What is the difference between a skill and a strategy?

Cheetahs use their physical skills to hunt.

Lions are strategic hunters.

The cheetah is the fastest land animal, with a top speed of 110 kph (70 mph). This unique skill makes them very effective hunters which don’t need many strategies for hunting.

Lions, on the other hand, use their power and strength to take down bigger animals. Lions are slow and not as effective hunters as cheetahs.

To overcome their weaknesses, lions use strategies for hunting.

In war, business or in the animal kingdom, strategies are used to leverage any shortcomings to achieve victory.

Example: Lions hunt some of the fastest animals on the planet such as wildebeest which can achieve a top speed of around 80 kph (50 mph).

To overcome such disparity, lions have developed hunting strategies, such as their ability to stalk their prey closely with a final burst of speed as they close in.

They’re known to be incredibly good at hiding and phenomenally patient while waiting near something that their prey needs, for example, water.

Cheetahs are good at running, not fighting, while lions are good at fighting and not running.

Knowing this, lions will strategically wait for the cheetah to make its kill, then steal the cheetah’s meal.

Here’s a related answer of how Walmart became the biggest big-box retailer in the world, beating the giant Kmart. : What is a business strategy?

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” — Sun Tzu

By Hector Quintanilla, Founder at DigitalAgeEducation.com