What does the story tell us about strategy, planning and success?

Karl Weick (strategy scholar): “Definitions notwithstanding, I can best show what I think strategy is by describing an incident that happened during military maneuvers in Switzerland. The young lieutenant of a small Hungarian detachment in the Alps sent a reconnaissance unit into the icy wilderness. It began to snow immediately, snowed for two days, and the unit did not return. The lieutenant suffered, fearing that he had dispatched his own people to death. But the third day the unit came back. Where had they been? How had they made their way? Yes, they said, we considered ourselves lost and waited for the end. And then one of us found a map in his pocket. That calmed us down. We pitched camp, lasted out the snowstorm, and then with the map we discovered our bearings. And here we are. The lieutenant borrowed this remarkable map and had a good look at it. He discovered to his astonishment that it was not a map of the Alps, but a map of the Pyrenees.” From: Weick, K. E. (1987) ‘Substitutes for strategy,’ in D. J. Teece (ed.) The Competitive challenge: strategies for industrial innovation and renewal. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 222-233.

Q: What does the story tell us about strategy, planning and success?