Most strategy work starts wrong.
You say: "We need to be more focused." You make a plan. You call people in to execute. Three months later the plan has changed, people are frustrated, and you're not sure what went wrong.
The problem is you jumped from "we should be better" straight to "here's what we do." You skipped the entire first phase.
That first phase — what we call Overview — isn't popular. It's not action-oriented. It doesn't produce immediate results. But without it, all later actions are based on guessing.
The Strategy Chain has three phases
Phase 1: Overview (Intelligence gathering) Phase 2: Development (Strategy design) Phase 3: Execution (Action & ownership)
It looks simple. But each phase has entirely different mechanics, and most companies mix them together.
Phase 1: Overview
Overview means: see the entire strategic landscape before you make decisions about direction.
It's not about being perfectly informed. It's about seeing the patterns that matter.
In Overview, you use 16 strategic lenses to see your company and the world around it:
Internal lenses:
- Business Model: How do we make money? From whom? When?
- Capability: What can we actually do today? What do we lack?
- Culture: How do our people think? What motivates them?
- Leadership: Who's in our Leadership Room? Who's missing?
Market lenses:
- Competition: Who are they? What are they doing? Where are they winning?
- Customers: What do they value? What's changing?
- Digital: Is digitalization a threat or opportunity for us?
- Innovation: Where's the next growth driver?
Environment lenses:
- ESG: Where are compliance risks? Where are opportunities?
- Compliance: What must we not risk?
- Market dynamics: Is the market growing or shrinking?
- And more.
Each lens is a structured analysis. Not "what do we think?" but "what does the data say?"
When you've been through all 16 lenses, you don't just have information — you have overview. You see patterns that matter:
- Five lenses all say "You're not ready for digital competition"
- Three lenses say "Your culture resists change"
- Two lenses say "There's a market opportunity your competitors haven't seen"
Now you can choose strategic direction — not from gut feeling, but from facts.
What goes wrong without Overview
Many companies skip Overview. They say "We don't have time" or "We know what should happen."
The result:
1. They start with assumptions that prove wrong halfway through 2. They make strategies that don't fit reality 3. They get surprised by things they could have foreseen
An example: A manufacturer thought their problem was price. They needed to be cheaper. They went straight to Development: "We need automation." They went straight to Execution: "We'll buy new machines."
Six months later: New equipment was installed. Costs dropped 8%. But revenue dropped 15% — because their biggest customers didn't want cheaper, they wanted different. A competitor saw it and took their customer base.
If they'd done Overview first, they would have heard from customers themselves (through data) that they wanted innovation, not price. Their strategy would have been completely different.
Phase 2: Development
Development means: design possible strategies based on the overview you now have.
In this phase you answer: If the overview is like this, what are our options?
Typically you find 3-5 strategic directions that all make sense — given the overview you now have:
Direction A: "Specialist" (We focus entirely on one niche where we have deep expertise) Direction B: "Platform" (We build a part of the value chain others depend on) Direction C: "Hybrid" (We blend specialist depth with platform breadth) etc.
Each direction has consequences:
- What do we need to get better at?
- What do we need to get worse at (to be better at what matters)?
- Who do we hire/fire?
- What do we invest in?
- What are the risks?
In Development, you typically use the Collaboration Model: you draw AS IS (how we are now) and TO BE (how we want to be). The gap between the two is the strategy you need to execute.
Development typically ends not with one chosen strategy — it ends with 2-3 possible strategies that all seem sound. Now humans choose.
What goes wrong without proper Development
Companies that jump from Overview to Execution without Development end up with:
1. Everyone is supposed to "be more innovative" without knowing what that means 2. 30-page strategy documents nobody reads 3. Employees who act from their old mental models, not new strategy
Development is about translating strategic direction so it can be operationalized — turned into concrete actions.
Phase 3: Execution
Execution means: make it concrete who does what, and why.
Not "We should be more innovative." But: "Sarah starts an innovation team with 2 FTE. Budget is 500k annually. Success criterion is that at least 20% of next year's revenue comes from products less than 2 years old."
Each part of the Leadership Room has its work:
- Owner: Confirms strategy aligns with values and vision
- Board: Approves that risks are acceptable
- CEO: Ensures everyone understands their part of the strategy
- Management Team: Executes concretely (and holds each other accountable)
Execution is where strategy becomes reality — or doesn't. It's also where most mistakes get introduced, because:
1. Some people haven't read the Development work 2. Some interpret the strategy differently 3. Some act like the old way still applies
That's why Execution is important: the entire process must be visible and discussable.
A concrete example through the whole chain
An SME manufacturer (80 people) needs to define their strategy for the next three years.
Overview (6 weeks):
- Data gathering on market, competitors, customer preferences
- Analysis through 16 lenses
- Conclusions: "We have high product quality. Our culture resists change. The market is polarizing between ultra-cheap and ultra-precision. We're stuck in the middle."
Development (4 weeks):
- Three strategic directions are formulated:
- A: Go ultra-cheap (requires automation, investments, means cutting 30 people) - B: Go ultra-precision (requires investment, higher wages, but 3x margin) - C: Hybrid blend (specialist in precision + cheap commodity arm)
- Each analyzed for risks, investments, human consequences
Execution (10 weeks):
- CEO: "We choose B — ultra-precision. Here's what it means."
- Management team gets concrete tasks:
- Sales leader: Identify top 100 customers who value precision. Deep conversations. - Operations leader: Identify what equipment investment is needed. - HR leader: Identify what wages should be to attract deep experts. - Design leader: Start prototyping high-precision version.
- Each element has ownership, deadline, success criterion
Three months later: Strategy becomes reality, not paper.
Why the Strategy Chain works
The Strategy Chain works because each phase has its own work:
- Phase 1 ensures you make choices from facts, not guessing
- Phase 2 ensures you've thought through consequences
- Phase 3 ensures everyone acts from the same picture
Most companies mix the phases or skip phase 1. That produces strategies that look good on paper but don't work in practice.
Next step
Ask yourself: "Have we really done Overview?"
If the answer is no — if you've just had meetings where people say "I think we should..." — then start there. Do Overview thoroughly. It takes time. But it saves you from three years of wrong strategy.
If you've done Overview, the next question is: "Did Development actually happen, or did we jump straight to Execution?"
If you skipped it, that might explain why your strategy keeps changing — and why people act like the old way still applies.
The Strategy Chain isn't a one-time thing. It's a system that repeats. Every three years you do Overview again. Development is formulated again. Execution adjusts.
But each time you do it, you get better at it — because you now know the system.