This document provides a series of questions to help develop a strategy. It begins with questions about purpose, values, and core activities. It then asks about customer needs, distribution channels, target markets, resources, rewards systems, and adapting to external changes. Throughout, it provides links to additional information on each topic. The overall aim is to help the user comprehensively define their strategic approach.

1. What is your
strategy?

2. Question # 1
What is your purpose?
What is not your purpose?

3. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-is-your-purpose-1438787
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Examples-of-purpose-2350843

4. Question # 2
What values do you have?
What values do you not have?

5. Max DePree
http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2011/01/50_awesome_quot_1.shtml
http://www.spu.edu/depts/uc/response/winter2k4/goodbusiness.html
Leadership is a function
of questions. And the
first question for a leader
always is:
Who do we intend to be?

6. Why do we do it this way?
A question to ask yourself and people you work with:
https://hbr.org/2015/09/5-strategy-questions-every-leader-should-make-time-for

7. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Questions-to-discover-your-values-1329394
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Human-values-1633047

8. Question # 3
What do you do?
What do you not do?

9. Strategy is about
1. choosing what not to do.
2. combining what you do in a unique way.
https://hbr.org/1996/11/what-is-strategy

10. When you think about all the activities you have
moved into, to what extent do they make sense
together?
https://hbr.org/2015/09/5-strategy-questions-every-leader-should-make-time-for

11. Examples of what IKEA
chooses to do
Examples of what IKEA
chooses not to do
 Clear displays in the stores
which help people serve
themselves.
 Child care services.
 Food services at the exit
that serve, for example,
Swedish meatballs.
Having many sales associates
in the stores.
https://hbr.org/1996/11/what-is-strategy

12. JoanMagretta:UnderstandingMichaelPorter:
Theessentialguidetocompetitionandstrategy.

13. Strategic positioning means performing
different activities from rivals’ or
performing activities in different ways.
https://hbr.org/1996/11/what-is-strategy

14. What
Southwest
Airlines
chooses
to do and
not to do
https://hbr.org/1996/11/what-is-strategy

15. Seeking out the new and unusual
should be the strategist’s aim.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/hidden_flaws_in_strategy

16. http://www.quicksprout.com/2011/01/20/my-5-favorite-but-often-ignored-marketing-tactics/

17. Let’s say you were starting over from scratch.
Are the tasks, you do today, the tasks you would you?
If yes, why?
https://hbr.org/2011/08/key-questions-for-leaders

18. Industry attractiveness
Competitive strength
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/enduring_ideas_the_ge_and_mckinsey_nine-box_matrix

19. The nature of the product is changing, with many
products transcending their roles as material
possessions that people own to become services
to which they buy access.
http://dupress.com/articles/future-of-manufacturing-industry/

20. Sources
http://www.mobility.ch
http://stadtrad.hamburg.de

21. Market share
Cash cows
Invest money in ”question marks” /
new promising ideas.
Poor dogs
 Move out of business area.
 Move out of market.
Stars
 Growth strategy.
 Invest to stay innovative
and efficient.
Question marks
 Select ideas with the
largest potential.
 Invest in ideas with the
largest potential.
Market
growth
Adapted from the bcg matrix.

22. 1. What will you do?
2. What will your users and/or suppliers do?
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/enduring_ideas_the_business_system

23. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Stop-and-start-doing-exercise-1594003

24. Question # 4
What needs do users and
potential users have?

25. Southwest Airlines defined its target market to include
regular bus travelers - people who wanted to get
from point A to point B in the lowest-cost,
most convenient way.
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/cs00002?pg=all

26. http://www.slideshare.net/IanMcCarthy/when-customers-get-clever-managerial-approaches-to-dealing-with-creative-consumers
Low cost Differentiation
Broad
target Low cost strategy Differentiation strategy
Narrow
target
For
example
certain
people
and/or
countries
Low cost focus strategy
Example:
How can we make education materials
available to young people in Kenya?
Differentiation focus
strategy

27. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Needs-that-people-have-1530997

28. Question # 5
Which distribution channels
do you use?
Which do you not use?

29. Users / students / patients
Blogs and other social media / Other digital platforms / Homes of people /
Stairs in apartment buildings / Streets / Event locations / Supermarkets and
other shops / Office buildings / Production facilities / Schools and universities
/ hospitals / Sports centers / Train stations / Airports / Buses / Trains / Trams
Suppliers
You

31. Digital technologies are narrowing the
distance between manufacturer and
consumer, allowing manufacturers to
bypass traditional intermediaries.
http://dupress.com/articles/future-of-manufacturing-industry/

32. Instead of building large stocks of furniture, as its
competitors do, MyFab provides a catalog of potential
designs.
Customers vote on them, and the most popular
ones are put into production and shipped to
buyers directly from the manufacturing sites - with no
retail outlets, inventories, complicated distribution, or
logistics networks.
http://hbr.org/2011/05/how-to-build-risk-into-your-business-model

33. To reduce the time it takes to distribute
products to customers, Zara, Dell, and
Timbuk2 work with production facilities
that are close to end customers.
http://hbr.org/2011/05/how-to-build-risk-into-your-business-model

34. Bottle-neck ideas / knowledge /
materials / products
Non-critical ideas / inputs /
materials / products
Strategic ideas / inputs /
materials / products
Easily substitutable ideas / inputs /
materials / products.
http://www.newpointconsulting.com/pdf/BeyondKraljic_DILF.pdf
Number of suppliers
Value that purchase has for the buyer

35. Dependency of supplier.
Market situation.
Independent power position.
Alliance situation.
Collaboration possibility.Buyer dominance
http://www.newpointconsulting.com/pdf/BeyondKraljic_DILF.pdf
Buyer power resources
Supplier power resources

36. Further inspiration
http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/11-advantages-of-using-a-blog-for-teaching
http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/channels-to-deliver-health-services

37. Question # 6
In which markets do you work?
In which markets do you
not work?

38. Question Examples
Where are users? In which countries?
In which cities?
In which parts of a city?
When do users need services? In the evening?
On weekends?
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/cs00002?pg=all
Examples of questions

39. 80% of growth is explained by
decisions about where to work.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/the_art_of_strategy

40. Management’s overriding goal is to position a
company and its products where the market
opportunity is highest.
http://ww2.cfo.com/strategy/2004/02/best-practice-doesnt-equal-best-strategy/

41. Make choices about where you will play,
and where you won’t.
https://hbr.org/2013/01/the-two-choices-to-make-in-str.html

42. Joan Magretta: Understanding Michael Porter: The essential guide to competition and strategy”, location 2550.
When you go to a foreign market, remember that you
are not trying to serve the whole market.
You are looking for people who value what you do.

43. Question # 7
Which types of capital / assets /
resources / competencies
do you have / need?
Which do you not need?

44. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-types-of-capital-are-you-developing-2244992

45. Question # 8
How are you rewarded / paid /
compensated / praised /
financed / funded?
How are you not rewarded?

46. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-can-people-pay-2384341
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-should-people-be-paid-1374105

47. Question # 9
What external changes
are happening that you
need to adapt to?

48. 2 questions for you
1. What changes are lasting?
2. What changes are not lasting?
http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2014/12/the-big-shift-in-strategy-part-1.html

49. Further inspiration
http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/pestel

50. Question # 10
How will you learn and
adapt to changes?

51. In a world of accelerating change, one of our
greatest imperatives is to unlearn - to
challenge and ultimately abandon some of
our most basic beliefs about how the world
works and what is required for success.
http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2015/01/the-big-shift-in-strategy-part-2.html

52. In a time of accelerating change, learning
is essential to success.
Whatever we know today is depreciating in
value at an increasing rate.
http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2015/01/the-big-shift-in-strategy-part-2.html

53. http://www.fastcompany.com/3043056/at-this-fake-hospital-linen-schlepping-droids-robo-patients-and-the-future-of-medicine
Kaiser Permanente is testing new ways of
curing people at a fake hospital.

54. Further inspiration
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Learning-strategies-1487708

55. https://twitter.com/frankcalberg