There are strategic planning tools for just about any goal a business executive can conceive of. However, for managers and entrepreneurs who want to innovate their business model, it can be challenging to make the leap from conventional thinking to the kind of creative but realistic thinking from which the next generation of sustainable profit can be built.

By knowing the types of tools you can use for various types of business strategy tasks, you can get much more innovative results from your strategy development sessions while reducing the time it takes to come up with good business models.

Tools to map and dominate uncontested market spaces

1. Strategy Canvas

The Strategy Canvas is a tool first introduced in the book “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. It is a chart that plots the positions of business competitors in relation to factors important to the customer market. The horizontal axis plots the competitive factors (hopefully established through customer knowledge), and the vertical axis plots the degree of offering or level of service.

With this chart, you can graphically represent the differences between current and potential business competitors. The main point of the Strategy Canvas is to illustrate the divergence between business and market strategies in relation to customer needs. By using a strategy canvas, you can create a new value innovation that breaks the conflict between low cost and differentiation—the heart of blue ocean strategy.

The Strategy Canvas is also a great tool for USP development.

2. Index of strategic control points

This is a tool used to assess the level of strategic control a company has in its industry relative to competing companies and organizations. It was best articulated by management consultant Adrian Slywotzky in “The Profit Zone” (a book I highly recommend). The Strategic Control Points Index ranks these control points according to the level of “earnings protection power” they confer on a company.

In a nutshell, it’s a simple description of the path to monopoly (or at least near-monopoly) power in any business design. The profit protection power of these strategic control points ranges from “None”, “Low”, “Medium” to “High”. Some examples of strategic control points given by Slywotzky include:

• 10 to 20 percent cost advantage on commodities (low)
• Product development leadership of one year (slightly higher, but still low)
• Two-year product development leader (half)
• Brand, copyright (slightly higher, but still medium)
• Ownership of the relationship with the client (Registration)
• Chain of super-dominant market positions (Superior)
• Value Chain Management (Even higher)
• Standard property (highest)

3.6 Route framework

This analytical tool is another of the “blue ocean strategy” and gives strategists a masterful way of thinking through the “six conventional limits of competition” to systematically build new assumptions and stimulate breakthroughs in product or business design. . The idea is that one of these unconventional ways of looking at the competitive landscape can unlock a strategic breakthrough.

has) Look across industries – Compete with alternatives and substitutes for your product/service instead of those you think are your competition.

b) Look across strategic groups – Analyze how your new strategy can be developed within the strategic boundaries naturally assumed in your industry.

against) Look through the chain of buyers – Consider how you can change the game by changing the defined “primary buyers.”

d) Search for complementary products and services – Think about the whole system of your customer’s typical solution (of which your current offer might be only a small part).

me) Looking through functional or emotional appeal – Examine how you can create a new value curve by adding emotion to a functionally oriented industry, or removing emotion and reducing a product or service to its functional core.

F) look through time – Adjust your time horizon to a different point or cycle than is typical in the rest of your industry.

4. Business Design Matrix

The Business Design Matrix is ​​a great analytical tool that you can use to help understand and analyze your competitors’ business models “at a glance.” It is derived in large part from the work of Dr. Adrian Slywotzky. The criteria by which he analyzes his competitors, as well as his own organization, include:

• selection of clients
• Benefit capture system(s)
• Differentiation / Strategic Control
• Scope of offers and presence

These four fundamental considerations provide a foundation for deciding marketing strategy, a foundation on which a broader business strategy can rest comfortably.