Acerca da estratégia e da sua ausência

"A theory of strategy needs to build on a clear definition of strategy. The definitions common in the literature, however, are mostly descriptive (“what strategy looks like”), which makes them hard to use for analysis. I therefore start from a (new) functional definition (“what strategy does”) as the smallest set of choices to optimally guide (or force) other choices. This definition can be motivated by considering what people mean when they say (or complain) that “this organization lacks a strategy”: what people usually mean is that the organization took a number of actions that each made sense on its own but that did not make sense together, i.e., that lack a unifying logic. The role of strategy is thus to ensure that all decisions fit together, similar to a plan. ... However, a strategy is not a detailed guide (or plan) but one that is boiled down to its most essential choices and decisions; ... This definition captures the idea that strategy is the core of an (potentially flexible and adaptive) intended course of action and that it provides each decision maker with just enough of the full picture to ensure consistency across decisions, both over time and at a point in time. Strategy, so defined, generates endogenously a hierarchy of decisions, with more “strategic” decisions guiding subordinate decisions.
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this definition of strategy coincides with the equilibrium outcome of a model that captures a “planned” strategy process, i.e., where someone takes a step back, collects information, and announces an overall direction for the organization. Formally, the model considers a group of people who each make a choice that affects a common project. Each person has “local” information about her own decision and how it interacts with other decisions but knows little about others’ choices. Without a strategist, this would result in an outcome with a “lack of strategy,” i.e., with each decision being optimal on its own but with no alignment across decisions. The model then introduces a “strategist,” i.e., someone who can collect information and publicly announce a set of choices."

Trechos retirados de "A Formal Theory of Strategy" de Eric Van den Steen e publicado por Management Science.