Another trend we have noticed is the advent of the marketing playbook - a copycat set of activities deployed by marketing leaders regardless of the situation. There is a reason every company’s marketing looks exactly the same today and it is our contention that the reason is a lack of strategic focus.
Our approach at MFS is based on working with companies to understand, develop, and then articulate the strategic vision. Is it only at this point that we move into the realm of marketing tactics - building campaigns that are uniquely suited to a company’s particular situation and aligned with the strategic vision. This approach has been developed through both our experiences in business over the past fifteen years and also by learning from some past masters. Today, we would like to share fifty of our favorite quotes on strategy from some of the great strategic thinkers of the past - strategic thinkers who have helped us develop our own unique approach to strategy.
50 Best Strategy Quotes
A famous, possibly apocryphal quote from Sun Tzu that sums up our entire stance on the pointlessness of tactical activity in the absence of coherent strategy.
2. “Strategy 101 is all about choices – you can't be all things to all people.” — Michael Porter
Michael Porter - the godfather of competitive strategy is a big influence on us at MFS. The strategic discipline inherent in his Generic Strategies is worth bearing in mind for any company setting out their strategic vision.
3. “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” — Michael Porter
Porter, again, putting forward the reality that strategy requires discipline and sometimes hard choices.
4. “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” — Peter Drucker
Interesting quote from legendary management consultant Peter Drucker and a sentiment we would love to see applied more broadly today.
5. “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” — Michael LeBoeuf
Influential business author Michael LeBoeuf put it best in his 1987 book, How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life, customer satisfaction will make or break any business strategy.
6. “After a business implements a strategy, competitors will react, and the firm’s strategy will need to adapt to meet the new challenges.” — Thomas Timings Holme
Strategy is very much a live initiative or set of initiatives that must adapt and evolve along the way - an idea perfectly encapsulated by former Yale professor Thomas Timings Holme.
7. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Alan Kay
Assume control of your own destiny the Alan Kay way.
8. “Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless.” — Morris Chang
Here Morris Chang, the founder of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company outlines the interdependence of the relationship between strategy and execution in matter of fact fashion.
9. “Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment.” — Jim Collins
Author and Stanford faculty member, Jim Collins makes an important point here - unless you can bring people with you, your strategy will not succeed.
10. “Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite.” — Robert Half
American recruitment pioneer Robert Half correctly identified a key, often overlooked element in persistence which as he eloquently put it “makes the impossible possible”.
11. “Hope is not a strategy.” — Vince Lombardi
We all live in hope from time to time, but building a successful strategy takes a lot more than just hope as pointed out here in a quote that has been attributed to iconic football coach Vince Lombardi and others.
12. "You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless." — Charles de Gaulle
While the origins of this quote may be dubious, the sentiment is not. Evolution and adaptation are important elements in strategy and - such is the pace of business today - this quote is probably more applicable today than it was when it may or may not have been uttered by French General Charles de Gaulle.
13. "A vision and strategy aren’t enough. The long-term key to success is execution. Each day. Every day." — Richard M. Kovacevich
Again, we return to that theme of balancing strategy with execution and, as former Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich points out, doing so consistently.
14. "All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved." — Sun Tzu
Continuing on the proud and slightly absurd tradition of applying quotes from military generals to business situations, we enjoy this one by Sun Tzu with the point being that many people are experts after the fact and can point out the campaigns etc. that supposedly brought great success, but, in reality, it is the behind the scenes strategic vision - invisible to the eyes of the public - on which success is built.
15. "Don’t give up. Obstacles can be overcome through strategy and learning." — Hidetaka Miyazaki
This quote, attributed to innovative video game designer Hidetaka Miyazaki, outlines an important principle in business that anything worth working for is rarely straightforward. Persistence is key.
16. "Famous pivot stories are often failures but you don’t need to fail before you pivot. All a pivot is is a change in strategy without a change in vision. Whenever entrepreneurs see a new way to achieve their vision – a way to be more successful – they have to remain nimble enough to take it." — Eric Ries
The concept of the pivot is something that has been popularized over the last decade or so - particularly in the startup world. Eric Reis - the author of the influential book, The Lean Startup, makes a point here that staying nimble or agile is now a vital component of strategy.
17. "The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you’re trying to accomplish." — Michael Porter
Maintaining strategic discipline is one of the consistent themes of Michael Porter’s highly influential body of work in the area of competitive strategy.
18. "Strategy is, at some level, the ability to predict what’s going to happen, but it’s also about understanding the context in which it is being formulated. And then you have to be open-minded to the fact that you’re not going to get it right at the very beginning." — Martin Dempsey
Retired U.S. Army general Marty Dempsey brings an element of reality to the area of strategy with his take that the perfect strategy may not exist on day one and is something that can be improved over time.
19. "What I found over the years is the most important thing is for a team to come together over a compelling vision, a comprehensive strategy for achieving that vision, and then a relentless implementation plan." — Alan Mulally
Former CEO of Ford Motor Company, Alan Mulally makes an important point here about the role of collaboration in strategy development and implementation.
20. "For me, the winning strategy in any start-up business is: Think big but start small." — Carmen Busquets
Venezuelan entrepreneur Busquets’ reality-based motto is worth keeping in mind as you dream up a bright future.
21. "The underlying principles of strategy are enduring, regardless of technology or the pace of change." — Michael Porter
Going back to Michael Porter once more, his stance on the enduring principles of strategy is worth keeping in mind today in a business world becoming obsessed with tactical execution.
22. "Strategy is not really a solo sport – even if you're the CEO." — Max McKeown
Writing in his 2013 book, The Strategy Book, British writer Max Mckeown correctly points out that strategy leaders need to bring people with them if they are to stand any chance of success.
23. "Talent is the No. 1 priority for a CEO. You think it’s about vision and strategy, but you have to get the right people first." — Andrea Jung
Trailblazing CEO Andrea Jung maintains that all the vision and strategy in the world will ultimately be useless unless the right people are there to implement it.
24. "A strategy is something like, an innovative new product; globalization, taking your products around the world; be the low-cost producer. A strategy is something you can touch; you can motivate people with; be number one and number two in every business. You can energize people around the message." — Jack Welch
Former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch had some interesting ideas on strategy and his quote on the potential for strategy to be used as an energizer and motivator within the company is worth keeping in mind.
25. "A vision without a strategy remains an illusion." — Lee Bolman
This one-liner from Harvard’s Lee Bolman perfectly illustrates the difference between vision and strategy.
26. “Strategy is the compass that guides all the efforts of an organization toward a common destination.” — Igor Ansoff
This quote - attributed to famed Russian-American mathematician Igor Ansoff - touches again on the recurring theme among leading business thinkers of strategy as a unifying factor within the organization.
27. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” — Yogi Berra
Wise words from the iconic baseball figure Yogi Berra.
28. “Strategic planning is worthless—unless there is first a strategic vision.” — John Naisbitt
This quote from the author of Megatrends aligns closely with our own beliefs on the importance of strategic vision as a starting point.
29. “Strategic inflection points are the times in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.” — Andy Grove
Writing in his 1996 book Only the Paranoid Survive, the former Intel CEO brings up a point that is more relevant than ever today given the rapid AI-related changes we are in the midst of.
30. “Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.” — Henry Mintzberg
Canadian academic Mintzberg’s critique of strategic planning from the year 2000 is still as relevant as ever today.
31. “The best way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.” — W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
This counterintuitive quote from the book Blue Ocean Strategy cleverly lays out a new way of thinking about competition and competitive strategy.
32. “When people evade the work of choosing among different paths into the future—then you get vague mom-and-apple-pie goals that everyone can agree on. Such goals are direct evidence of leadership’s insufficient will or political power to make or enforce hard choices. Put differently, universal buy-in usually signals the absence of choice.” — Richard P. Rumelt
In this quote from UCLA Professor, Richard P. Rumelt, he harks back to the strategic discipline other leading thinkers like Michael Porter put so much stock in.
33. “Designing a winning strategy is the art of asking questions. Experimenting and then constantly renewing the thinking process by questioning the answers. No matter how good today’s strategy is you must always keep reinventing it.” — Constantinos Markides
Returning once again to the theme of strategy evolution, Constantinos Markides, Author of All The Right Moves, is firmly of the belief that strategy requires constant reinvention.
34. "In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." — Miyamoto Musashi
Writing in his 1645 book Go Rin No Sho, Japanese Swordsman articulated something that, remarkably, is still relevant in business today - that being the idea of maintaining something of a strategic distance to not lose track of the big picture.
35. “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
Renowned speaker Zig Ziglar’s quote is a nice blend of his trademark motivational content with a valuable point about the importance of starting your strategic execution somewhere - even if it is not perfect.
36. "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." — Stephen Covey
This quote from author and academic Stephen Covey clearly articulates the discipline that executing a successful business strategy requires.
37. "Nothing important comes with instructions." — James Richardson
Poet and aphorist James Richardson’s quote is relevant in a strategic context in that each company’s strategy should be unique to their own situation and it is our contention that a formula-based approach to strategy is rarely successful.
38. “Your past successes are your biggest obstacle: every battle, every war, is different, and you cannot assume that what worked before will work today.” — Robert Greene
Important quote from author Robert Greene on the dangers of past success leading to strategic inertia.
39. “You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter.” — Miyamoto Musashi
Coming back once again to the Japanese swordsman turned author whose seventeenth century musings still hold a surprising amount of relevance in terms of modern day business strategy. Similar to Greene above, Musashi stresses the importance of continuous strategic evolution.
40. "The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions." — Paulo Coelho
Despite the fact that Brazilian novelist Coelho focused on spiritual rather than business themes, much of his writing comes from an interesting perspective complete with strategic lessons. This quote focusing on the unique make up of each situation aligns closely with our own views on strategy at MFS.
41. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” — Winston Churchill
This witticism from the wartime prime minister of the United Kingdom is a good reminder that we ultimately operate in the business of results.
42. “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” — Uri Levine
Reality check from serial entrepreneur Uri Levine to founders who become so obsessed with their own product, they lose touch with the real world problems they should be solving.
43. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser‑like focus.” — Bruce Lee
Legendary martial artist Bruce Lee pointed out the importance of focus and discipline - something that is key to building and executing a successful strategy.
44. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers
This quote, attributed to American humorist Will Rogers, nails an important point about staying active and continuing to move forward. Strategy never sleeps.
45. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” — Sun Tzu
As you hone and develop your business strategy, remember that opportunity lies around every corner - sometimes in the most unexpected of places.
46. “Speed is useful only if you are running in the right direction.” — Joel Barker
Couldn’t agree more. Somebody tell the AI efficiency brigade.
47. “The moment you stop learning, you stop leading.” — Rick Warren
Business strategy is and will always be an ongoing challenge.
48. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” — Antoine de Saint‑Exupéry
Aristocratic French poet Antoine de Saint‑Exupéry’s quote is still extremely relevant in business today.
49. “The greatest mistake a leader can make is to be afraid of making one.” — Elbert Hubbard
American philosopher Hubbard was onto something here. Mistakes and missteps are often a vital part on the journey to business success.
50. “He who is everywhere is nowhere.” — Seneca
This quote from the famed Roman stoic philosopher can be applied to business strategy and, once again, this idea of strategic discipline that must be present.
We hope you find as much value in the above quotes as we have. If you have a marketing challenge you are looking for support with, please reach out today to set up a no obligation initial conversation with our team on this link.