Strategy: Essentials for Management, Consulting & Startups

Let's define what "strategy" is.

A look at the first strategists in history and their contribution to later strategic thinking.

Where does the word "strategy" come from?

A brief look at Carl von Clausewitz, who's book "On War" is one of the most influential works of modern military strategy. 

How to think about strategy like a story or narrative.

How to think about strategy like an algorithm or operating logic.

Strategy, particularly within organizations, is hierarchical. Here's what that means and why it's important.

In this lesson we discuss the five essential levels every strategy should include.

This lesson looks at Frederick Taylor, the founder of "scientific management," and his influence on later strategists, including Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company.

This lesson looks at two of the most famous early strategy teachers at Harvard Business School (HBS).

BCG was the first consultancy to develop a "strategy" practice.

This lesson describes McKinsey's four most important and influential strategy frameworks. I use -- and see these frameworks used by others -- all the time throughout strategic planning, forecasting and business analysis.

Advertising agency J. Walter Thompson originates the concept of "Account Planning" (advertising strategy) in the late 1960's and early 1970's. 

This lesson explains game theory and it's relationship with strategy.

This lesson discussed strategic planning, how it works, and how strategists use it as part of their forecasting process.

To conclude our module on influential strategy frameworks, we look at Michael Porter's "Five Forces" model. 

In this module, we examine the Six Building Blocks of Strategy, what they are, and how you should use and think about them in your own work.

Building Block #1: Problem (Clarity)

Building Block #2: Strategic Insights

Building Block #1: Structuring Your Strategy (Solution Structuring)

Building Block #4: Strategic Planning

Building Block #5: Translating Strategy to Action

Building Block #6: Results, Research and Learnings (and How to Close the Loop on Your Strategy)

A review and conclusion of this module on Building Blocks.

In this lesson, we summarize the course learnings by looking at this six important themes (design patterns) for why strategies win and establish competitive advantages.

My concluding thoughts on strategy, and an outline of my ask for you in your parting assignment.

This is the essay that originally inspired the class. As you can see, I've made modifications and added additional content to the class itself (particularly a lot of visuals). But I also wanted to provide a link to the original which shares a lot of the core course ideas and materials if you'd like to read, reference or share it. 

Access this link to get my supplemental Growth Strategy Template materials, including a Google Doc link to my Strategy Brief Template.