The strategy map
130 concepts from leading strategy thinkers, organized into six connected layers. See where their ideas overlap, how one choice shapes another, and how they play out in real companies.
Arena
What conditions shaped this business at entry?Customer needs, existing solutions, market structure and technology shifts, assessed for a named business, geography and entry period. Conditions can create an opening while also constraining its economics. The company’s choices belong in the other layers.
Customer needs and accessWho has difficulty getting what they need, and why?
Existing solutionsWhat makes the current way of working burdensome or difficult to replace?
Market structureWhat shapes access, choice and bargaining between participants?
Technology shiftsWhat technical change creates an opening or makes existing approaches less suitable?
Intent
How do we choose to win, and what do we give up to do it?The consequential choices a company makes in response to its industry assessment. Explain the customer, approach, alternative declined and mechanism that helped win against relevant rivals. An action’s occurrence alone is insufficient; a chosen strategy can precede a durable advantage.
Where to playCustomer and value-chain choices that help explain why the company won.
Way to winThe value proposition the firm commits to — the three disciplines and the rule that you pick one.
CoherenceWhat makes a set of choices a strategy rather than a list.
Defensibility
Which Power are we building toward — and does it exist yet?Persistent differential returns at the firm level. Start with benefit, barrier, and evidence; then locate the mechanism. The four families below follow Neumann’s taxonomy, with Helmer’s Powers and the other authors mapped into them. Some mechanisms overlap or protect an entire category rather than one firm. A plausible mechanism is a moat hypothesis until the company-specific evidence supports it.
FoundationsDefine the claim, its timing, and the evidence needed.
State protection & resource controlEnforceable exclusion or privileged access.
Government protection
Ownership & contracts
Special know-howKnowledge protected by secrecy, skill, or organizational practice.
Returns to scaleSize changes costs or the value customers receive.
System rigidityInterdependencies make replacement difficult.
Customer friction & trust
Product & ecosystem ties
Incumbent constraints
Product Strategy
Why do customers choose the product, and keep choosing it?A product wins customers when it does the job better, is easier to adopt, takes on more of the job, or grows more useful as the customer adds to it. Each tag names a specific move, judged against the rival a customer actually compared it with. Product choices can create value before a moat exists and can later support a durable advantage.
Product QualityDoes the job better. Is the product faster, more reliable, more accurate or easier to use than the alternative?
Product AdoptionEasier to adopt. What makes it easier and safer to start using?
Whole ProductDoes more of the job for you. How much of the customer’s job does the company take on?
Grows as you use itWhat makes each new product easier to add and more valuable once the first is in place?
Go-to-Market Strategy
How does the customer find it, start it, pay for it and buy more of it?Each tag names a specific go-to-market move. Companies carry every tag that applies, winners and non-winners alike, so incidence across the case studies shows which moves go with winning. Monetization Strategy covers price and payer, Distribution Strategy who brings the product to the buyer, Sales Motion how the first purchase happens and widens, and Product Positioning what the buyer compares it with.