Author: Paul

  • PESTLE and mortar your rivals (in a nice, non-lethal way)

    Pulverize your competitors with this tool to analyze the environment that shapes your organization’s performance. A PESTLE or PESTEL (or formerly, just plain PEST) analysis is a useful tool to deploy when starting a new business or entering a new market. It’s also a powerful sidekick for assessing external factors when used with the more…

  • SWOT: Discover new opportunities and crush threats

    SWOT: Discover new opportunities and crush threats

    Possibly the most popular strategy tool ever (strategists and business consultants love a 2×2) the SWOT box helps you identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis can help you carve out a sustainable niche in you market, or on a personal level, help develop your career that best uses your talent and opportunities.…

  • How 5 Forces Shape a Firm’s Competitive Position

    Use this model to understand where power lies in a business situation. Michael Porter’s five forces model is a useful tool to understand and cope with competition. It helps you frame both the strength of your current position and the strength of a position you’re thinking about moving into. If these forces are intense within…

  • Learn to learn better in 3 steps

    With three, brutalist green triangles because they’re memorable.

  • Why large, successful firms should be wary of lower-cost upstarts

    Use this model if you want to understand why large, successful companies are prone to disruption. A central theme running through Clayton Christensen’s innovation research is how companies can guard against being disrupted. How can successful innovators avoid having their lunch eaten by smaller, nimbler upstarts?   As a company grows, its once simple products…