Note that they are sequential. Designing a strategy before having management commitment (and related management decisions) is, in the end, inefficient and detrimental to the effort. Addressing tactical and operational issues without serious consideration of the strategic issues is, again, inefficient, and may result in a misguided EMS. Addressing operational issues (the point, by the way, where most EMS implementation efforts begin, thoughtless though it may be) before tactical and strategic issues are considered will result in lost time, lost resources and, often, lost moral support from the very employees from whom management wants buy-in.