Are you looking to get a handle on your business strategy?
An effective strategic direction is crucial to any business in order to achieve your desired success. This article gives you 25 top strategy tools used by experts that will help facilitate the creation of your business’ next winning strategy.
You don’t need to use them all, in fact you shouldn’t try to use them all else you wont get any other work done! However, scan through them to see which tools might be best to help you with your challenges right now.
1 – Scale-up Growth Diagnostic
The Scale-up Growth Diagnostic is an interactive tool that asks questions about your business strategy, sales strategy and marketing strategy. It instantly provides gives you a personalised report for your business with scores for each section and a prioritised action plan as to how you could improve your business growth.
Find out more here.
2 – Lafley and Martin’s Five-Step Strategy Model
This five step model simply asks your business the questions it needs to answer in order to develop a clear and focused strategy:
- What is our winning aspiration?
- Where will we play?
- How will we win?
- What capabilities must we have in place to win?
- What management systems are required to support our choices?
Find out more here.
3 – SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a classic tool that helps your business identify its strengths and weaknesses as well as listing potential opportunities and threats that might come your way. Don’t underestimate the power of this mighty little tool.
Find out more here.
4 – Hambrick and Fredrickson’s Strategy Diamond
This tool shows how parts of your business strategy should fit together. It is hugely useful for developing a cohesive strategy.
- Where will we be active? (Arenas)
- How will we get there? (Vehicles)
- How will we win in the marketplace? (Differentiators)
- What will be our speed and sequence of moves? (Sequencing)
- How will we make our returns? (Economic logic)
Find out more here.
5 – MOST Analysis
The MOST Analysis tool facilitates the creation of an actionable strategic plan by creating business missions, objectives, strategy and tactics.
Find out more here.
6 – The Business Model Canvas
Separating aspects of your business could help you see things from a different angle and develop a dynamic strategy plan. The business Model Canvas breaks down your business into 9 simple sections namely:
- Customer segments
- Value proposition
- Revenue streams
- Channels
- Customer relationships
- Key activities
- Key resources
- Key partners
- Cost structure
Find out more here.
7 – SOAR Analysis
This tool helps your business to identify: Strengths, Aspirations, Opportunities and Results.
Find out more here.
8 – Porter’s Five Forces
This tool is a framework for analysing a business’ competitive environment from which you can develop your strategy. Brainstorm ideas under these 5 sections and you will have a greater understanding of the environment your business operates in.
- Competition in the industry
- Potential of new entrants into the industry
- Power of suppliers
- Power of customers
- Threat of substitute products
Find out more here.
9 – PEST Analysis
PEST is used to assess the external factors that might affect your company’s profitability. Often used with SWOT. List the potential effects of these factors:
Political
Economic
Social
Technological.
Find out more here.
10 – Critical Success Factors (CFS)
This helps decide on and list the events or actions your business needs to implement to achieve its overall goal. Best used when ideas are brainstormed with the business’ leadership team.
Find out more here.
11 – Finance Diagnostic
The interactive Finance Diagnostic asks questions about your financial reporting, profit improvement and liquidity and instantly provides a personalised report on your scores for each section together with a prioritised action plan for improving your financial strategy.
Find out more here.
12 – RFM Segmentation
With RFM segmentation you can develop customer marketing plans. Analyse your customers through:
Recency
Frequency
Monetary analysis.
Find out more here.
13 – Ansoff’s Matrix
Ansoff’s Matrix helps you develop four different branches of strategy quickly. By looking at your products and the markets, you can decide which strategy will help you achieve your goals.
Find out more here.
14 – Core Competence Analysis
This tool is used in identifying the main unique strengths of your business and working out how to use these to stand out from your competitors. You should use these unique strengths to strategise and ensure sustainable growth.
Find out more here.
15 – Crisis Strategy Assessment
This tool can help you navigate any crisis on any scale regarding your business. It breaks up the crisis into smaller manageable chunks from which you can develop a strategy.
Find out more here.
16 – Porter’s Four Corner Analysis
This tool helps you assess your competitor’s strategy and future strategy which is crucial to know and understand in a competitive market.
Find out more here.
17 – ADL Matrix
This is a quick tool for listing and organising your products.
Find out more here.
18 – PESTEL
PESTEL analysis is a tool that helps you to analyse environmental factors that might have a great affect on your business in the future.
Find out more here.
19 – Brand Boxes
A way of evaluating your business’ value proposition in relation to competitors and looking at where you can improve is through the Brand Boxes.
20 – Mintzberg’s 5 Ps of Strategy
Plan, Ploy, Pattern, Position, Perspective.
These 5 different ‘Ps’ can be the basis for the creation of strategy for your business. Depending on what you want your business to achieve, you may use a different ‘P’ as a jumping off point for creating your strategy.
Find out more here.
21 – McKinsey’s 7 S
This framework assesses internal strategic alignment and analyses strengths and weaknesses of your company.
Find out more here.
22 – Scenario Planning
A tool that facilitates the evaluation of potentialities, which could affect your business and therefore allows you to strategise accordingly.
Find out more here.
23 – The Brand Pyramid
The Brand Pyramid is a simple graph that facilitates the groundwork in developing a strong value proposition.
Find out more here.
24 – Empathy Map
This tool helps to visualise the needs and behaviours of your customers in order to understand them better which will then inform your business strategy.
Find out more here.
25 – Porter’s Value Chain
This tool helps your business assess where value is created in your company and where improvements can be made. This is done by separating your business into different sections covering its strategically relevant activities.
Find out more here.
To sum up
These tools are designed to help and simplify the process of developing a strategy for your business. It is not advised to do all of them at once but one or two may resonate immediately as something that can help you now.
Find the tools that work for you and watch your strategic direction improve from today.