A set of quotes about strategy I using during strategic planning sessions. Run it as a slideshow in Powerpoint or using Powerpoint Viewer. (Thanks to www.wordle.net for the front slide graphic.)
...Geoff
(www.performancepeople.com.au)
5. The first strategy of war is an armed force that is fully mobilized and consumed with the desire to win. Without that, all other strategies are vain. Napoleon Bonaparte
6. What is the aim or purpose of strategy? To improve our ability to shape and adapt to unfolding circumstances, so that we … can survive on our own terms. John R. Boyd, USAF
7. Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point. Henry Mintzberg
8. Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things. Miyamoto Musashi, 1584? – 1645
9. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. Norman Schwarzkopf
10. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. Winston Churchill
11. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu
13. You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless. Charles De Gaulle
14. The recognition of the tension between values and numbers is the first requirement of the strategic manager, and it is the effective reconciliation of that tension that marks a great manager. Harold Evans
15. Consistent alignment of capabilities and internal processes with the customer value proposition is the core of any strategy execution. Robert S. Kaplan
16. Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not a matter of being better at what you do – it’s a matter of being different at what you do. Michael Porter
17. Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein
18. A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline. Harvey Mackay
19. Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life have been the consequence of action without thought. Bernard M. Baruch
20. It's not the plan that is important, it's the planning. Graeme Edwards
21. It is important not to ignore forecasts that are uncongenial. Jib Fowles
22. We must ask where we are and whither we are tending. Abraham Lincoln
23. Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. A. A. Milne