Answer: The word, ‘Strategy’ is derived from the ancient Greek word ‘Strategos’,

which is a combination of two words – ‘stratos’ meaning ‘army’ (especially across a

terrain) and ‘agos’ meaning ‘to lead’. The idea of strategy has its origin in military
combat, where it was important to envision and lead large scale operations. The core
element of strategy in military operations is rational planning. There is a striking
similarity between the use of strategy in military combat and business operations. In
both the scenarios, the organizations try to profit from their competitive edge, by
optimizing on their strengths. The field of strategy and strategic management had its
origins in the 1960s, when academics showed an interest to study the concept of
strategy independently. Strategic management grew as a subject of study in the 1970s
and 1980s, as important research was conducted in this field by studying companies,
their managers and strategies.

Today, Strategy is defined and interpreted in several ways. The most commonly
accepted definition is that strategy is a general set of directions for the corporate to
achieve a desirable state in the future. It is the driving force of the vision, mission and
objectives of the company. It provides the route map for taking the business forward.
Strategic planning helps the top management of an organization to assess the impact of
current decisions on the future trends in business. At the time of devising the strategy,
the top management should consider the external interests of the organization, the
expectations of the shareholders, past history and anticipated performance, along with
the mission, objectives and policies of the organizati