Principles of Strategy

Strategic decision-making involves thinking about the long-term course one will take through a broad competitive landscape. Strategy provides the direction for operations. Operational planning and decision-making, in turn, guide tactical decisions made in the heat of battle.

When strategy is in place, the organization sits in a position that Sun Tzu called shih.  Sun Tzu's army did not have a specific program or plan, but understood the compeititive landscape and all of its options.  As the battle begins, decision-makers high and low know what to do as each contingency plays out.

Strategy is, simply, the art and science of options.  It is a matter of understanding current options, creating new options, and choosing among them.

History of Strategy Resources
  • How Great Generals Win
    How Great Generals Win
    by Bevin Alexander
  • How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror
    How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War from Ancient Greece to the War on Terror
    by Bevin Alexander
  • How Hitler Could Have Won World War II: The Fatal Errors That Led to Nazi Defeat
    How Hitler Could Have Won World War II: The Fatal Errors That Led to Nazi Defeat
    by Bevin Alexander
  • How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat
    How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat
    by Bevin Alexander

The History of Strategy

History is the record of man's steps and slips. It shows us that the steps have been slow and slight; the slips, quick and abounding. It provides us with the opportunity to profit by the stumbles and tumbles of our forerunners. Awareness of our limitations should make us chary of condemning those who made mistakes, but we condemn ourselves if we fail to recognize mistakes. 

Basil Liddell Hart 

 

 

Twenty four centuries ago, Sun Tzu wrote explained that the strategist seeks the state of shih - having positioned his forces at a place of advantage over rivals.  In that same era, the Greek historian Thucydides wrote that the events of the past "will at some time or other, and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future." For the next 24 centuries, he has been prevent correct time and again

This website will provide a growing set of pages dedicated to historians, theorists, strategists and events from history that may provide useful to practitioners of strategy in the world today. Please choose from the following list of topics: 

Vegetius on Strategy

Sun Tzu on Strategy

Clausewitz on Strategy

D-Day and the Normandy Invasion

Napoleon on Strategy

Liddell Hart - An Author who Shaped History

Chess and Strategy

Political Strategy

Lincoln on Leadership