Since it was taken from the military field to the business environment – and we can now see the word being applied to many other areas, such as sports, chess, diplomacy, etc. – there have been many efforts to adapt and to define what strategy really is. Conceptual discussions so far have not reached full consensus. And maybe we don’t need to fight for a final resolution.

Following Mintzberg, I tell you that strategy does require several definitions. It shouldn’t be a problem. Many other constructs also do. It simply suggests that we are facing a very rich idea.

Anyway, whichever be the postulation someone prefers, perhaps we could agree around some aspects about the nature of it. If we cannot reach out the very onthos (essence) of that idea, maybe we can outline some of its traits.

The nature of strategy relies in the stretch between a current situation and a future, desired one. The more unsatisfied you are with the actual situation, the more you will be called to doing strategy.

Also, strategy lives in the interface: of an organisation and the market; of the players and their adversaries; of a fighter and his opponent; of the athlete and the competitors; of a candidate and amongst other challengers. If you were all alone in the cosmic space you probably would not need to spend your energy trying to be strategic.

Moreover, strategic thinking comes across with critical problems, vital issues, crucial situations. For non-relevant issues, for ‘small’ problems, in predictable contexts, usually we just try things out and /or set up a linear sequence of actions.

Hence, we are dealing with a Being that (i) shows up whenever future claims a different condition against the present, (ii) that appears always amidst an intersection of agents and (iii) that has uncertainty as its preferred background.

Even though we cannot look directly at the sun, we can describe the luminosity, the heat, the shadow… No one knows exactly what this star is in essence, but everyone can describe something about it.

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What does stretch you and your organisation right now? Whose are the other participants in the game? To what extent is the environment risky and complex?