A Novel Strategy Development Process Based on Design Thinking

Most traditional strategy design processes are highly analytical. They focus on exploiting capabilities and resources to define an organisation’s competitive positioning. They are tedious and built on abstract concepts, like a vision, a mission, and values statements. Too much time is spent on analysing data about markets, their size, and competitors. Too little time is used to understand customers and their jobs. Little is left to creativity, especially at the customer level. This does not have to be the case! These challenges are addressed by a novel, three-layer, incremental, and iterative process for designing, understanding, and validating sound strategies. The first layer focuses on determining the foundation through an environmental analysis, followed by identifying the organisation’s strategic focus. During the second layer, the strategy’s business model is designed and validated. The third layer aims to determine the competitive advantage based on a validated business model, and sustainability is ensured. Finally, the designed strategy is translated into a stakeholder-focused communication message.