147 articles in Strategy
Steve Blank explains why the lean startup methodology has changed entrepreneurship education and practice. Build-Measure-Learn feedback loops, minimum viable products, and pivots replace elaborate business plans. Covers how this approach has been adopted by GE, Qualcomm, and Intuit, and is now taught at Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and other top programs.
Kahneman and colleagues propose a 12-question checklist to counteract cognitive biases in strategic decisions. The article bridges behavioral economics and management practice, offering leaders a systematic way to improve judgment under uncertainty.
Introduces systems thinking as a discipline for seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-and-effect chains. Explains feedback loops, delays, and emergent behavior—mental models that help managers understand why well-intentioned interventions often produce unintended consequences.
Breaks down Porter's value chain framework into primary and support activities, showing how each step from inbound logistics to after-sales service contributes to margin. Understanding the value chain is critical for identifying where a firm creates—or destroys—competitive advantage.
BCG research showing that the most fundamental strategic choice is selecting the right approach to strategy itself. Introduces four strategy styles based on predictability and malleability: classical (plan ahead), adaptive (experiment), shaping (influence), and visionary (build it). Helps leaders match their strategic approach to their environment.
Paul Graham defines what makes a startup a startup: growth. Not every new company is a startup. A startup is a company designed to grow fast. The constraint that defines startups is growth rate, not age or technology. Covers how to measure growth, what a good growth rate looks like (5-7% per week), and the economic forces that make rapid growth possible.
Rumelt exposes the hallmarks of bad strategy: fluff (gibberish masquerading as strategic concepts), failure to face the challenge, mistaking goals for strategy, and bad strategic objectives. Good strategy has a kernel: a diagnosis of the challenge, a guiding policy for dealing with it, and coherent actions designed to carry out the policy. Taught at UCLA Anderson and globally.
Argues that crisis leadership demands adaptive rather than technical responses, requiring leaders to distinguish between problems with known solutions and those requiring new learning. Offers a practical framework for maintaining composure, diagnosing systemic issues, and mobilizing organizations under extreme pressure.
Tim Brown of IDEO introduces design thinking as a methodology that applies the designer's toolkit—empathy, ideation, prototyping—to business strategy and innovation. Demonstrates how organizations can use human-centered design to create products, services, and experiences that genuinely meet user needs.
Porter's updated exposition of his Five Forces framework: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. The essential tool for understanding industry structure and competitive dynamics. Used in every strategy course worldwide.
The pre-mortem technique asks team members to imagine that a project has already failed spectacularly and then work backward to identify causes, overcoming the optimism and groupthink that plague traditional risk assessment. Klein's research shows that pre-mortems increase the ability to identify potential problems by 30% compared to standard risk workshops. The technique works because it grants permission to express doubt, leverages prospective hindsight, and transforms critics from obstacles into assets.
Explores Geoffrey Moore's technology adoption lifecycle and the 'chasm' between early adopters and the early majority. Provides strategies for crossing this gap, including focusing on a beachhead market segment and developing a whole product solution.
Kim and Mauborgne argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating 'blue oceans' of uncontested market space. Through value innovation, companies can make the competition irrelevant. Features the Strategy Canvas tool and Four Actions Framework. A standard text in innovation and strategy courses.
Fowler introduces the Strangler Fig Application pattern as a strategy for incrementally modernizing legacy systems without the risk of a complete rewrite. Inspired by strangler fig trees that gradually envelop their hosts, the approach replaces legacy components piece by piece, reducing risk while steadily delivering modern capabilities.
The technology adoption lifecycle: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The 'chasm' is the gap between early adopters and the early majority that kills most technology products. To cross it, focus on a single niche beachhead market and dominate it completely before expanding. A core framework in technology marketing and product strategy courses.
Reichheld introduces the Net Promoter Score methodology, arguing that a single question about willingness to recommend predicts growth more accurately than complex satisfaction surveys. The article presents research linking NPS to revenue growth across industries and provides a framework for using the metric to drive customer-centric improvements.
Chesbrough argues that the closed innovation model, where companies rely solely on internal R&D, is giving way to open innovation where firms leverage external ideas and paths to market. The article presents evidence from multiple industries showing how permeable organizational boundaries accelerate innovation and reduce costs.
Cialdini's research distills decades of influence research into six universal principles: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. Each principle operates as a mental shortcut that can be applied ethically to improve persuasion in sales, leadership, and negotiations. The article emphasizes that the most sustainable influence strategies align these principles with genuine value rather than manipulation.
From Jim Collins' research for Good to Great. Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. They are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. A foundational text in leadership education and executive development programs.
Why do organizations fail to act on what they know? Pfeffer and Sutton identify the 'smart talk trap': companies reward people who sound smart over people who do smart things. Covers five sources of the knowing-doing gap: fear, competition among colleagues, measurement systems, reliance on precedent, and treating planning as action. A wake-up call taught in MBA operations courses.