Strategy Builder: How to Create and Communicate More Effective Strategies

By Stephen Cummings and Duncan Angwin

A visual and interactive guide to building and communicating strategies that actually work

YOUR STRATEGY HAS SEVEN SECONDS TO CAPTIVATE ITS AUDIENCE… So how are you going to present it? A big wordy document? A lengthy address? Slides full of bullet points?

The best way to engage and involve people is through pictures. Strategy Builder shows you how to creatively combine the best strategy frameworks to orient and animate strategy discussion and development in your team. This visual, interactive guide, with illustrations by Visory, uses real world examples and practical tips to help you:

• Discover the five key foundations that every strategy should be built upon
• Draw compelling and unique pictures that capture your organization’s distinct strategies
• Develop your skills as a leader of strategy discussions
• Understand how to use interactive drawing to engage others and achieve ‘buy in’
• Additional online resources available including Strategy Drawing Templates, plus Builder Slides and case studies materials for instructors. Locate the 'Companion Website' link towards the bottom of this page to access these materials.

Test your strategic vision or develop a new strategic plan based on the best elements of key strategic frameworks by trying the FREE interactive Strategy Builder app, developed in association with StrategyBlocks, at www.strategicplan.com

Praise for Strategy Builder:

Cummings & Angwin are pioneers in introducing novel approaches in teaching and applying the principles of strategy --Robert M. Grant, Bocconi University, author of Contemporary Strategy Analysis

In a complex, fast changing world, where we are bombarded by words, numbers and reports, the visual-first approach to strategy provided by Strategy Builder is immensely helpful for inspiring  and communicating a clearer vision of how to move forward. -- Rachna Bhasin, VP Strategy, SiriusXM

At last someone has grasped this idea and come up with a way to help us demonstrate strategic plans and ambitions in a creative new way. --Vikki Heywood CBE, Chair of The Royal Society for the Arts

This wonderful book is the first to solve a near-universal problem: communicating strategic ideas is just as hard and just as important as coming up with them in the first place, and both are visual activities. The question is not “Do you understand?” but “Do you see?”  --William Duggan, Professor, Columbia University, author Strategic Intuition

This book shows how to draw an organization's strategy so you see what's been considered, what's not been considered, and how things are related,. Strategy building is presented as a fun and involving learning process.The approach is revolutionary in that it enables not only the development but also the easy sharing of strategic understanding. --Roger L.M. Dunbar, Emeritus Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University

What a great idea! They layout is also really thoughtful; it makes you immediately want to get out a pencil and start doodling. --Adam Martin, Customer Solutions Director, The Brakes Group

As a time pressed executive it was a delight to find a book that I can dip into to find the best strategic frameworks - those that have proved the test of time and academic scrutiny as being truly useful in the workplace. Even better for an inveterate scribbler: endorsement that a picture and ‘permission to play’ with ideas visually really does say a thousand words and more!  --Sarah Mitson, Global Business Director, TNSGlobal

This is an invaluable resource for any executive wanting to improve engagement in strategy development and c

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Feb 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781118707180

Book preview

‘This wonderful book is the first to solve a near-universal problem: communicating strategic ideas is just as hard and just as important as coming up with them in the first place, and both are visual activities. The question is not Do you understand? but Do you see?'

William Duggan, Professor at Columbia University and author of Strategic Intuition and The Seventh Sense

‘This book shows how to draw an organization's strategy so you see what's been considered, what's not been considered, and how things are related. Strategy building is presented as a fun and involving learning process. The approach is revolutionary in that it enables not only the development but also the easy sharing of strategic understanding.'

Roger L.M. Dunbar, Emeritus Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University

‘I am delighted that at last someone has grasped this idea and come up with a way to help us demonstrate strategic plans and ambitions in a creative new way. A drawing can encapsulate what 10,000 words can't do. By harnessing our innate creativity we can improve strategic communication, comprehension and implementation. This book could provide a vital new tool to help hard-pressed leaders to demonstrate strategic vision and deliver real strategic impact.'

Vikki Heywood CBE, Chair of The Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and former Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company

‘As a time-pressed executive it was a delight to find a book that I can dip into to find the best strategic frameworks – those that have proved the test of time and academic scrutiny as being truly useful in the workplace. Even better for an inveterate scribbler: endorsement that a picture and permission to play with ideas visually really does say a thousand words and more!'

Sarah Mitson, Global Business Director, TNSGlobal

‘This is an invaluable resource for any executive wanting to improve engagement in strategy development and communication. The accessible layout means that the book itself can play an active and inspiring role in strategy discussions.'

Matt Thomas, Director, Braxton Associates, Strategy Consultants and Divisional Chief Executive, Meyer International Plc

‘At last a book that grasps the implications of recent psychology: people think visually as well as verbally. The authors provide powerful visual devices that will both help managers conceive better strategies and enable their people to execute them more effectively.'

Richard Whittington, Professor of Strategic Management at Saïd Business School, Oxford University and author of Exploring Strategy

'A powerful approach to make strategy more engaging again! Strategy Builder is a landmark book and is destined to make an important impact to the field of strategy, strategizing and strategic management. Executives across the board (and students of strategy) will find the core message of this book counterintuitive and compelling. The idea of drawing strategy may seem like child's play, yet all great strategists and philosophers know that it is through such serious play that we're allowed to see things differently so that we can see different things.'

Robert Wright, Professor of Strategy at Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Thanks to Mairead, and to Kay

This edition first published 2015

© 2015 John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Registered office

John Wiley and Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademark or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with the respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-118-70723-4 (hardback)     ISBN 978-1-118-70718-0 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-70716-6 (ebk)

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © PGMart/Shutterstock.com

Illustrations conceived by Stephen Cummings and Duncan Angwin, drawn by Rebecca Walthall

CONTENTS

Strategy Builder Team

Authors

Illustrators

App Development

Production

Part One: The Concept

Notes

Opportunities for a New Way of Developing Strategy

5. The need for a third way between the oversimplicity of PowerPoints and the overcomplication of the typical strategic plan

4. A need to reduce the distance or separation between managers and other stakeholders

3. An opportunity to seek other ways to convey complex ideas and possibilities

2. Recognizing that what they teach in business school can, and should, change to embrace forgotten and new insights

1. An opportunity to find a way through the framework and idea overload and inertia

Notes

Seven Strengths of Drawing Strategy

1. Drawing strategy aids memory retention (and more)

2. Drawing strategy provides an effective action orientation

3. Drawing strategy promotes new thinking that builds on the shoulders of giants

4. Drawing strategy enables effective prototyping and ‘design thinking'

5. Drawing helps you see what you think and enables new possibilities to come into view

6. Drawing can bring people together to enable collective understanding

7. Drawing strategy can move people beyond the ‘boilerplate' and numerical short-termism

Notes

What Strategy Builder Does

Part Two: Design

User's Guide to the Strategy Builder's Framework Profiles

Design features

1. World ratings and rankings

2. Simple, matter-of-fact explanations

3. A ‘real-life' storyboard and storyline

4. Space

5. Drawing tips: for getting started, enhancing your creativity and key ‘take-outs'

6. Common pitfalls

7. Menu suggestions for fruitful combinations

8. Mutation possibilities

9. Signposts towards further knowledge

Environmental Ecology

Competitive Positioning

Resources and Capabilities

Strategic Growth Options

Managing Performance Strategically

Part Three: Realization

Note

Well-Built Strategies, Simply Conveyed

Six Stratographic Principles

1. Good stratography attracts and focuses the eye

2. Good stratography spreads the eye

3. Encouraging the eye to wander, engage and find relations

4. Good stratography facilitates zooming in and out

5. Mimesis: good stratography relates to human actions and directions

6. Synaesthesis: good stratography unites different senses and behaviours

Notes

Get Building

How to be a Part of the Strategy Development Revolution

Image Credits

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Seven Strengths of Drawing Strategy

Figure 1.1 Picture tells the story: Minard's Napoleonic invasion of Russia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minard.png

Figure 1.2 The bad old days of travelling by Tube: Punch cartoon (1909). Sourced from http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/punch.html

Figure 1.3 London in the palm of your hand: Beck's Underground map (1933) © TfL from the London Transport Museum collection

Figure 1.4 Fifty ways to be invaded: Luffman's famous ‘invasion map' (1803). The invasion lines have been over-drawn in blue. Sourced from http://www.mapforum.com/04/luffman.htm

Figure 1.5 Massironi's Matrix: optimum communication = graphics (adapted from Massironi's Psychology of Graphic Images, drawn by Rebecca Walthall)

Well-Built Strategies, Simply Conveyed

Figure 3.1 Strategy Builder ‘Strategy on a Page' Template

Figure 3.2 Bad stratography: strategy drawn poorly

Six Stratographic Principles

Figure 3.3 From bullet points to Olympic rings

Figure 3.4 Strategy on a Page: Principle 1 — Simplicity that attracts and focuses the eye

Figure 3.5 Principle 2 in action: The Little Red Caboose. Sourced from http://www.imaginarymuseum.org/MHV/PZImhv/WoodPowerMaps1993.html

Figure 3.6 Principle 2 in action: P&G's graphic spreads the eye

Figure 3.7 Strategy on a Page: Principle 2 – Spread the eye