Strategy: choosing where to compete

The most common confusion in business is mistaking goals for strategy. "Grow 30%" is a goal. It says nothing about where you will compete, against whom, or why you would win. Strategy is the set of choices that answers those.

A workable definition, following Porter: strategy is choosing to perform different activities from rivals, or performing similar activities in different ways. The "different" is doing real work in that sentence — if your plan is the same as everyone else's, you have a plan, not a strategy.

PORTER'S FIVE FORCES — the structure you compete inside

        ┌──── Threat of NEW ENTRANTS ────┐
        │  how easily can someone start   │
        │  doing what you do?             │
        ▼                                 ▼
  BARGAINING                    BARGAINING
  POWER of          RIVALRY      POWER of
  SUPPLIERS  ◄──  among existing ──►  BUYERS
        │         competitors          │
        │                                │
        └──── Threat of SUBSTITUTES ─────┘
              a different way to get
              the same job done

Read it as: which of these five is actually holding my margin down?
That one is your strategic problem — not "we need to work harder".

The practical value of the five forces is diagnostic, not descriptive. You are not filling in a template; you are locating the single force that is actually compressing your margins. Is it easy entry? Powerful buyers? A substitute that solves the same problem more cheaply? Name it, and the strategic options become visible.