Strategy vs. Tactics: Differences, Examples & How to Track Both

I’ve heard people in all types of organizations argue about strategy vs. tactics in relation to strategy implementation. These terms are regularly thrown around the office and in online articles—and are often confused. Let's set the record straight on the difference.

What’s the Difference Between Strategy & Tactics?

Here’s my simplest description of strategy vs. tactics: Strategy is a long-term vision, whereas tactics are short-term actions taken to achieve that vision. You can also think of strategy as a set of goals, with recognizable targets and high-level projects to point you in the direction you want to go. Tactics, or initiatives, are the concrete steps you take to head in the right direction down the path of your long-term strategy. A strategy would typically look out three to five years, whereas tactics could be six months to a year.

What’s a Good Strategy?

A good strategy is actionable and well-structured. It should include goals, objectives, measures, projects, and tactics—and should have definitions of and a purpose for each element. (I advise strategic teams to gather input from across the organization to ensure there’s alignment between the strategy and each department’s priorities.)

Most importantly, all strategies should be actionable and crafted to guide decision-making as your teams work to achieve the defined goals.

After defining a good strategy, I inevitably get asked what a bad strategy looks like. A bad strategy isn’t thoughtful about each element (goal, objective, measure, etc.), so when different teams or groups work on various aspects of the strategy, efforts and results are inconsistent. You want the “objectives” in each department to be very specific and aligned with your strategy. Here is an example from a local government organization:

Good Department Objectives:

• Reduce expenses by 35%
• Increase resident satisfaction with permitting experience
• Process applications within 5 days of receipt

Bad Department Objectives:

• Evaluate, select, and deploy a new CRM system
• Get resident feedback on new road designs
• Design a new dog park system

Notice that the first example is pointing to a set of outcomes that are well-defined and give the department flexibility in how they achieve those outcomes; whereas the second example is a set of projects that don’t clearly define what success looks like.

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What’s a Good Tactic?

A tactic has a clear purpose that aids your strategy. It has a finite timeline during which specific activities will be completed and their impacts measured.

A furniture company could have a goal to decrease prices for customers by decreasing cost through waste and inefficiencies. The tactics to help accomplish this could be to analyze manufacturing processes and execute on 3 areas for cost reduction. The company can clearly measure the success of the tactics by comparing their costs before and after the cost reduction exercises.

From my experience, creating a “bad” tactic depends on how you are communicating the work, and how much work is dependent on individuals versus teams. So, if you are implementing a project with clear steps and outcomes, detailed tactics might be needed. If you are launching something new, detailed tactics can prevent you from having the flexibility to adapt on the fly.

For example, you want really specific tactics for changing out the uranium rods in a nuclear power plant, but you need less defined tactics for starting an employee referral program.

Overall, the rule of thumb I use for understanding the difference between strategy and tactics is: “Think strategically, act tactically.”

Which Comes First, Strategy or Tactics?

I always advise your strategy to come before your tactics. Strategy provides the foundation and direction—it’s the blueprint for the planning and execution. Without a clear strategy, tactical efforts may be disjointed or ineffective because they aren’t aligned with a coherent goal. By setting the strategy first, an organization ensures that all tactical plans are effectively aligned towards achieving the set strategic goals. This alignment helps in optimizing resources and efforts.

A strategy without tactics won’t ever be executed or help you achieve your goals.

Be thoughtful about how frequently you look at your strategy to ensure your tactics are still appropriate. If you are in the U.S. energy business and are transitioning to green power, you may also need to look at the bigger trends of energy use to know that you can keep with your green transition, but you may not want to decommission your current power supply at the same rate. Tactical decisions can be adjusted more frequently to respond to the immediate operational environment or the effectiveness of current strategies.

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Examples of Strategic vs. Tactics

Local Government

For a local government, accountability and responsiveness are cornerstones of good governance. Therefore, I often see government organizations with an overarching goal to improve transparency.

Your strategy: Improve transparency throughout the organization in order to increase collaboration and teamwork and improve resident confidence that the city is working effectively.

Your tactics:

• Implement Groups within MS Teams to encourage cross-department collaboration.
• Create and publish a new community dashboard to inform residents about government goals and share progress.
• Develop a marketing plan that highlights ways citizens can interact and communicate with the government.
• Organize and host virtual town hall meetings on a regular basis. Record these meetings and making them available for viewing later, along with summaries and key takeaways.

Note: In local government, most tactics show up in annual plans versus strategic plans. It’s critical to link activities and funding requests (budget) in annual plans to key items in the strategy. This way, as your strategy evolves, so will your tactics.

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Education

Most school systems are continuously striving to improve learning outcomes as demonstrated through standardized test scores.

Your strategy: Improve student engagement by incorporating interactive technology into classrooms.

Your tactics:

• Purchase and implement SMART systems in your classrooms for the upcoming school year.
• Provide teachers with professional development to support the best use of SMART systems and how they can use them to improve their teaching.
• Integrate gamified learning platforms or educational apps into the curriculum to make learning more interactive and engaging for students.

I want you to note these tactics have a clear purpose that will aid the strategy, and a finite timeline. Once complete, they will bring you closer to achieving the strategy.

Healthcare

Many healthcare organizations face problems with hospital capacity: The demand for patient beds exceeds the supply.

Your strategy: Improve patient flow to free up beds more quickly in order to meet increased demand.

Your tactics:

• Implement a scheduling app to optimize OR time, moving patients through the flow more quickly.
• Invest in a data analytics solution to better understand capacity constraints and employ predictive analytics going forward.
• Introduce a telemedicine program for post-operative and follow-up care, allowing patients to have virtual consultations with healthcare providers remotely to save time and resources for both patient and hospital. This tactic can be especially helpful for patients who have mobility challenges or those who live far away.

These tactics will help identify bottlenecks in your existing processes and provide data you can use to make better decisions, all of which will hopefully unlock greater capacity within the resources that already exist.

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How to Track Your Strategy & Tactics

Strategy and tactics are two parts of the same puzzle—they work together to help your organization achieve long-term success. I strongly advise that you review both periodically to ensure you’re making progress (start with strategy quarterly and tactics monthly).

How to Measure Strategy

To track your strategy, you’ll need to choose some key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help gauge performance.

A good KPI uses quantifiable data to answer questions about progress and give you ideas on how to further improve those numbers. For example, if your strategy is to increase customer satisfaction, a net promoter score (NPS) could be the KPI.

Remember to set targets that specifically detail your KPIs and break them down into achievable timeframes. (Here’s an article I wrote that explains how to do that.)

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How to Measure Tactics

With your tactics, it’s more about your planning and the components therein. Tactics typically have a start and end date, certain allocated resources, and a number of milestones and action items to help achieve the tactic. Something important I want to note is to be sure to hold people accountable for the tactics, so always assign an “owner.”

Viewed together, your tactics will give you the concrete steps you need to track anything relating or tied to your strategy, included related OKRs or KPIs. If you’ve allocated resources to a tactic, remember to track how they’re being used and how much budget you have remaining.

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By integrating ClearPoint into your workflow, you'll gain insights and control over both your long-term strategies and day-to-day tactics. Book a free demo today and see how ClearPoint Strategy can revolutionize your approach to achieving success!

There’s a lot of data associated with strategy tracking—and a lot of pitfalls that could prevent you from doing it right. ClearPoint was designed specifically to help organizations of all kinds stay on track when it comes to strategy execution.

It allows you to view all relevant information associated with your strategies and tactics in one place, making it easier to understand and analyze progress, and even change course when you need to.

In ClearPoint, you can visualize the linkage between connected elements (strategies and tactics) and create customized dashboards and views that allow other people in your organization to easily gain insight into performance.

As an example, the ClearPoint summary report above is for a local government. It shows a clear alignment between city strategies (goals) and tactics, along with status indicators (green, yellow, or red), qualitative analysis, tactic owners, percent complete, and end dates.

When you can easily see how all the pieces of your strategy—including tactics and KPIs—fit together, you have a clearer view of which activities are actually moving the needle in the right direction. In ClearPoint Strategy, you can see the goals that are linked to your KPIs.

So, if you see a KPI is improving, but the associated strategy remains unchanged, perhaps the KPI doesn’t have the influence you thought it had, and it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

In ClearPoint, you can also create dashboards that pull in additional relevant information. Additionally, you can see a tactic snapshot showing the status of all your tactics, and finally, the alignment summary report from above, all on the same page, allowing you to gain quick insights. You can then make any changes in strategy as needed.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between strategy and tactics?

The difference between strategy and tactics is that strategy is the overarching plan or set of goals designed to achieve long-term objectives, while tactics are the specific actions or steps taken to execute the strategy. Strategy defines the "what" and "why," focusing on the big picture, whereas tactics focus on the "how," detailing the day-to-day operations needed to accomplish strategic goals.

How are strategy and tactics used in business?

In business, strategy and tactics are used to achieve organizational goals:

• Strategy: Develops long-term vision, sets broad goals, and defines the direction for the company. Examples include market positioning, growth plans, and competitive differentiation.
• Tactics: Implements the strategy through specific, actionable steps. Examples include marketing campaigns, sales initiatives, and operational processes. Tactics are the practical methods that move the strategic plan forward.

What are some examples of strategy and tactics?

Examples of strategy and tactics include:

• Strategy: Increase market share in the tech industry by 20% over the next five years.
• Tactics: Launch a new product line, increase marketing spend on digital channels, partner with key influencers.

• Strategy: Enhance customer satisfaction to improve retention rates.
• Tactics: Implement a customer feedback system, provide staff training on customer service, streamline the returns process.

• Strategy: Expand into international markets.
• Tactics: Conduct market research, establish local partnerships, adapt marketing materials for local languages and cultures.

What are the benefits of using strategy and tactics?

The benefits of using strategy and tactics include:

• Clear Direction: Provides a clear roadmap for achieving long-term goals and objectives.
• Focused Efforts: Ensures that all actions and initiatives are aligned with the overall strategy.
• Improved Coordination: Facilitates better coordination among departments and teams.
• Resource Optimization: Helps in the efficient allocation and use of resources.
• Performance Measurement: Allows for tracking progress and making adjustments to improve outcomes.
• Competitive Advantage: Enhances the ability to respond to market changes and stay ahead of competitors.

How can strategy and tactics be used to improve business performance?

Strategy and tactics can improve business performance by:

• Aligning Actions with Goals: Ensuring all activities are directed toward achieving strategic objectives.
• Enhancing Efficiency: Streamlining operations and reducing waste through well-defined tactics.
• Driving Innovation: Encouraging innovative approaches to meet strategic goals.
• Improving Decision-Making: Providing a framework for making informed and consistent decisions.
• Increasing Agility: Allowing the business to adapt quickly to changes in the market or environment.
• Boosting Morale: Giving employees clear goals and actionable plans, which can increase engagement and productivity.