Strategy vs. Tactics

Lois Geller of Lois Geller Marketing Group talks about strategy as an element of business planning in Why Strategy Matters.

“Whether our plans have a thousand pages or five pages, they start with the same four elements: Background,Objective, Strategy, Tactics.

The Background is the answer to “Why are we doing this?” It contains every bit of information relevant to your task.

The Objective is a simple statement. You can’t have more than one Objective. It answers the question “What are we trying to achieve?” It can’t be vague. It has to be as specific as you can make it. This frightens some people.

Then comes the hard part: Strategy

A lot of people have a hard time distinguishing between Strategy and Tactics. That’s partly because Tactics are fun and easy while Strategy is no fun and hard.

The short version of the difference is that Strategy is what Generals do; Tactics are what Captains and Lieutenants do.”