Strategy is best understood not as a science, but as an art – one of universal applications that transcend situation or historical context. The principles that were successful in war and politics through history can have real and demonstrable applications in business and management.

Here, professor of strategy Owen Hughes helps practitioners and students to draw those parallels and to develop a profound and holistic understanding of strategy that will help them plan for, and achieve, success. Describing strategy as an intersection of five facets – purpose, capability, will, terrain and tactics – Hughes draws from colourful and dramatic examples from history, and clearly demonstrates how these tactics might be applied in your own life and work.

This book is an ideal strategy text for any practitioner, lecturer or student who tires of familiar strategy frameworks with limited scope.