What is strategy
...ns in defining the strategy and it, also, important how these decisions are made. A creative company would allow everyone in the organisation to contribute this decision making process. In doing so creative abilities of the organisation enhances. Naturally, final decisions would be taken by senior management where responsibility lies. Rule of thumb is to keep source of information as wide as possible and communicate through different channels and utilise all this source in decision making. (Markides.2004) Once these decisions made, they needed to be deployed according to the overall strategy. This means organisation should create a set of operational activities to realise its strategy. Identifying and combining activities are crucially important. According to Markides, activities should: be demanded by the market not conflict each other be balanced form a system together Overall strategy is strategy when there is a fit between strategic decisions and activities to deploy that strategy. This fit ensures successful implementation of the strategy but at the same time limits the ability to adaptation to change. Therefore, strategic fit needs to be flexible as well. Flexibility requires identifying changes early, cultural readiness to embrace the change and skills to manage the change.(Markides, 2004) Markides's main point is that this strategic fit can be achieved in a suitable environment which allows flexibility. Environmental factors assuring flexibility are organisational culture, incentives, organisational structure and people. (Markides, 2004) Selected set of activities and strategic fit between these activities implies positioning of the company. Created system positions the company different than competitors and it is unique. “Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities. If there were only one ideal position, there would be no need for strategy “(Porter,1996) SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY It is not enough for one to position himself uniquely because competition means there will be other imitating same strategy. A sustainable strategic position requires trade-offs between different strategic positions. Meaning that it should not be possible to perform same set of activities without needing to change the strategy dramatically.(Porter,1996) In this context trade-offs do not point to operational efficiency problems. It does not mean to have a strategic position just because the competitors can not compete on cost or quality. This indicates a redundancy or waste in their process and this gap can be closed. Real trade-offs are present when even competitors are efficient. (Porter,1996) Environmental factors become important at this point. Although it is hard to identify an opportunity, a strategic position is a set of decisions and successful implementation of the strategy requires an environment which allows the strategic fit between selected activities and continuous development of the strategic position. It is more a matter of of corporate identity. Four factors stated by Markides (Markides,2004) are important elements of a...