industry thought-leaders to become advocates for our product. The tactics then are how specifically or tangibly we will do that. They might include items such direct marketing letters, face-to-face meetings, key talking point scripts and an iPad app. If your team is still having trouble differentiating between strategy and tactics, they can use the “Rule of Touch.” If you can reach out and physically touch it, it’s a tactic.

The “long-term and short-term” descriptors for strategy and tactics may or may not apply. A strategy that successfully helps you achieve your goal in two months might be short-term compared to tactics you’ll use for two years in maintaining competitive advantage. Using time as the criterion for distinguishing between strategy and tactics simply doesn’t make sense.

Since we can’t see or physically reach out and touch strategy, it’s often skipped in favor of going straight to tactics. Many of the business plans I review list goals, objectives and then tactics. If you don’t set strategy before tactics, then you have no way of intelligently changing course when you’re not meeting your objectives. At that point it becomes “tactical roulette”, where you continually chamber a new tactic and pull the trigger in hopes that something hits the target. Sooner or later, you’re looking at a dead business. As my great, great, great, great, great grandfather Rich Tzu once said: “Think strategically, act tactically and wash your hands before you eat.” He was always a stickler for good hygiene.