The thing about "strategists"

Strategy is basically defining where you want to go and how to get there. Just as every enterprise now has "clients" rather than customers (hair salons, restaurants, personal trainers, retail stores, etc.), they also have "strategists." Half the people in any given business meeting can be strategists. I'm never sure what a person who introduces herself as a strategist does for a living. A strategist is usually the person given license by his associates to pontificate on the subject at hand. The guy given the title, "Smartest Guy In The Room." There are now advertising strategists, web strategists, HR strategists, product strategists, customer experience strategists, etc. -- one for every function. From their rarefied perches, they feel comfortable looking down their noses at mere tacticians and implementers.  Of course, strategies are tactics relative to the organizing principle above it, so every tactic is a strategy and every strategy is a tactic -- except the ultimate one. Most strategists would have you believe that their strategy is the strategy that reigns over all others -- kind of the Saul Steinberg view of the world. Personally, I don't think most strategists could get out of a room without hurting themselves, but I might be wrong. "More often than not, strategy is what you change every time something goes wrong... it is what breaks when resolve fails and when you're afraid of risk" (Bill Buxton).