Your Strategy Needs A Strategy

Your strategy needs a strategy… did you know there are five different approaches to strategy that you can choose from? You should, especially the four non-traditional ones. These are the five approaches to strategy.

Picking the right approach to strategy depends on three dimensions:

Unpredictability: the extent to which it is possible to predict how things will unfold in the next couple of years.

Malleability: the extent to which it is possible to influence the course in which things unfold in the next couple of years.

Harshness: the extent to which keeping your organization going is difficult because of internal and external threats and pressures.

Based on these three dimensions, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) distinguishes five different strategies:

1. Classical Strategy
Perception of context: Predictable, Unmalleable, Promising
Mantra: Plan
Typical activities: Analyze, plan, forecast, formulate
Key success factor: Accuracy

2. Adaptive Strategy
Perception of context: Unpredictable, Unmalleable, Promising
Mantra: Adapt
Typical activities: Experiment, monitor, iterate, adjust
Key success factor: Flexibility

3. Visionary Strategy
Perception of context: Predictable, Malleable, Promising
Mantra: Build
Typical activities: Envision, convince, build, persist
Key success factor: Power

4. Shaping Strategy
Perception of context: Unpredictable, Malleable, Promising
Mantra: Gather
Typical activities: Collaborate, share, evolve, co-create
Key success factor: Connections

5. Renewal Strategy
Perception of context: Harsh (the rest is no longer relevant)
Mantra: Survive
Typical activities: Scale down, focus, reset, preserve
Key success factor: Resilience

Let this sink in a bit more and have a look at all five.
Then ask yourself the following questions:
– How do you perceive the context you’re in on the three dimensions?
– Which of the five strategies would fit that context?
– What does your current approach to strategy look like and does it fit?
– What do you need to do differently?