Developing Strategy: a Pragmatic Approach

An experienced strategist, who has been head of strategy at a major UK company, discusses the six questions and her advice on how to use them - plus many otherwise points about strategy!

Strategy involves answering six questions but, if you already have a good idea of the answer to some of the questions, you don't always have to start with question 1. In this short episode, we describe how to decide which question to start with and the different types of strategy processes that can lead to

At the end, what counts is picking the best option

All your analysis is in vain if you don't identify the most interesting options!

Question 4, defining the issue, is perhaps the most critical step in the strategy process, but it is often skipped over without sufficient reflection and debate.

Sometimes the level of uncertainty means that forecasting is not possible. Perhaps the uncertainties are hard to quantify. Perhaps there is too much uncertainty for any one forecast to make sense. This episode provides some advice on how to deal with that sort of very tricky, but common, situation.

Sometimes forecasting is not possible. Perhaps the uncertainties are hard to quantify. Perhaps there is too much uncertainty for any one forecast to make sense

Different approaches to forecasting future trends. This is the first of two episodes on how to think about the way the future might Evolve (question three in our six-question framework). There are two broad approaches depending on how predictable you think the future is. in this episode we assume that you can have a decent guess at how the future should evolve and thus you can try and make a forecast. We cover the general principles (have good data and have a good model) and the various models that you can use (e.g., linear growth, exponential growth, S curve, lifecycle, and disruptive innovation). Charlie illustrates these approaches through an example from his own experience as a strategy analyst.

The ex-CEO of the YHA, Caroline White, describes how the YHA aligned their mission, organisation and strategy

Strategy isn't just about economics and finance. Strategy also involves understanding the mission of an organisation and designing strategies that are aligned to that mission. And, when the mission and the strategy are in conflict you may sometimes need to review whether the mission is still appropriate. However, Mission is a fuzzy concept - so it helps to have a definition and framework that you can use to pick apart the elements of a mission and discuss it.