What is a strategy.

Strategy has been defined as a course of action including the specifications required to achieve a specific objective (UK Chartered institute of management accounts ,1996).
In the context of organizations, it is the development of resources to achieve specific objectives against competition from rival organizations. All the resources of the organization which includes financial, manufacturing, marketing, technology, manpower etc are marshaled in pursuit of these objectives.
Johnson and Scholes provide the following definition:
Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfill stakeholder expectations.
Henry Mintzberg observes strategy as a ‘pattern in a stream of decisions’ and describes five ways of looking at strategy as;

• a plan which can be defined and followed.ie a consciously intended course of action, asset of guidelines in which to deal with a situation. Strategy in this regard is therefore concerned with how the leadership try to provide organizational direction and predetermined course of action.
• a ploy; a move in a competitive business game or a stream of actions intended to outwit an opponent or competitor.
• a pattern of consistent behavior or a stream of actions demonstrating consistency in behavior whether intended or unintended.
• a means of identifying an organizations position in an environment. This position approach sees strategy as a mediating force which organizations find and protect their positions or niches in order to meet avoid or subvert competition in the external environment.
• a reflection of the perspective on the business environment.ie distinct ways in which an organization works that is derived from the culture and ideologies that become