Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
Strategies
What's the use of running, if you are not on the right road.
—German proverb
The concept of strategic thinking, and strategies in general, has been in
existence for a long time, much longer than the emergence of computers
and computer-based information systems. The term is familiar from its
early use in military strategies. Nowadays we frequently come across its
usage in investment strategies, election strategies, treatment strategies,
chess strategies, etc. Such strategies are planned with a view to help us win.
Strategy has many definitions. Peter Drucker states it best by saying that:
“Strategy is about choices and it is about focus. Whenever scarce
resources have to be allocated certain choices have to be made.
If choices are not required or choices are not available then it
hardly matters what the strategy is.”
One's options are often limited although one may appear to be in an
environment of free and varied choice. To understand one's options, one
must look at the drives and the constraints (Figure 3.1). George Friedman,
an expert on intelligence and international geopolitics, explains this lim-
itation thus:
“In a game of chess, it appears that there are many moves
available. There seem to be twenty possible first moves, for
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