1. Strategy chessboard

The Strategic Chessboard formulated by Caliber Consulting hones in on the essence of strategy i.e. Choices.

As the famous saying goes, “strategy is choosing what not to do,” and many strategic tools and frameworks miss those critical elements on decisions and choices.

Strategic choices revolve around strategic focus areas be it in terms of geography, customer type, business model, product/service model, etc. An inventory of main choice categories helps assemble the chess board, which will entail multiple options to drive the right strategic decisions.

2. Playing to win

This tool was designed to help organizations of any size in formulating a winning strategy through a pragmatic and practical approach. It focuses on choices related to “where we play,” and “how do we win,” on those strategic playing fields we have chosen.

Implementing the Playing to Win framework creates a foundation for strategic success while driving business prosperity and paving the way for sustainable growth.
Addressing these choices collectively can enhance your business’s competitive edge and refine the overall strategy.

3. Business model Canvas

Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur introduced The Business Model Canvas in the book “Business Model Generation”.

It is a very effective way of describing the key components of a business model, and thinking about how your organization needs to be assembled to drive your ultimate value proposition to your customers.

It consists of three main areas which includes the front end of the business (customer, value proposition, etc.), the back end (suppliers, resources, etc.) and the financial model (revenues streams and cost streams).

4. Strategy canvas

The Strategy Canvas was popularised in the book “Blue Ocean Strategy”.

You can use this tool to understand how a firm differentiates itself from its competitors and communicate wholly differentiated strategy.

The line Graph in this tool plots key functions/features against the importance for a company which overlays the competitors and industry benchmarks. It essentially helps compare company’s strategic features to competitors in order to better understand where a blue ocean can exist.

5. Porters 5 forces

The Porter’s Five forces model identifies the five competitive forces that shape all the industries and analyzes these forces to help you determine the weaknesses and strengths of your industry.

The five forces include competitive rivalry, threat of new entrants, bargaining power (suppliers & buyers), and threat of substitutes.

Understanding these forces will enable you to identify the areas for improvement to make more informed decisions and redefine your strategy to strengthen your position in the market.

6. Strategy clock

The Strategy clock is a comprehensive and easy to use strategy tool that gives you the options to position your organization within a market based around the pricing and perceived value.

The clock helps define what type of strategy is best given the price point your organization would like to set versus the actual perceived value coming from customers.

7. Advantage matrix

You can apply the Advantage Matrix to any business with more than one product or service line, or more than one customer segment.

Plot the market share against the market growth rate for each product, service or customer segment and consider strategic options based on their relative position on the chart.

This tool provides a holistic view to understand your competitive advantage and provides guidance in the formulation of your strategic initiatives.