Chapter 1

Strategic Leadership: Managing the Strategy-Making

Process for Competitive Advantage
Organizations are facing exciting and dynamic
challenges in the 21st century. In the globalized
business, companies require strategic thinking and
only by evolving good corporate strategies can they
become strategically competitive. A sustained or
sustainable competitive advantage occurs when
firm implements a value – creating strategy of
which other companies are unable to duplicate the
benefits or find it too costly to initiate.
What is strategy?
Strategy, narrowly defined, means “the art of the general”
The Greek stratos, meaning ‘field, spread out as in ‘structure’; and agos,
meaning ‘leader’. This term came into use in the 6th century C.E. (CE is an
abbreviation for Common [Link] is short for Before Common Era. The
Common Era begins with year 1 in the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian
calendar is today's internationally accepted civil calendar and is also known as
the Western or Christian calendar.) in East Roman terminology, and was
translated into Western languages only in the 18th century.

Here are some definitions of strategy

Chandler(1962) Strategy is the determinator of the basic long-term goals of
an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of
resources necessary for carrying out these goals;

Alfred DuPont Chandler, Jr. (September 15, 1918 – May 9, 2007) was a
professor of business history at Harvard Business School and Johns
Hopkins University
Mintzberg (1979): Strategy is a mediating force between the
organization and its environment.
Prahlad (1993) Strategy is more than just fit and allocation
of resources. It is enlarge and leveraging of resources Porter
(1996) Strategy is about being different. It means
deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a
unique mix of value.
Strategy is a complex concept that involves many different processes
and activities within an organization. To capture this complexity,
Professor Henry Mintzberg of McGill University in Montreal, Canada,
articulated what he labeled as “the 5 Ps of strategy.”

The Five Ps
Plan – a carefully crafted set of steps that a firm intends to follow in order to
be successful.
Virtually every firm creates a strategic plan to guide its future. Plans are
important to individuals too. If you are reading this, you probably have a career
plan that requires a degree.

Ploy – a specific move designed to outsmart or trick competitors.

A pizzeria owner in Pennsylvania once tried to sabotage/interference his

competitors by placing mice in their shops.
Pattern – the degree of consistency in a firm’s strategic actions.
Apple always responds to competitive challenges by innovating. Some of these
innovations are complete busts, but enough are successful that Apple’s overall
performance is excellent.
Position – a firm’s place in the industry relative to its competitors.
Old Navy (American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by
American multinational corporation Gap Inc. abbreviation for incorporated: used in
the names of US companies that are legally established ) offers fashionable clothes
at competitive prices. Old Navy is owned by the same corporation as the Gap
and Banana Republic; each brand is positioned at a different pricing level.

Perspective – how executives interpret the competitive landscape

around them.
In the mid-1990s, the Internet was mainly a communication tool
for academics and government. Jeff Bezos viewed the Internet as a
sales channel and he began selling books online. Today, the
company he created [Link]-is a dominant retailer.

Strategic Leadership, Competitive

Advantage, and Superior Performance
Strategic leadership is concerned with managing the
strategy-making process to increase the performance
of a company, thereby increasing the
value of the enterprise to its owners and
shareholders
Superior Performance
Maximizing shareholder value is the ultimate goal of profit-making
companies for two reasons. First, shareholders provide a company
with the risk capital that enables managers to buy the resources
needed to produce and sell goods and services.
Second, shareholders are the legal owners of a corporation, and their
shares represent a claim on the profits generated by a company.
Thus, managers have an obligation to invest those profits in ways
that maximize shareholder value.
Shareholder value- the returns that shareholders earn from
purchasing shares in a company. These returns come from two
sources: (1) capital appreciation in the value of a company’s shares
and (2) dividend payments.
way of measuring the
profitability and The
profit growth?
 Competitive Advantage and a Company’s Business
Model
A business model encompasses the totality of how a company will
• Select its customers.
• Define and differentiate its product offerings.• Create value for its
customers
• Acquire and keep customers.
• Produce goods or services.
• Lower costs.
• Deliver those goods and services to the market.
• Organize activities within the company.
• Configure its resources.
• Achieve and sustain a high level of profitability.
• Grow the business over time.
Industry Differences in Performance a company’s
performance is also determined by the characteristics of
the industry in which it competes Performance in
Nonprofit Enterprises nonprofit enterprises such as
government agencies, universities, and charities are not
in “business” to make profits.
Strategic Managers
In most companies, there are two main types of managers:
general managers who bear responsibility for the overall
performance of the company or for one of its major
selfcontained sub-units or divisions
and functional managers who are responsible for supervising
a particular function, that is, a task, an activity, or an
operation, such as accounting, marketing, research and
development (R&D), information technology, or logistics.
The Strategy-Making Process
A Model of the Strategic Planning Process
The formal strategic planning process has five main steps:
1. Select the corporate mission and major corporate goals.
2. Analyze the organization’s external competitive environment to
identify opportunities and threats.
3. Analyze the organization’s internal operating environment to
identify the organization’s strengths and weaknesses.
4. Select strategies that build on the organization’s strengths and
correct its weaknesses in order to take advantage of external
opportunities and counter external threats.
5. Implement the strategies.
Mission Statement Kodak’s
mission statement—to provide
“customers with the solutions
they need to capture, store,
process, output, and
communicate images”—is a
customer-oriented statement
that focuses on customer
needs rather than a particular
product (or solution) for
satisfying those needs, such as
chemical film processing.
Vision The vision of a
company lays out some
 desired future state; Nokia, the world’s largest manufacturer of
mobile (wireless) phones, has been operating with a very simple
but powerful vision for some time: “If it can go mobile, it will!”
This vision implied that not only would voice technology go
mobile but also a host of other services based on data, such as
imaging and Internet browsing.
In the political arena, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Martin
Luther King Jr., and Margaret Thatcher have all been described as
examples of visionary leaders. Think of the impact of Kennedy’s
sentence, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what
you can do for your country”; of King’s “I have a dream” speech;
and of Churchill’s “we will never surrender.”
For years, Bill Gates’ vision of a world in which there would be
a Windows-based personal computer on every desk was a
driving force at Microsoft. More recently, the vision has
evolved into one of a world in which Windows-based software
can be found on any computing device, from PCs and servers
to video game, cell phones, and handheld computers.
A goal is a measurable desired future state that a
precise and company attempts to realize.
Well- 1. They are precise and measurable.
constructed 2. They address critical issues.
goals have 3. They are challenging but realistic.
four main 4. They specify a time period in which
characteristics the goals should be achieved, when
: that is appropriate.
 Profitable
Benefits of Engaging in Strategic Management
Strategic management allows an organization to be more proactive than
reactive(Proactive business owners have a significant competitive
advantage. Reactive owners, on the other hand, never maximize the
potential of their businesses) in shaping its own future; it allows an
organization to initiate and influence (rather than just respond to)
activities—and thus to apply control over its own destiny. Small business
owners, CEO, presidents, and managers of many for profit and nonprofit
organizations have recognized and realized the benefits of strategic
management.
Dale McConkey said, “Plans are less important than planning.” The
manner in which strategic management is carried out is therefore
exceptionally important. A major aim of the process is to achieve
understanding and commitment from all managers and employees.
Understanding may be the most important benefit of strategic
management, followed by commitment.
Managers and employees become surprisingly creative and innovative
when they understand and support the firm’s mission, objectives, and
strategies. A great benefit of strategic management, then, is the
opportunity that the process provides to empower individuals.
Empowerment is the act of strengthening employees’ sense of
effectiveness by encouraging them to participate in decision making and
to exercise initiative and imagination, and rewarding them for doing so.
William Fulmer said, “You want your people to run the business as it if
were their own.”
Financial Benefits

High-performing firms tend to do systematic planning to

prepare for future fluctuations in their external and internal
environments. Firms with management systems that utilize
strategic-planning concepts, tools, and techniques generally
exhibit superior long-term financial performance relative to
their industry.
Nonfinancial Benefits
Besides helping firms avoid financial expiry, strategic
management offers other tangible benefits, such as
enhanced awareness of external threats, improved
understanding of competitors’ strategies, increased
employee productivity, reduced resistance to change, and
a clearer understanding of performance–reward
relationships. Strategic management enhances the
problem- prevention capabilities of organizations because
it promotes interaction among manager’s at all divisional
and functional levels.
Some nonfinancial benefits of a firm utilizing strategic
management, according to Greenley, are increased
discipline, improved coordination, enhanced
communication, reduced resistance to change, increased
forward thinking, improved decision making, increased
collaboration, and more effective allocation of time and
resources.

Strategic Planning in Practice

Strategic planning is the formal planning
methodologies and emergent strategies both form
part of a good strategy formulation process,
particularly in an unstable environment. For strategic
planning to work, it is important that top-level
managers plan not just in the context of the current
competitive environment but also in the context of
the future competitive environment.
Scenario planning involves formulating plans that are based
on what-if scenarios about the future. In the typical scenario
planning exercise, some scenarios are optimistic, and some
are pessimistic. Teams of managers are asked to develop
specific strategies to cope with each scenario. A set of
indicators is chosen as signposts to track trends and identify
the probability that any particular scenario is coming to
pass.
The oil company Royal Dutch Shell has perhaps done more than
most to pioneer the concept of scenario planning, and its experience
demonstrates the power of the approach. Shell has been using
scenario planning since the 1980s. Today, it uses two main scenarios
to refine its strategic planning. The scenarios relate to the future
demand for oil. One, called “Dynamics as Usual,” sees a gradual shift
from carbon fuels such as oil to natural gas to renewable energy.
The second scenario, “The Spirit of the Coming Age,” looks at
the possibility that a technological revolution will lead to a
rapid shift to new energy sources. Shell is making
investments that will ensure the profitability of the company
whichever scenario comes to pass, and it is carefully tracking
technological and market trends for signs of which scenario
is becoming more likely over time.
Decentralized Planning

A mistake that some companies have made in constructing their

strategic planning process has been to treat planning as an
exclusively top management responsibility. This ivory tower
approach can result in strategic plans formulated in a vacuum by top
managers who have little understanding or appreciation of current
operating realities. Consequently, top managers may formulate
strategies that do more harm than good.
For example, when demographic data indicated that houses and
families were reduction, planners at GE’s appliance group
concluded that smaller appliances were the wave of the future.
Because they had little contact with home builders and retailers,
they did not realize that kitchens and bathrooms were the two
rooms that were not reduction. Nor did they appreciate that when
couples both worked, they wanted big refrigerators to cut down
on trips to the supermarket. GE ended up wasting a lot of time
designing small appliances with limited demand. The ivory tower
concept of planning can also lead to tensions between corporate-,
business-, and functional-level managers.
Many of the corporate managers in the planning group were
recruited from consulting firms or top-flight business schools.
Many of the functional level managers took this pattern of
recruitment to mean that corporate managers did not think
they were smart enough to think through strategic problems
for themselves. They felt shut out of the decision-making
process, which they believed to be unfairly constituted. Out of
this perceived lack of practical justice grew an “us-versusthem”
mindset that quickly rise into hostility. As a result, even when
the planners were right, operating managers would not listen
to them.
 Strategic Decision Making
Even the best-designed strategic planning systems will
fail to produce the desired results if managers do not
use the information at their disposal effectively.
Therefore, it is important that strategic managers learn
to make better use of the information they have and
understand why they sometimes make poor decisions.
 Cognitive Biases and Strategic Decision Making
The rationality of human decision makers is bounded by
our own cognitive ( mental actions or process of acquiring
knowledge) capabilities. We are not supercomputers, and it
is difficult for us to absorb and process large amounts of
information effectively.
The prior hypothesis bias refers to the fact that decision makers who have
strong prior beliefs about the relationship between two variables tend to make
decisions on the basis of these beliefs, even when presented with evidence
that their beliefs are wrong. Moreover, they tend to seek and use information
that is consistent with their prior beliefs while ignoring information that
contradicts these beliefs. To put this bias in a strategic context, it suggests that
a CEO who has a strong prior belief that a certain strategy makes sense might
continue to pursue that strategy, despite evidence that it is in appropriate or
failing.
Escalating commitment, occurs when decision makers, having already
committed significant resources to a project, commit even more resources
even if they receive feedback that the project is failing. This may be an
irrational response; a more logical response would be to abandon the
project and move on (that is, to cut your losses and run), rather than
escalate commitment.

A human behavior pattern in which an individual or group facing

increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, action or investment
reasoning by analogy, involves the use of simple
analogies to make sense out of complex problems.
The problem with this heuristic is that the analogy
may not be valid.
representativeness, is rooted in the tendency to
generalize from a small sample or even a single bright
story. This bias violates the statistical law of large
 numbers that says that it is inappropriate to generalize
from a small sample, let alone from a single case.
The illusion of control: the tendency to over estimate one’s
ability to control events. General or top managers seem to
be particularly prone to this bias: having risen to the top of
an organization, they tend to be over confident about their
ability to succeed. According to Richard Roll, such over
 confidence leads to what he has termed the hubris
hypothesis of take over.
The availability error is yet another common bias. The availability error arises
from our tendency to estimate the probability of an outcome based on how easy
the outcome is to imagine. For example, more people seem to fear a plane crash
than a car accident, and yet statistically one is far more likely to be killed in a car
on the way to the airport than in a plane crash. They overweight the probability
of a plane crash because the outcome is easier to imagine, and because plane
crashes are more highlight events than car crashes, which affect only small
numbers of people at a time. As a result of the availability error, managers might
allocate resources to a project whose outcome is easier to imagine than to one
that might have the highest return.

Techniques for Improving Decision Making

The existence of cognitive biases raises the issue of how to bring

critical information to bear on the decision-making mechanism so that
a company’s strategic decisions are realistic and based on thorough
 evaluation. Two techniques known to enhance strategic thinking and
counteract cognitive biases are devil’s advocacy and dialectic inquiry.

Devil’s advocacy requires the generation of both a plan

and a critical analysis of the plan. One member of the
decision-making group acts as the devil’s advocate,
bringing out all the reasons that might make the proposal
unacceptable. In this way, decision makers can become
 aware of the possible risks of recommended courses of
action.
Dialectic inquiry is more complex because it requires the generation of a plan(a
thesis) and a counterplan (an antithesis) that reflect possible but conflicting
courses of action. Strategic managers listen to a debate between advocates of
the plan and counterplan and then decide which plan will lead to the higher
performance. The purpose of the debate is to reveal the problems with
definitions, recommended courses of action, and assumptions of both plans.
As a result of this exercise, strategic managers are able to form a new and
more conceptualization of the problem, which then becomes the final plan (a
synthesis). Dialectic inquiry can promote strategic thinking.

Mintzberg’s modes of strategic decision-making

Henry Mintzberg has given three most typical approaches of strategic

decision making which include:

• Entrepreneurial mode

• Adaptive mode

• Planning mode
Entrepreneurial Mode: Strategy is made by one powerful individual
who has entrepreneurial competencies like innovation and risk taking.
The focus is on opportunities. Problems are secondary. Generally the
founder is the entrepreneur and the strategy is guided by his or her
own vision of direction and is exemplified by bold decisions.
Adaptive mode: Sometimes referred to as “muddling through,” this
decision-making mode is characterized by reactive solutions to
existing problems, rather than a proactive search for new
opportunities. Much bargaining goes on concerning priorities of
 objectives. Strategy is fragmented and is developed to move the
corporation forward incrementally. This mode is typical of most
universities, many large hospitals and a large number of
governmental agencies.
Planning mode: This decision making mode involves the
systematic gathering of appropriate information for situation
analysis, the generation of feasible alternative strategies, and
the rational selection of the most appropriate strategy. It
includes both the proactive search for new opportunities and
the reactive solution of existing problems.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is an example of the planning
mode. After a careful study of trends in the computer
and communications industries, management noted
that the company needed to stop thinking of itself as a
collection of stand-alone products with a primary focus
on instrumentation and computer hardware. Led by its
CEO, top management felt that the company needed
to become a customer-focused and integrated provider
 of information appliances, highly reliable information
technology infrastructure and electronic commerce
service.
Strategic Leadership
Several authors have identified a few key characteristics of good
strategic leaders that lead to high performance:(1) vision, eloquence,
and consistency; (2) articulation of the business model;(3)
commitment; (4) being well informed; (5) willingness to delegate and
empower;(6) smart use of power; and (7) emotional intelligence.
Articulation of the Business Model

Another key characteristic of good strategic leaders is their ability to

identify and articulate the business model the company will use to attain
its vision. A business model is a manager’s conception of how the various
strategies that the company pursues fit together into a similar whole. At
Dell Computer, for example, it was Mr. M. Dell who identified and
articulated the basic business model of the company: the direct sales
business model.
 Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a term that Daniel Goldman coined to describe a bundle of
psychological attributes that many strong and effective leaders exhibit:

• Self-awareness: the ability to understand one’s own moods, emotions, and

drives, as well as their effect on others

• Self-regulation: the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses or moods,

that is, to think before acting

• Motivation: a passion for work that goes beyond money or status and a
tendency to pursue goals with energy and persistence
• Empathy: the ability to understand the feelings and viewpoints of
subordinates and to take those into account when making decisions

• Social skills: friendliness with a purpose According to Goldman, leaders

who possess these attributes—who exhibit a high degree of emotional
intelligence—tend to be more effective than those who lack these attributes.
Their self-awareness and self-regulation help to elicit the trust and confidence
of subordinates.
Finally, strong empathy and social skills can help leaders earn the
loyalty of subordinates. Empathetic and socially adept individuals tend
to be skilled at managing clash between managers, better able to find
common ground and purpose among diverse constituencies, and better
able to move people in a desired direction compared to leaders who
lack these skills. In short, Goldman argues that the psychological
makeup of a leader matters.

Maritime Surveillance (Bangladesh Navy/Coast

Guard watch the marine resources)
Within the present maritime boundary, Bangladesh owns 47,211 sq. km of
coastal area, which is approximately 32% of the total mass of the country. The
 marine and associated coastal zone is consisted of sprawling estuaries, dense
mangrove forests, land and coral islands and sea beaches. From the coast line
onwards at the vicinity of territorial sea, EEZ and up to the entire zone of
continental shelf, there are plenty of living and non-living resources like fisheries,
oil and gas, valuable minerals etc. in the BoB area of Bangladesh.

Aside with aquatic and fisheries resources, the possibility of exploring

more gas and oil field is becoming more potential and challenging. The
foot of the continental slope in the Bay of Bengal is at an average distance
of 50 nautical miles and there is estimation that the area is potentially
rich in oil and gas. Significant amount of natural gas is discovered in the
 off shore of Bangladesh while the same has been reported off the coast of
Andhra Pradesh in India.
Strengthening of maritime security and surveillance is becoming most
important to protect these resources from international piracy and IUU fishing
within the BoB part of Bangladesh. Similar situation also lies with the maritime
resources of other neighboring states i.e. India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Issues
of piracy and illegal maritime activities can best be addressed through
cooperative surveillance and information sharing arrangements. It is the high
time for South Asian littoral states (Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka) including
Myanmar of the Bay of Bengal to outline a coordinated approach to security
risk management from regional level to enhance regional maritime security
and surveillance against international threat and terrorism.

Innovation strategies
Here it is all about who is on the cutting edge, who churns out the new products and
technologies before anyone else. You are a pioneer, close follower or late follower.
Pioneer- Concentrate on being the one with the newest, hottest products around.
Promise customers will get the new technology before anyone else does. Close
follower- wait for other to pioneer in different direction, and when they are on to
something; quickly adopt it, improve it and make its own. Late follower- Adopt only
the most stable of technology, stress to customers that products will be stable, tried
and tested, with no bugs or last minute recalls.

Growth Strategy
The growth strategy is called as expansion strategy .To achieve higher targets than
before ,a firm may enter into new market, introduce new product lines, serve
additional market segments, and so on.

In the case of Intensification Strategy, the firm pursues growth within the
existing businesses. intensification strategy involves three alternatives:-

1)Market Penetration Strategy

2) Market Development Strategy

3) Product Development Strategy

1)Market Penetration Strategy:- In this case the firm continues with its
current products & current market but it tries to increase its market share
through aggressive marketing in the areas of advertising sales promotion,
price cuts , etc.

2) Market Development Strategy: - The firm enters into new markets

apart from current markets by offering the existing range of product. For
this purpose the firm has to undertake market research right pricing
effective promotion-mix & appointment of goods dealer’s network.
3) Product Development Strategy: - The firm may continue with the
existing market but introduces improved products & substitutes. It may
also enter in new market with the help of improved and new products.
Diversification is one type of internal growth strategy. It involves entry into
new products & in new markets. Diversification can be defined as entry of
a firm into new product or product line, new services or new markets,
involving substantially different skill, technology & knowledge.
Types of Diversification Strategy

1) Vertical Diversification: - it consists of extending the activities of a firm it can

be in two forms :- a) backward integration: - In backward integration a company
moves one step backwards from the current line of business. For instance, hero
cycles has set up a subsidiary to manufacture cycle wheels and tubes. b) Forward
integration: - In this case the company moves one step ahead of its current line of
business activities. For instance, a cloth manufacturer may enter into readymade
garments business. The company may also diversify into distribution activities by
opening up its own retail shops like that of Bata or Raymond’s.
2) Horizontal Diversification: - when a company enters into a new business
which is closely related with the existing line of business through processes,
Technology or markets. For instance, a gent’s readymade garment
manufacturer may enter in the business of ladies readymade garment.

3) Concentric Diversification: - It involves diversification into such areas or

products which are indirectly related to its existing line of business.
Concentric diversification the new business is linked to existing businesses.
For example, a car dealer may start a finance company to finance hire
purchase of cars.
4) Conglomerate Diversification: - It involves entry in a totally new areas or
business. It is an attempt to diversify outside the present market or
product. In conglomerate diversification, no linkages exit between the new
business and the existing business. For instance, a firm may enter into
several types of business such as computer software, banking, insurance,
airline, etc.
Integration Strategy: Integration means combining activities related to the
present activity of business of a firm. There can be interlinking of activities
performed by a firm right from the procurement of basic raw materials
down to marketing of goods to the final consumer.
Integration is an expansion strategy as it involves widening of business
definition of a firm. It is also a subset of diversification strategy as it
involves undertaking certain activities or business, which the firm was not
dealing earlier.
The integration strategy can be of two types: - 1) Vertical Integration: - it
consists of extending the activities of a firm it can be in two forms :-

a) Backward integration: -

b) Forward integration: -
 Comparing Business and Military Strategy
A key aim of both business and military strategy is “to gain competitive advantage.” In
many respects, business strategy is like military strategy, and military strategists have
learned much over the centuries that can benefit business strategists today. Both business
and military organizations try to use their own strengths to exploit competitors’
weaknesses. If an organization’s overall strategy is wrong (ineffective), then all the
efficiency in the world may not be enough to allow success. Business or military success is
generally not the happy result of accidental strategies. Rather, success is the product of
both continuous attention to changing external and internal conditions and the formulation
and implementation of insightful adaptations to those conditions.
The element of surprise provides great competitive advantages in both military and
business strategy; information systems that provide data on opponents’ or
competitors’ strategies and resources are also vitally important. A fundamental
difference between military and business strategy is that business strategy is
formulated, implemented, and evaluated with an assumption of competition,
whereas military strategy is based on an assumption of conflict. However, military
conflict and business competition are so similar that many strategic-management
techniques apply equally to both. Business strategists have access to valuable insights
that military thinkers have refined over time. Superior strategy formulation and
implementation can overcome an opponent’s superiority in numbers and resources.
Born in Pella in 356 BCE, Alexander the Great was king of Macedon, a state in
northern ancient Greece. Tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16, Alexander
had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of 30,
enlarging from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. Alexander was undefeated in
battle and is considered one of history’s most successful commanders. He
became the measure against which military leaders even today compare
themselves, and military academies throughout the world still teach his
strategies and tactics.
Alexander the Great once said, “Greater is an army of sheep led by a
lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep.” This quote discloses the
 great importance of an excellent strategic plan for any organization to
succeed. The legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant asserted, “I
will defeat the opposing coach’s team with my players, but if given a
week’s notice, I could defeat the opposing coach’ steam with his players
and he take my players.”

Maritime Strategy
Maritime strategies are significant in military planning because they provide the
means to apply power to areas of interest along coastlines and inland. This area
is called the littoral. The littoral is defined ‘as the areas to seaward of the coast
which are susceptible to influence or support from the land and the areas inland
from the coast which are susceptible to influence from the sea.’ Defense
operations in the littoral require the need for effective joint operations. A
modern maritime strategy involves air, sea and land forces operating jointly to
influence events in the littoral together with traditional blue water maritime
concepts of sea denial and sea control.
MARITIME strategy is the set of principles that govern a maritime war, in
which the sea is a substantial factor. Naval strategy is but that part of national
strategy which determines the movement of the fleet, in time of war.
Maritime strategy determines how and what part of the navy must be
engaged in relation to the land and air strategy. The greatest Chinese
 strategist Sunzu said, “War is a matter of vital importance to the state, a
matter of life and death, the road either to survival or to ruin. Hence, it is
imperative that it be studied thoroughly”. He further said “Strategy of any war
whether land, air or at sea should be valued in quick victory, not
prolong/delay operations”.
Alfred Thayer Mahan, a naval philosopher said “Those nation who possessed
sea power has certain options to them which give them advantages over those
nations who do not possess sea power”. It was only through the use of this
advantage that a nation could become great. Chairman Mao Tse Dong said,
“Military (maritime) strategy is nothing but war planning, preparing and
direction by war commanders”. There are many strategists who gave their
different views on military and maritime strategy but the center of their
strategic philosophy remained same. Some say, 'Strategy is nothing but tactics
talked through a brass hat'.