DESIGNING THE MACHINE The most important element connected with a navy is the strategy which directs it, in accordance with which all its plans are laid--plans for preparation before war and plans for operations during war.

Strategy is to a navy what mind is to a man.

It determines its character, its composition, its aims; and so far as external conditions will permit, the results which it accomplishes.
It is possible for certain features connected with a navy to be good, even if the strategy directing it be faulty; or for those features to be faulty, even if the strategy directing it be good.
Experience has shown, however, that, in any organization the influence of the men at the top, and the effect of the policy they adopt, is so great that the whole organization will in the main be good or bad according to the kind of men that control it, and the methods they employ.

The better the discipline of the organization, the more completely the quality of the management will influence the whole, and the more essential it becomes that good methods be employed.

Good discipline means concentration of the effort of the organization; and the more concentrated any effort is, the more necessary that it be directed aright.