When taking strategy training, most students and participants are frustrated. The reason: we teach them tools that allow them to analyze existing strategies (such as the SWOT model, Porter’s forces, the blue ocean strategy or the business model canvas) while they would like to learn to create original strategies.
Where do the best strategies come from? Although there is no silver bullet, four techniques can be used to stimulate strategic creativity.
• The contrast. This approach is stupidists to identify and challenge preconceived ideas in a sector of activity. With SpaceX, Elon Musk showed that rockets used to send satellites into orbit can be reused if we can slow them down enough to prevent them from disintegrating when they return to the atmosphere;
• The combination. This approach consists of making the link between several products or services. While we thought that social networks and payment methods were independent activities, the Chinese social network WeChat integrates a payment module (WeChat Pay). It allows WeChat users to make purchases without leaving the app;
• The constraint. This approach consists of using constraints to stimulate creativity. At the beginning of the 2000s, Audi engineers asked themselves the following question: how to win the 24 hours of Le Mans with a car slower than that of their competitors? The answer: by developing a car that uses less gas and therefore stops less frequently to refuel. Thanks to the R10 TDI model, Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times in a row;
• The context. This approach involves drawing inspiration from how a problem was solved in a different context. The ‘Intel Inside’ example is well known. Before Intel, no component brand communicated to the general public. His source of inspiration was companies in the world of mass consumption such as NutraSweet and Teflon.
In short, it is possible to stimulate strategic creativity using four main approaches: contrast, combination, constraint and context. Even if the results are never guaranteed, they will be better than if we just use the SWOT model!
Source: Brandenburger, A. (2019). Strategy needs creativity: an analytic framework alone won’t reinvent your business. Harvard Business Review, 97(2), 59-66; Brandenburger, A. (2017). Where do great strategies really come from?. Strategy Science, 2(4), 220-225
