4) Distinguishing between Operations Management 8: Operations Strategy One of the biggest mistakes that a business could make is to confuse 'operationsr with 'operational.r Operational is the opposite of strategic; operational is detailed, localized, shortwterm, day-to-day, etc. Operations or operations strategy, on the other hand, is concerned less with individual processes and more with long-term business developments and needs (competition, resources, innovation, etc.). Consider several types of operations-related decisions that airlines (choose any airline - Singapore, Lufthansa, American, etc.) make and classify them as either operational or strategic; i.e. what operations management decisions does the airline take, and what operations strategy issues does the airline deal with. Hints There are four types of differences commonly used to distinguish a strategic perspective of operations from an operational perspective of operations and they are: (i) Time Scale (operations management largely concerned with short and medium time scales; operations strategy is concerned with the longer term)