The premise of our book, The Alpha Strategies, Understanding Strategy, Risk, and Values in Any Organization, is that 8 strategies are common to all organizations from for-profits to nonprofits to government organizations.
We define strategy as a course of action and our research tells us there are 8 choices all organizations must make.
These findings are based on a fresh reading of Henri Fayol's General and Industrial Management, in which Fayol lists 6 of these 8 strategies on the first page of his book, arguably the first book written on the subject of the modern discipline of strategic management.
Peter Drucker identifies 2 more of the 8 in his famous work, The Practice of Management, written in 1954.
The 8 are: Business Definition/Mandate, Growth, Risk, Financial Management, R&D/Technology, Organization Management, Marketing/Sales | Communications, and Service Delivery - which is also known as Production or Manufacturing depending on the nature of the business.
These 8 strategies must be understood because they represent the 8 categories of strategy found in every organization. It is problematic to undertake strategic planning without understanding current strategy; being, all of the 8. Strategy cannot be changed without a solid understanding of current strategy.
The 8 strategies are the source of all organization design and the expectations which will drive the implementation of subsequent strategy planning to implement their intent.