100+ Inspirational Strategy Quotes from the Well-Known Strategy Experts

Quotes About Strategy

Here are some strategy quotes that you can copy-paste.

• “Help your customers and you help your business.” ~ Leo Burnett

• “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” ~ Peter F. Drucker

• “The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do it.” ~ Sergio Zyman

• “What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.” ~ David Ogilvy

• “The consumer is not a moron, she’s your wife.” ~ David Ogilvy (not sure this one stands the test of time. Blame Kessler in the comments. He made me add it!)

• “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” ~ Peter Drucker

• “If you have more money than brains you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.” ~ Guy Kawasaki

• “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

• “Deadlines are the greatest source of inspiration” ~ Mark Twain

• “Markets are conversations.” ~ The Cluetrain Manifesto

• “Marketing takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master.” ~ Phil Kolter

• “Advertising in the final analysis should be news. If it is not news it is worthless.” ~ Adolph Ochs

• “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin

• “There is nothing more valuable than a spotless reputation.” ~ William Shakespeare

Quotes on Strategy

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Get inspired by these strategy quotes below.

• "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." — Michael E. Porter, American  economist and founder of strategic management

• "In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell." — Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

• "The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time." — Henry Ford

• "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." — Willian Gibson, American science fiction author

• "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." — Sir Winston Churchill

• "Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point." — Henry Mintzberg, management thinker and “enfant terrible” of strategic planning theory

• "The real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation." — and again Henry Mintzberg

• "Winning should be at the heart of every strategy." — A.G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin in their book Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works.

• "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." — Peter Drucker, American economist and pioneer of modern management theory

• "Transient advantage is the new normal." — Rita Gunther McGrath, Professor at Columbia Business School, Rita Gunther McGrath, 

• Professor at Columbia Business School, criticizing Michael Porter’s old postulate of long-term competitive advantage as no longer being valid or useful in today’s hyper-competitive business environment.

• "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." — Benjamin Franklin

• "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else." — Yogi Berra, American baseball player

• "If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering." — Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO of Amazon

• "Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment." — Jim Collins & Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

• "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." — Sun Tzu, Chinese philosopher, and military strategist

• “Companies that speak in the language of the pitch are no longer speaking to anyone.” ~ The Cluetrain Manifesto

• “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

• “Marketing is not anyone’s job… It’s everyone’s job!” ~ Jack Welch (Thanks to my new Twitter friend Leigh Cowan)

Business Strategy Quotes

Make a better strategy with the following inspirational strategy quotes below.

• "We don't have much in the way of a business strategy. Like no business plan. Which I say to torment all my friends who are VCs or MBAs. That's always entertaining." The deal is, it's a mixture of luck and persistence.Craig Newmark

• "An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage."Jack Welch

• "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."Sun Tzu

• "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do."Michael Porter

• "The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."Mark Zuckerberg

• "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."Alan Kay

• "A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all."Michael LeBoeuf

• "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."Peter Drucker

• "Sound strategy starts with having the right goal."Michael Porter

• "In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell."Jack Welch

• "Business strategy is the battleplan for a better future."Patrick Dixon

• "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking."George S. Patton

• "What business strategy is all about-what distinguishes it from all other kinds of business planning-is, in a word, competitive advantage. Without competitors there would be no need for strategy, for the sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as efficiently as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors."Kenichi Ohmae

• "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."Winston Churchill

• "A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business."Henry Ford

• "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy."Norman Schwarzkopf

• "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."Dwight D. Eisenhower

• "In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last."John Romero

War Strategy Quotes

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Here are some war strategy quotes from Sun Tzu!

• "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."Sun Tzu

• "He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight."Sun Tzu

• "The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself."Sun Tzu

• "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."Sun Tzu

• "The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.Sun Tzu

• Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death."Sun Tzu

• "The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands."Sun Tzu

• "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."Sun Tzu

• The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon that enables it to strike and destroy its victim. Sun Tzu

• "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."Sun Tzu

• "He who wishes to fight must first count the cost."Sun Tzu

• "He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign."Sun Tzu

• "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard."Sun Tzu

Emergent Strategy Quotes

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Find more about strategy quotes below and choose one of your favorites!

• “Remember you are water. Of course you leave salt trails. Of course you are crying. Flow. P.S. If there happens to be a multitude of griefs upon you, individual and collective, or fast and slow, or small and large, add equal parts of these considerations: that the broken heart can cover more territory. that perhaps love can only be as large as grief demands. that grief is the growing up of the heart that bursts boundaries like an old skin or a finished life. that grief is gratitude. that water seeks scale, that even your tears seek the recognition of community. that the heart is a front line and the fight is to feel in a world of distraction. that death might be the only freedom. that your grief is a worthwhile use of your time. that your body will feel only as much as it is able to. that the ones you grieve may be grieving you. that the sacred comes from the limitations. that you are excellent at loving.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “I think it is healing behavior, to look at something so broken and see the possibility and wholeness in it.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “We are socialized to see what is wrong, missing, off, to tear down the ideas of others and uplift our own. To a certain degree, our entire future may depend on learning to listen, listen without assumptions or defenses.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “In a fractal conception, I am a cell-sized unit of the human organism, and I have to use my life to leverage a shift in the system by how I am, as much as with the things I do. This means actually being in my life, and it means bringing my values into my daily decision making. Each day should be lived on purpose.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “Matter doesn't disappear, it transforms. Energy is the same way. The Earth is layer upon layer of all that has existed, remembered by the dirt.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “It has meant getting in touch with my body and feelings in real time, and learning to express them. I am learning to engage in generative conflict, to say no, to feel my limits, taking time to feel my heartache when it comes—from living in America, from interpersonal trauma or grief, from movement losses.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G—is connected. The soil needs rain, organic matter, air, worms and life in order to do what it needs to do to give and receive life. Each element is an essential component. “Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education. Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. Our work is intersectional and multifaceted. Nature teaches us that our work has to be nuanced and steadfast. And more than anything, that we need each other—at our highest natural glory—in order to get free.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “Science fiction is simply a way to practice the future together. i suspect that is what many of you are up to, practicing futures together, practicing justice together, living into new stories. It is our right and responsibility to create a new world.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “If the goal was to increase the love, rather than winning or dominating a constant opponent, I think we could actually imagine liberation from constant oppression. We would suddenly be seeing everything we do, everyone we meet, not through the tactical eyes of war, but through eyes of love. We would see that there's no such thing as a blank canvas, an empty land or a new idea - but everywhere there is complex, ancient, fertile ground full of potential.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “What is easy is sustainable. Birds coast when they can.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• “No one is special, and everyone is needed.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

• "Are you actively practicing generosity and vulnerability in order to make the connections between you and others clear, open, available, durable? Generosity here means giving of what you have without strings or expectations attached. Vulnerability means showing your needs.”― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Thank you for visiting Tripboba and reading all those Strategy quotes. Hope it will motivate you to get a better strategy!