This document discusses strategic analysis tools and strategic thinking skills. It covers various strategic analysis frameworks including PESTLE, SWOT, GE Matrix, Shell Matrix, and others. It then contrasts strategic thinking with strategic planning, noting key differences in their approaches. Finally, it outlines 11 skills of strategic thinkers and 25 characteristics of those who are not strategic thinkers.

1. Strategic Thinking
Session 3

2. AGENDA
• Types of Strategic Analysis
• Strategic Thinking Skills

3. •
•
•
•
•
PESTLE
SWOT
EFE & IFE
GE MATRIX
SHELL MATRIX
Types of Strategic Analysis

4. • PESTLE Analysis
Political
Economic
Social
Technologic
Legal
Environmental
Types of Strategic Analysis

5. • SWOT
Strength
Weakness
Opportunity
Threat
Types of Strategic Analysis

6. Opportunity
WO
SO
Weakness
Strength
WT
ST
Threat
Types of Strategic Analysis

7. Cash
Cow
Keep
Star
Market Growth
Low
Eliminate
Invest &
Grow
High
Dog
?
Low
Types of Strategic Analysis
Investigate

8. • GE Matrix
High
Improve
Improve
Invest
Keep
Industry
Attractiveness
Medium
Improve
Eliminate
Low
Low
Invest
Eliminate
Medium
Business Strengths
Types of Strategic Analysis
Eliminate
High

9. Types of Strategic Analysis
• GE Matrix
High
Industry
Attractiveness
Medium
TVC
Exhibitions
Ad Gifts
Low
Low
Outdoor
Print
Indoor
Print
Paper Print
Medium
Business Strengths
Full
Service
Outdoor
Media
Offset
Print
High

10. Types of Strategic Analysis
• Shell Matrix
Weak
Competitive
Capabilities
Medium
Strong
Disinvest?
Gradual
Withdrawal
Take a Risk
Gradual
Withdrawal
Maintain or
Look forward
Try Harder
Cash Generator
Looking for
Growth
Maintain
Leadership
Unattractive
Average
Sector Profitability
Attractive

11. Types of Strategic Analysis
• Market-Product
New
Market
Development
Diversification
Market Scope
Current
New
Market
Penetration
Product
Development
Current
Customer Scope

12. • EFE: External Factors Evaluation
• IFE: Internal Factors Evaluation
Types of Strategic Analysis

13. strategic thinking and planning are “distinct, but
interrelated and complementary thought processes”
that must sustain and support one another for effective
strategic management. Graetz's model holds that the
role of strategic thinking is "to seek innovation and
imagine new and very different futures that may lead
the company to redefine its core strategies and even its
industry". Strategic planning's role is "to realize and to
support strategies developed through the strategic
thinking process and to integrate these back into the
business".
Strategic Thinking vs. Strategic Planning

14. Vision of the Future
Strategic Thinking:
Only the shape of the future can be predicted.
Strategic Planning:
A future that is predictable and specifiable in
detail.

15. Strategic Formulation & Implementation
Strategic Thinking:
Formulation and implementation are interactive
rather than sequential and discrete.
Strategic Planning:
The roles of formulation and implementation
can be neatly divided.

16. Managerial Role in Strategy Making
Strategic Thinking:
Lower-level managers have a voice in strategymaking, as well as greater latitude to respond
opportunistically to developing conditions.
Strategic Planning:
Senior executives obtain the needed
information from lower-level managers, and
then use it to create a plan which is, in
turn, disseminated to managers for
implementation.

17. Control
Strategic Thinking:
Relies on self-reference
Strategic Planning:
Asserts control through measurement systems

18. Managerial Role in Implementation
Strategic Thinking:
All managers understand the larger system, the
connection between their roles and the functioning
of that system, as well as the interdependence
between the various roles that comprise the
system.
Strategic Planning:
Lower-level managers need only know his or her
own role well and can be expected to defend only
his or her own turf.

19. Strategy Making
Strategic Thinking:
Sees strategy and change as inescapably linked and
assumes that finding new strategic options and
implementing them successfully is harder and more
important than evaluating them.
Strategic Planning:
The challenge of setting strategic direction is
primarily analytic.

20. Process and Outcome
Strategic Thinking:
Sees the planning process itself as a critical
value-adding element.
Strategic Planning:
Focus is on the creation of the plan as the
ultimate objective.

21. Key Skills in Strategic Thinking

22. Skill 1
Strategic thinkers have the ability to use the left
(logical) and right (creative) sides of their brain.
This skill takes practice as well as confidence and
can be tremendously valuable.

23. Skill 2
They have the ability to develop a clearly
defined and focused business vision and
personal vision. They are skilled at both thinking
with a strategic purpose as well as creating a
visioning process. They have both skills and they
use them to complement each other.

24. Skill 3
They have the ability to clearly define their
objectives and develop a strategic action plan
with each objective broken down into tasks and
each task having a list of needed resources and a
specific timeline.

25. Skill 4
They have the ability to design
flexibility into their plans by
creating some benchmarks in their
thinking to review progress.

26. Skill 5
They are amazingly aware and
perceptive.

27. Skill 6
They are committed lifelong learners and learn
from each of their experiences. They use their
experiences to enable them to think better on
strategic issues.

28. Skill 7
The best and greatest strategic
thinkers take time out for
themselves.

29. Skill 8
They are committed to and seek
advice from others.

30. Skill 9
They have the ability to balance
their tremendous amount of
creativity with a sense of realism
and honesty about what is
achievable in the longer term.

31. Skill 10
hey have the ability to be non-judgmental
and they do not allow themselves to be
held back or restricted by judging their
own thinking or the thinking of others
when ideas are initially being developed
and shared.

32. Skill 11
They have the ability to be patient
and to not rush to conclusions and
judgments.

33. How to Develop
Strategic Thinking Skills

34. • Challenge conventional thinking
• Read the environment of today and anticipate the
environment of tomorrow
• Weigh risks against the potential rewards
• Understand the drivers, strengths, and vulnerabilities
of any situation or business condition
• Articulate your strategies so everyone understands
• Avoid costly mistakes using “what-if” thinking
• Align strategic decisions with critical goals
How to develop your skills

35. Who is not a strategic thinker?
1.Wants to limit strategic conversations to senior
management
2.Shuns thinking and perspectives from others
3.Doesn’t respect other business functions in the
organization
4.Has a reputation for poor strategic relationships
in the organization
5.Feels strategy is complex (or has to be complex to
be good)

36. Who is not a strategic thinker?
6.Disconnects strategy from day-to-day organizational
activities
7.Doesn’t understand his/her own personal limitations
and thus doesn’t compensate for the limitations with a
strong, complementary team
8.Becomes easily focused on a personal view of ” reality”
and can’t entertain alternative possibilities
9.Is uncomfortable considering multiple ideas and
possibilities for addressing a situation
10.Won’t break or even bend an arbitrary rule that
doesn’t make sense

37. Who is not a strategic thinker?
11.Is unwilling to question the status quo
12.Is put off by questions from people considered
subordinates
13.Is quick to cut off exploration of multiple
alternatives in the interest of not over thinking
things
14.Struggles to shift between taking time to
explore new ideas and then moving to prioritize
ideas and make decisions
15.Automatically equates “strategic” with longterm and “tactical” with short-term

38. Who is not a strategic thinker?
16.Struggles with the idea of serving those seen as
subordinates
17.Is reluctant to do homework to help prepare
others to make solid decisions and implement
them successfully
18.Struggles to make challenging decisions
19.Spends too much time on easy, solvable issues
that don’t produce value for the organization or
its customers
20.Spends more time talking than asking questions
to better understand situations

39. Who is not a strategic thinker?
21.Shuts down when faced with dramatic changes to a
personal view of reality and/or what’s necessary to
sustain that reality
22.Doesn’t function well when there are significant
unknowns in a situation
23.Automatically views doing something new / different
as better than doing the smartest thing
24.Automatically views doing the same thing as better
than doing something different because of lesser
perceived risk
25.Loses track of agreed to priorities – for whatever
reason

40. Who is not a strategic thinker?
26.Spends too time on things that don’t matter
for the organization
27.Struggles to generalize situations so they are
more understandable to non- experts
28.Is quicker to argue than finding ways to
agree
29.Tends to dominate conversations