Reading your profile
The profile is mapped on concentric circles representing increasing levels of preference. Roll over the various rings to learn more.
Our EDGE research discovered four Strategy Styles- four different and complementary ways of
approaching strategy and strategy making. Each Strategy/Style drives very different business outcomes.
Blue Strategy
Rich in fact-based analysis, Blue Strategies set clear goals and targets. Blue Strategies follow a rigorous and well-defined process and set clear performance goals and targets, ensuring that people understand the competitive & market context.
To boost Blue Strategy, your organisation should incorporate thorough, fact-based analysis and set clear goals and outcomes. Relevant information must be collected, analysed and shared with all involved to ensure a common and clear understanding.
Green Strategy
Green Strategies consider resource & capability implications in detail and translate these readily into practical/action plans. People need to know that what they have created is doable and understand their role in delivery.
To boost Green Strategy plans must be specific, realistic and multi-functional, involving those who will ultimately deliver. ‘Green’ planning bridges the gap between strategy design and delivery.
Red Strategy
Red Strategies engage & excite people and build stronger and more united Leadership Teams by ensuring people have a personal stake in the strategy.
To boost Red Strategy, you must put promote collaboration and make team-building an overt goal of strategy-making rather than a happy by-product. Collaboration means people working together to explore and solve real business issues. It means involving and listening to the managers who must deliver results and seeking the views and perspectives of both internal and external stakeholders.
Yellow Strategy
Yellow Strategies actively challenge assumptions about the status quo and align people behind a common purpose. They flow from tools & techniques that get people thinking differently. This means going beyond the standard management tools like SWOT, PEST, and the BCG Matrix.
To boost Yellow Strategy, your organisation must encourage strategy-making that is imaginative, visionary and future-focused. It should be fun and generate insights and surprises.
Example tools & techniques for each Strategy style
- For Blue Strategy
- ‘Blue Books’ —
fact-based analysis - Trends & drivers analysis
- Market & competitor analysis
- ‘Size-of-Prize’ opportunity scaling
- Consumer segmentation
- Profit pool analysis
- For Green Strategy
- SMART/RACI Action Plans
- Team Charters
- Implementation guidelines
- Project management skills
- Time-planning
- Roles & responsibilities
- For Red Strategy
- Strategy work-outs
- Depth interviews with internal and external stakeholders
- Personal commitments and team charters
- Team Thinking Styles analysis
- Organisational culture profiling
- ‘Powerful Inquiry’ techniques
- For Yellow Strategy
- Future-pathing
- Scenario planning
- Consumer Immersion Sessions
- Three-Horizons
- Market mapping
- Global trends/themes
Cultures that most effectively support each Strategy style
- For Blue Strategy
- A market-focused culture that believes success is beating the competition and leading the market will most effectively support Blue Strategy. The culture will promote action & achievement, hitting stretch targets, and ‘winning.’
- Cultures that over emphasise Blue Strategy can appear cold, impersonal and ruthless.
- For Green Strategy
- A process-oriented culture that believes success is about a delivery, smooth scheduling, tight control and coordination will most effectively support Green Strategy. The culture will promote order & stability, efficiency, control and smooth operations.
- Cultures that over emphasis Green Strategy can appear in-flexible, hierarchical and too process-oriented.
- For Red Strategy
- A clan-type culture that believes success is about developing people, teamwork and employee commitment will most effectively support Red Strategy. The culture will promote personal growth, trust, openness and participation.
- Cultures that over emphasise Red Strategy can appear ‘soft,’ over-emotional and un-business like.
- For Yellow Strategy
- An ‘adhocracy’ culture that believes success is about innovation and new ideas will most effectively support a Yellow Strategy. The culture will promote insights, experiments and open-ended exploration.
- Cultures that over emphasise Yellow Strategies can appear too idealistic, unstructured and chaotic.
Thinking styles & skills that most effectively support each Strategy style
- For Blue Strategy
- Style: Rational, Thorough, Precise, Logical, Authoritative.
- Skills: Analysis, Target setting, Technical, Financial, Feasibility studies, Critical assessment.
- For Green Strategy
- Style: Careful, Methodical, Procedural, Reliable, Predictable, Disciplined, Detailed, “Doers”.
- Skills: Organisation, Execution, Accuracy, Administration, Operational planning, Practical tasks, Completion.
- For Red Strategy
- Style: Caring, Expressive, Sociable, Empathetic, Humanistic, Friendly.
- Skills: Customer relations, Teaching/training, Communication, Mentoring, Anticipating needs, Team-building.
- For Yellow Strategy
- Style: Exploring, Imaginative, Adventurous, Experimental, Artistic, Creative.
- Skills: Innovation, Visioning, Lateral thinking, Synthesis, Creative thinking, Catalysing change.
Identifying which pattern below is most similar to your Strategy Style profile
provides insight into the outcomes you might expect from your strategy making.
Supers (19%)*
'Strategy with passion'
Whole-Minded approach. Insight/knowledge drives involvement. Enthusiasts. Process engages implementers, challenges assumptions, uses new tools, builds teams & aligns people.
Neutrals (24%)*
'Bland leading the bland'
Practical approach. Seniority/Function drives involvement. Sceptical.
The undistinguished ‘middle’, average on all responses. Uninspired & uninspiring…’None of the Above’
Detached (19%)*
'Keep your head down'
Undefined approach. Seniority drives involvement. Neutral. Process provokes heated debate and forces uncomfortable choices.
Rationals (20%)*
'Out think the rest'
Rational approach. Function/knowledge drives involvement. Enthusiasts.
Process is rigorous, detached, dispassionate. Decisions are objective. Sets clear goals & objectives.
Distracted (4%)*
'Deeds before words'
Confused’ approach. Seniority drives involvement. Cynical. Process is poorly defined, but ‘ensures all views are heard’. Plans and Action are more important than strategy.
Disengaged (14%)*
'Why bother?'
Undefined approach. Seniority drives involvement. Sceptical. Strategy never tackles the real issues. ‘My commitment depends on my involvement’ and ‘Most strategy is hot air’