Introduction...

One of the most popular texts ever written on Strategy is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu in 6th Century BC (The English version of the book is highly readable and is available in the markets. It’s just about 100 odd pages). Of course this is about military strategy, but strategy in business too has to do a lot with War. Terms we hear like, target, goal, tactic, manoeuvre, threat, ambush marketing, kill, acquisition, aggressive, campaign etc are all terms derived from wars and battles. For that matter the word Strategy itself has its roots in the military campaigns. "Marketing Warfare" a popular book, written by Al Ries and Jack Trout talks a lot about how the various strategies that are used in wars like "Offensive Warfare", "Defensive Warfare", "Flanking Warfare" and "Guerrilla Warfare". How these can be used as a part of marketing strategy by any company are discussed in detail. The following link gives some interesting details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_warfare_strategies

Talking of strategy, some of the most prominent strategists that ever lived are


Mythical: Lord Krishna, Ulysses

Ancient: Machiavelli, Chanakya, Sun Tzu

Medievial: Julius Caesar, Napolean, etc

Modern:
Philip Selznick (SWOT analysis is based from his notes)
Igor Ansoff (Ansoff Matrix)
Peter Drucker (theory of Management by Objectives or MBO, Age of Discontinuity, Knowledge Worker)
Harry Markowitz (Portfolio Theory- Initially a strategy of maintaining an ideal portfolio of financial assets to reduce risk, but later developed into how to take product portfolio decisions and operational portfolio decisions. BCG Matrix, GE Multi Factor Model are a result of this)
Gary Hamel & C.K. Prahlad (coined phrases like Core-Competence, Strategic Intent, Strategic Architecture, Bottom of the Pyramid, Co-creation)
Kenichi Ohmae (the head of McKinsey Tokyo office, and author of the book- The Mind of the Strategist")
Dave Packard & Bill Hewlett (of HP, devised an active strategic management theory of "Managing by Walking Around or MBWA)
Micheal Potter (Perhaps, the most influential among the modern strategists, gave us concepts like, 5 Forces Analysis, Generic Strategies, The Value Chain, Strategic Groups & Clusters
Philip Kotler (last but not the least !! Kotler is a well known proponent of Marketing Warfare Strategy)


There are various models that one comes across in Business Strategy. Prominent among them that one has to know about are:

1. Ansoff Growth Matrix
2. BCG Matrix
3. Balanced Score Card
4. GE Matrix
5. McKinsey Growth Model
6. SWOT Analysis
7. PEST Analysis
8. Porter's Five Forces
9. Porter's Diamond Model
10. Value Chain Analysis

During the course of the Blog, we shall discuss each one of these models in detail and how they are practically being applied in Business.

Thus spake Socrates...