This is the BBC.

In this edition of the bottom line, we're looking at strategy, what it is and what it isn't, and do we need it.

Hello and welcome to the programme.

Now, the word strategy is much used and much abused, so today we're going to dissect it as carefully as we can. What distinguishes

a good strategy from a bad one or a non-strategy? Certainly people like to pretend they have a

strategy when perhaps they don't. They confuse their desires to grow their business by 20% a year,

for example, with a strategy. One could think of examples in business, but the topic

of strategy also applies in politics, war and diplomacy, and individual lives. It'll be business,

which will be our focus here, but I do hope some of the lessons will go well beyond. And here,

to help me understand effective approaches to strategy, are two business leaders and an academic

expert in the field. So let me introduce them now. And what I'm going to do is ask each of you

for an example of where strategy has made a difference. For better or for worse, first Michael

Jacobides is Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School.

Michael, you teach this stuff.

In business schools, they use cases to teach histories of individual episodes.

What would stick out as a good strategy lesson?

Well, think about Red Bull and think about the challenge that you have

if you think that you're going to break in the extremely competitive market of soft drinks.

You'll say I've got PepsiCo and I've got Coca-Cola, massive big companies, hard to get in, hard to find distribution, hard to get space in retail.

How on earth will I crack the doors open

in the states of Walmart and Kmart? So what did they do? They created a concerted set of choices

that together made sense, both each one individually and as a plan. So first of all, they said

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