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A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. Strategies are used to make the problem or problems easier to solve, and also for you to understand it more.

The word derives from the Greek word stratēgos, which derives from two words: stratos (army) and ago (ancient Greek for leading). Stratēgos referred to a 'military commander' during the age of Athenian Democracy.

Strategy is adaptable by nature rather than rigid set of instructions. Strategy is the subcomponent to tactics. The simplest explanation of this is the analogy of a sports scenario. If a football team were to organize a plan in which the ball is passed in a particular sequence between specifically positioned players, their success is dependent on each of those players both being present at the exact location, and remembering exactly when, from whom and to whom the ball is to be passed; moreover that no interruption to the sequence occurs. By comparison, if the team were to simplify this plan to a strategy where the ball is passed in the pattern alone, between any of the team, and at any area on the field, then their vulnerability to variables is greatly reduced, and the opportunity to operate in that manner occurs far more often. This manner is a strategy.

Originally confined to military matters, the word has become commonly used in many disparate fields, such as:

• Strategic management (or Business Strategy)
  • Emerging Markets Strategy [1], [2]
• Economic strategy
• Geostrategy
  • Grand strategy
  • Military strategy
• Marketing strategies
• Trading strategy
• Technology strategy
• Digital strategy
• Political strategy
• Game theoretical strategy
  • Chess strategy

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

The nature of historic texts differs greatly from area to area, and given the nature of strategy itself, there are some potential parallels between various forms of strategy (noting, for example, the popularity of the Art of War as a business book). Each domain generally has its own foundational texts, as well as more recent contributions to new applications of strategy. Some of these are:

• Political strategy
  • The Prince, published in 1532 by Niccolò Machiavelli
  • Arthashastra, written in the 4th century BC by Chanakya
  • The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione
• Military strategy:
  • The Art of War, written in the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu
  • Strategikon, written in the 6th century AC by the Byzantine emperor Maurice
  • Taktikon, by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise
  • On War, by Carl von Clausewitz (19th century)
  • Strategy, by Basil Liddell Hart
  • On Guerrilla Warfare, by Mao Zedong
  • The Influence of Sea Power upon History, by Alfred Thayer Mahan
  • The Air Campaign, by Colonel John A. Warden, III
  • Makers of Modern Strategy edited by Peter Paret
  • Strategy written by Edward N. Luttwak
• Economic strategy
  • General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes
• Business strategy
  • Competitive Strategy, by Michael Porter
  • Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy and Strategy Concept II: Another Look at Why Organizations Need Strategies, by Henry Mintzberg
  • Winning In FastTime by John A. Warden, III and Leland A. Russell, 2002.
• General strategy
  • Strategy Safari, by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel.
  • Political Strategy and Tactics by Laure Paquette
• Strategic Theory
  • Strategy generative by Jean-Paul Charnay
  • Strategy and Ethnic Conflict by Laure Paquette
• Others
  • Marcel Détienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, Les Ruses de l'intelligence, Paris: Flammarion, 1993 (on the role of the Greek Metis)

This list may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this list. It may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate.

Look up strategy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• American football strategy
• Morphological analysis
• Nuclear strategy
• Plan
• Poker strategy
• Strategic planning
• Strategic bombing
• Strategy dynamics
• Sustainable competitive advantage "Strategic advantage"
• Synergy

• Strategy Definition and Fundmentals