A basic planner's adage is that if you fail to plan you plan to fail. And Alvin Toffler noted if you have no strategy of your own you will become part of someone else's strategy. As ways of keeping score on what the organization is trying to achieve they are necessary. They do not say how to achieve objectives or help to diagnose corporate infirmities. The destination is your goal while the map holds the detailed tactics the corporation uses to implement strategy.
Strategy is more a compass than a map.
Strategy is about choices, as Harvard University's Michael Porter has said. It's what you do not do. Here are some corporate strategies organizations have used. The distinction between tactics and strategy Organizations use hundreds of tactics but have few strategic needs. The firm's essential success factors make up the strategy.