Classic strategy tools — SWOT, PESTLE, Blue Ocean, scenario planning — kept honest: what they’re actually good for, and where most teams misuse them
This is the strategy books for founders list that skips the blind adoption. Most strategy canon deserves a skeptical read. Jack Welch’s shareholder-value playbook built GE into a legend and then hollowed it out; Blue Ocean Strategy’s central promise, find uncontested market space, quietly contradicts itself in its own sequel; “economies of scope” is a…
A real innovation portfolio strategy fixes this. Innovation fails for predictable reasons: companies bet everything on one big idea instead of managing a portfolio, they optimize for efficiency and starve the creativity that actually differentiates them, and they mistake invention for a business. The fix isn’t more inspiration. It’s discipline: a deliberate mix of core,…
A real strategic planning framework isn’t about which model you pick. SWOT and PESTLE aren’t outdated. They’re usually just used badly: static, present-focused, and disconnected from action. Adding a time horizon to SWOT, pairing it with PESTLE for environmental factors and Scenario Analysis for genuine uncertainty, and running strategic planning through hacks like the pre-mortem…
