What makes a strategy, a strategy?

As a previous global director who worked with leading strategists in ad and branding agencies since 2007; in my view, strategy exists to solve obvious and non-obvious problems.
 However, as a recent historian the word ‘strategy’ changed its meaning based on the era of interest, and the century. Noticing the commonality though, has always been associated with either leadership, or general set of behaviors, aka human-behaviors. Therefore the common misconception of strategy was a generational built, if I want to describe it in short.

The word originated from Greek word strategos; meaning general early 17th century, or generalship from strategia; according to Oxford languages. But whether problems were defined through strategy or not, defining strategy as a start may be a good first step, especially if its been given within 3-minutes window, to a stranger, in an elevator.

Starting with an example, the American Breakfast in a Bun. Notice its strategic message (invented by Herb Peterson with his McDonald’s Egg McMuffin), that communicated a goal (the market share) to their existing customers and new ones (the morning eaters), derived from a strategic positioning (the strategy), resulted to further growth & expansion (the revenue), through set of activities (the plan), supporting a transition (the invention of the American Breakfast in a Bun), supported by intellectual framework, coming from the vision (overarching philosophy), and shaping how decisions are made.

Therefore the Egg McMuffin is not a departure of McDonald’s position, it’s the extension of it, and the implementation (which is another term for operational management), consists of efficiency & patterns (the process) combining communication & production; of existing facilities and ingredients, to achieve their plan, within the budget, and timeline agreed on. Therefore, strategy impacts doing less by aligning…others might have mistaken it with laziness. Defining strategy allows intuitive thinking for less confusion. Conscious leadership understands such, and hence invest in training their team.

Another example is how the food is being delivered (the brand consistency); introducing a bun as part of the breakfast didn’t help McDonald enter the morning field, but also reinforced what customers expected of the brand as a fast food company. Such consistency for lunch and dinner family-of-products is a strategic coherence.
Michael Porter defined strategy as the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving different set of activities. While I find this true, it is sort of incomplete, because the impact of such creation revolve around the conscious awareness of mindsets behind these creations that made it possible in the first place. The level of confidence, knowledge, and risk taking that feeds to leadership style is not always encouraged by rigid structural policies nor conventional management, therefore rivals and young leaders lack role models as much as facing layers of difficulty leading.

Policies that do not understand generational subconsciousness would struggle in defining strategy, and even recognizing to need one. It mostly is out of the scope of young leaders or staff members, however policies that are based on conscious leadership/policy writers are meant to reinforce one another. Another note worth thinking over time, is the trend of health educators promoted breakfast and lunch while dinner fell out of favor. Did such trend affect sales?
McDonald is a fast food company, therefore healthy meal isn’t a priority, their customers are aware of that, yet McDonald’s recognition in addressing health trends as much as the behavior of 9-5 workers, responded through recognizing an opportunity and inventing on time to align with such reality that served their expansion. Its the result of operational efficiencies as much as the awareness of the leadership team that comes from intellectual framework that was already setup in place.

*Mintzberg, Henry, The Strategy Concept, Five Ps For Strategy, General Strategic Theory, Fall 1987
*E. Porter, Michael, What is Strategy, Harvard Business Review, 1996