Strategy is the common thread of an integrated planning and management system, and forms the basis for communicating the organization's approach for improving mission effectiveness for stakeholders. The finished strategy-based planning and management system translates customer and other stakeholder needs, vision, mission, and values into organization strategic results, strategy, objectives, performance measures and targets, and new (or high-priority existing) initiatives.

The process of developing strategic themes and results from the vision and overarching strategic result is a process of strategic discovery and critical thinking. Rather than just looking for a home for the organization's favorite activities, this process leads to new ways of thinking about the organization from customers and stakeholders downward, rather than from the sum of all the organization currently does upward. It's a difference between night and day in the outcomes of the process.