

Why we need new strategy tools ' and how to use them

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A: Sure Valerie. The field of strategy has changed significantly over the last 10 ' 15 years. But the tools and practices in most firms around the world hasn't changed at the same pace. Columbia Professor Rita McGrath, author of ''The End of Competitive Advantage'' - strategy book of the year 2013- , says 'Strategy is stuck'. We very much concur with her.


A: When we look at the world of strategy today ' the big picture ' we see five major trends.

#1 Business models are getting broken faster

#2 The life time of large firms is declining rapidly

#3 The speed of x is increasing exponentially


#5 Disruptions are quickly becoming the new normal

Q: So what should companies do?

A: We recommend two steps:

Number one: companies should move from 'strategy as analysis' to 'Strategy as innovation'. This requires a fundamental shift in how strategy is perceived and requires a change in mindset, ambitions, perspectives on the future and business model logic.

This is also where most innovation heroes should direct their energies ' connect their burning passion to the strategic context of the firm.

Number two: strategy should shift from a 'linear plan built around defending a core business model' to a 'continuously shifting through business models, spread across a time horizon'. This is the simple core idea behind one of the tools, the Strategic Innovation Canvas.


Q: So why is this so difficult? 

A: Well, it shouldn't be. We have ample research. There are stacks of excellent books on the topic, including ''The End of Competitive Advantage'', ''Game-Changing Strategies', 'Strategic Transformation', 'Business Model Generation' and 'Seizing the White Space' to name a few. But there's a big gap between reading the material and 'doing'. We need to move from primarily theories and text, to clear, visual thinking and hands-on training and doing.




Q: Elisabeth, what are some of the effects you're seeing with firms putting these new tools to use? 

A: Well, there are three main effects. First, innovation quickly comes an integral part of strategy. People see that new thinking and new ideas ' strategic creativity ' becomes a core asset. Tools like Strategic Innovation Canvas and Three Levels of Business Models just enables this very natural move of strategy = innovation

Finally, people develop a shared understanding, a shared language and shared action around strategy. Alex Osterwalder has worked energetically to design a shared language around business models. We're seeing the same thing around the wider field of strategy.

We should also add, for most clients, we make strategy fun and exciting again ' like it should be. Teams we work with drive strategy with a far more innovative mindset and as a result a more innovative strategy follows.



Our workshop will be very much a hands-on, doing, working session. It's pretty exciting to put 25 ' 30 executives in the same room and see them work with each other, quickly helping each other solve actual strategy and innovation challenges.

While we will use some cases, like Tesla Motors, Google and Amazon; our focus is doing and learning. We want to see people master new tools in 3 hours ' rather than just hear about them. We try to stay very interactive.

Q: Chris, what are some of the challenges you're facing when working with these tools?
The first is 'lack of time'. Over and over again, we find key management groups being simply too busy, too operational to contemplate fundamental shifts to their strategic logic. For many, replying e-mails and handling current clients gets all their attention. The day-to-day operation gets in the way of time to seriously dive into new strategy tools and radically change the trajectory of their futures. We call it the 'pull of the present'. In our experience, this is clearly the biggest challenge.
Second, is a perceived a lack of strategic creativity. 'I'm not a creative person' or even worse, 'we are not an innovative team'. We hear this a lot. But it's not true. Building on the words of David Kelley of IDEO, 'Anybody can be strategically creative  - you just have to learn how'' (ok, so we added strategically). His recent book, Creative confidence, is a great read on this subject.  But really, we spend a significant amount of time building creative thinking skills and revealing how the mind actually works ' and how this impacts and inhibits our innovative thinking. Once teams crack this code, creative strategic options flow forward and truly create engagement and buy-in. 
A: Number one; don't believe your present core business model will last as long as you think.
Number two; don't treat strategy and innovation as two separate disciplines. 
Editor's Note:

Meet Christian & Elisabeth at their half-day workshop, 'Your Future Innovation Tools: Strategy Tools for the Next Generation' at Front End of Innovation, Munich and Venice
* All illustrations by Holger Nils Pohl and Christian Rangen.

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