strategy

How to Make Strategic Decisions?

What is Strategy? As a dictionary definition, strategy is defined as all of the ways and methods used to achieve a predetermined goal. As a MILITARY TERM, Strategy is defined as the art and science of using military forces appropriately to achieve the goal in a war.

In Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", Alice describes her encounter with the Cheshire cat in the tree. The following conversation takes place between the two.

Alice: "Can you tell me which path I should take to get out of here?"

Cheshire Cat: "That depends on where you want to go."

Alice: "It doesn't matter where!"

Cheshire Cat: "Then it doesn't matter which way it is."

Alice: "As long as it ends up anywhere."

Cheshire Cat: "Of course you will. If you walk long enough."

*What is Strategy?

As a dictionary meaning, strategy is defined as all of the ways and methods applied to achieve a predetermined goal.

As a military term, strategy is defined as the art and science of using military forces appropriately to achieve the goal in a war.

Decision, on the other hand, is defined as a final judgment made by thinking about a job or a problem in the dictionary sense. Decision is the path that a person chooses when he/she has to make a choice in the face of events and difficulties he/she encounters in life. These decisions can sometimes be very simple. For example: "What should I eat this afternoon?" or it can be a difficult decision such as a university choice that can change your life completely.

Each decision, simple or difficult, takes you to different places.

If you want to become an ophthalmologist, you must first become a doctor. Your decision to become a doctor is the path or method you will choose among many options to achieve your predetermined goal.

For this purpose, you should enter a good medical school in Turkey as an intermediate goal. To achieve this goal, you must first take the university exam and get a high score. You can also become a doctor by going to other countries such as the UK and the USA and studying in those countries. Afterwards, you should also get specialty training in ophthalmology as your main goal.

For the decision maker, not being able to make a decision among the possible options or trying to try each option separately can be very tiring and can also cause financial and moral losses. Each change you make to reach your goal for reasons such as "I don't like this school, I don't like this teacher" will cause you to reach your goal later.

One of the most acceptable forms of behavior when making decisions is to consult with experts. Our proverb "He who consults has crossed a mountain, he who does not consult has strayed" is a good guide on how to make the decisions we will take in our lives. It is a great benefit for decision-makers to look at the outcome of events that took place as a result of decisions made in the past on similar issues or problems.

The decisions we make can be simple and straightforward, or they can be about issues such as living in a new country, choosing a profession, a spouse or a job, which involve difficulties or many question marks. For a family, changing cities for business purposes is a simple decision, but changing countries can be a very challenging decision.

Nowadays, strategic decisions are future-oriented and result-oriented decisions made in order to achieve a more advantageous situation / position than competing activities, where change and competition are intense, risk, complexity and uncertainty are high.

For Turkey, wanting to become a member of the European Union is such a decision. In changing circumstances, other possible international associations may be preferred instead of the EU.

In the story I quoted at the beginning of my article, the writer Lewis Carroll, who is actually a mathematician, tells us in simple terms what we should pay attention to in our choices by modeling "Alice in Wonderland" through Alice and the Cheshire cat.

Where is the destination we want to go?

What is the meaning and importance of this goal for us?

What should be my intermediate goals on the way to this main goal?

How much time should we spend to reach this goal?

Will reaching this goal benefit us in terms of the main goals I have planned for later?

What subject or subjects do we want to achieve in the goal?

Does achieving 100% success in only one aspect of the goal make the achievement of that goal very successful?

All these questions and the answers to them are shaped by your expectations and your perspective on life.

A person who can afford to leave the royal family for the man she loves has actually weighed what she has gained and lost and made a choice based on her evaluation. She made a personal decision.

Strategic decisions are decisions that affect not only us but also many people like us. They are decisions that, when they fail, mean the failure of other people along with you.

For example, the war between Russia and Ukraine is a strategic decision for the rulers of the countries. For Russia, this war decision against NATO's expansion affected the Russian and Ukrainian people, their economy, their way of life.

It is not only limited to Russia-Ukraine, but has also severely affected Europe and Turkey due to migration. The sanctions against Russian natural gas also affected Germany, France, the UK and other countries.

The war also affected African countries due to the grain production of the two countries.

The most important aspect of strategic decisions is that they involve huge risks that affect the decision makers. After the events and experiences, it can be said that for strategic decisions, each risk or negativity should be analyzed very well. Strategic decisions should be evaluated together with risk analysis and management.

An operator who uses all his money to open a restaurant faces the risk of losing all his investments when he cannot find enough customers in this restaurant.

To put it another way, a person who knows that he lives in an earthquake zone should calculate that if he has not built his house to withstand an earthquake of the highest intensity that can be experienced in the region, his house will completely collapse in a possible earthquake, and he and his family will suffer from this situation.

In the same way, mistakes made by a student who is very successful in the university exam during the university entrance exam can cause huge problems in the future for the student who makes that choice.

The simplest and most logical solution when making decisions that will greatly affect our future is to create preference criteria in line with the wishes, expectations and conditions and to look at the rate at which each preference meets these criteria. Calculating the numbers that our preference produces in total helps us to find the most beneficial results.

Let's say a student who will make a choice among 10 universities; location, transportation, job opportunities, academic team, achievements, social opportunities, benefits for master's degree plans, improving foreign language, etc. He can choose among the universities with the highest scores by assigning weight % to each preference criterion.

You may also have preferences that you attach importance to or are indispensable for you in many issues that will affect your life.

You want to buy a car and your spouse will drive this car. In this case, for example, your automatic transmission preference will have 30% weight points due to its ease of use and driving. Other criteria such as price, performance, size, diesel or gasoline will have lower weight points, totaling 70%. In total, it would score more points to buy an electric vehicle with automatic transmission than a manual diesel vehicle. Some priorities such as essential criteria and desirable criteria are also decisive in these preferences.

A vehicle that does not have a shuttle service in your location may have the lowest score on your preference list, even if you like it very much and want it. The problematic issue of your garage and parking space may also force you to make a choice about the size of the vehicle.

You may also be faced with many options that we can never give up among our preferences, that we can say it would be okay if it were, that you would wish it to be like this.

If you are going to transport a person with a walking disability, you are obliged to have a vehicle that can carry a wheelchair for the vehicle you will buy. But the color of this vehicle is a criterion of desire that depends on you. When making a decision, especially if it is a very important decision, you should define your criteria, your wishes and write them down one after the other, starting with the most important ones. For each vehicle or option you can buy, you can determine the most suitable choices for you by marking "yes or no" whether it meets these criteria or not.

In strategic decisions, these choices multiply even more. The financial dimension, the environmental dimension and even the social dimension are also examined. Positive and negative aspects are calculated thoroughly. Decisions are taken and put into practice by also analyzing the risks involved.

Strategic decisions can be for companies, for national investments or for international issues. Since each choice will have different consequences and effects, it is of great benefit to analyze the chosen path, i.e. the decision taken, very well and examine it in all its aspects.

Many methods or approaches can be used in making strategic decisions. These approaches may vary according to the location and the desired objectives. While the most important of these techniques for a business is SWOT analysis, many techniques such as "Cost Benefit Analysis, Game Theory, Quality Circles, Brainstorming, Scenario Planning" can be used in making strategic decisions. For NATO's military war strategies, this technique has been the EFFECT BASE APPROACH.

Even the AIR FORCE DOCTRINE PUBLICATION (AFDP) 3-0 OPERATIONS AND PLANNING document has been published and used by the US Air Force for doctrine development and training.

For all these models, pages of research and studies have been conducted and dozens of books have been written about the results. Each technique refers to techniques that have been tested many times and put into practice hundreds of times in the field.

SWOT Analysis consists of the following headings.

S - STRENGTH (Strengths)

W - WEAKNESS (Weaknesses)

O - OPPORTUNITIES (Opportunities)

T - THREATS

Sun Tzu's basic approach to war and success explains the oldest known (6th century BC) method.

-If you know others and yourself, you will not be in danger even if you fight a hundred times;

-If you do not know others and know yourself, you win and lose once;

-If you know neither yourself nor others, you are in danger in every battle.

- When I fight, everyone can see my tactics, but no one can see the strategy, which is the real source of victory.

The most successful decisions are those that fulfill the most expectations without expending too many resources.

In conclusion, Sun Tzu's statements on war and strategy from centuries ago always tell us the best: "Excellence is not winning every battle by fighting. The best strategy is to win without fighting."