Getting the most from this Strategy methodology and tools guide

Each section in this guide will provide the objectives of the section and then enable you and your team to achieve those objectives.

The underlying principles of strategy are enduring, regardless of technology or the pace of change.
Michael Porter, Professor, Havard Business School

wise quote

It is recommended to work through this guide in numeric order.

Phase I >

With your strategy team start with the Phase 1. Phase I is the foundation to building business strategy as a competency in your team. With the unified understanding from Phase I, working through Phase II and III, will be more effective. If there is ambiguity in the terminology, definitions or understanding related to your strategy capability then making the strategic choices and team communications will be less effective.

Phase II >

With Phase I complete and your strategy team are satisfied of a commonality in understanding and terminology of business strategy and its' purpose - you can move on to Phase II. Phase II is about making strategic choices - strategy formulation or business design.

Phase III >

Once you have your Strategic choices completed from Phase II, then you can move on to Phase III. Phase III is about making the transition to Strategy implementation / execution from formulation (choice making).

Phase I - Unify understanding of strategy

Common understanding of purpose, role, terminology and barriers to effective strategy.

Step 1

What is business strategy - exactly?

Strategy can mean different things to different people and different professional groups. This will section will orient everyone to commonality.

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Step 2

Generic strategies

Use generic strategies which define methods for obtaining competitive advantage as a template to guide consistency in your strategic choices.

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Step 3

Is strategy still relevant?

An important question for any business or leadership team. Here we make the case for why strategy remains relevant. You can consider your own reasons.

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Step 4

What strategy is NOT.

It can be useful for unified strategy understanding to also decide what strategy is not. This section provides some common misunderstandings of strategy.

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Step 5

What makes strategy difficult?.

Identifies some common barriers to creating effective strategy. Review those that effect your business and consider any others and how you can overcome these barriers.

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Phase II

Make your strategic choices using the Strategic choices canvas