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There’s a worn cliché that pops up in discussions of strategy.
“Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” — U.S. General Omar Bradley (although he may have been quoting Napoleon)
It points to the importance of getting needed resources to where they are needed. But, logistics and resources are not the same thing.
Logistics — the supply and movement of resources — is certainly fundamental to strategy, historically, particularly military strategy. But, there is no need for logistics without the resources themselves. Resources are the fuel, sometimes literally, that makes strategy possible. Germany’s ambitions during World War II were famously limited by a lack of oil, or gas, with which to fuel the machinery of their armed forces.
It can also be helpful to remember that resources are not just “things.”
Resources can be almost anything, as long as it is relevant to what is necessary to achieve some kind of goal. Resources can include time, money, people, minerals in the ground, hours of daylight left before sunset, gas in your tank, the charge left in your battery, cookies in the cupboard, acres of corn yet to be harvested, or the strength left in your paddling arm.
These “measurables” are what are conventionally considered as resources.
Resources can also be very intangible. Resources can be ideas, formulas, knowledge, intellectual property, even relationships. And possibly even more importantly, resources can encompass things bordering on the spiritual — mental or psychic energy, willpower, attention, the ability to focus, determination, self-discipline, resolve, and commitment.
And what drives the whole pursuit of strategy is that resources are almost always limited, at least within any “local” context. With unlimited resources, everything would be possible. It would be unnecessary to have to choose where to spend them, and as a result, strategy might not be important at all.
It is only because a resource is scarce that we are obliged to decide how to use it — how to allocate our resource.
The act of allocation — that decision — is the essence of strategy. And in any given situation, some needed resources are more scarce than others. And sometimes they are without substitute. The pursuit and conservation of those that are most needed and most scarce might be what drives any particular strategy. These are sometimes even called “strategic” resources.
Resources are about what we have and what we need.
“When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.” — Picasso