“Strategy is only for big organizations”

Those with small companies or modest ambitions commonly believe that strategy is for those MBA types who manage Fortune 5000 level companies.

I would argue that one needs to rely on strategy, even more, when one has less money, opportunities, and resources.

Strategy helps you to prioritize and focus on important, life-defining activities that lead to further growth and success. 

When you’re strategic and resourceful, you “magically” garner more opportunities. 

“Strategy is only about thinking, thus a waste of my time”

I had someone tell me that all strategies, “Is thinking up ideas for other people to do.”

Most ignorant comment I may have ever heard. 

Just as your mind drives and directs your body, strategy drives and directs your tactics and regular activities.

A drunk or tired mind easily shows up in the muddled motions of those so affected.

A strategic mind is what we witness in Tom Brady's history of winning.

“Strategy provides little value or impact”

Most people are stuck in their normal, subconscious habits and old routines. They cannot connect the dots between strategy and elevating their maneuvers or developing improved tactics and efficient processes.

Before you witnessed any world-renowned innovation, there was a strategic mind working years, maybe decades, before it was unleashed upon the world. 

All true and famous innovators are also great strategists. 

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy or direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to attain strategic goals.

It may also extend to control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the strategy. Strategic planning became prominent in corporations during the 1960s and remains an important aspect of strategic management. 

It is executed by strategic planners or strategists, who involve many parties and research sources in their analysis of the organization and its relationship to the environment in which it competes.

Strategy has many definitions, but it generally involves setting strategic goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, setting a timeline, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. 

A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources) in a given span of time. Often, Strategic Planning is long term and organizational action steps are established from two to five years in the future. 

The senior leadership of an organization is generally tasked with determining strategy. Strategy can be planned (intended) or can be observed as a pattern of activity (emergent) as the organization adapts to its environment or competes in the market.

Strategy includes processes of formulation and implementation; strategic planning helps coordinate both. However, strategic planning is analytical in nature (i.e., it involves "finding the dots"); strategy formation itself involves synthesis (i.e., "connecting the dots") via strategic thinking. As such, strategic planning occurs around the strategy formation activity.