A Scientific Approach to Strategy
In brief –TLDR. Strategically speaking, What do you do when one of your nation’s largest drivers of small business growth is also a weaponizable cyber asset owned and controlled by a foreign nation engaged in trade war, actively threatening military action, and has a history of using any tools available for espionage against your private […] The post The Problem With TikTok – not what you think…
A little Background. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. It’s been popular since the 1960’s as the warm up exercise for the environmental planning phase of traditional strategic planning. What usually happens is at the beginning of strategic planning, a SWOT analysis is done to frame the strategic analysis and planning What is wrong […] The post What is wrong with SWOT…
Strategic TL:DR on the looming TikTok “Ban” – (March 13, 2024 US House of Representatives passed a bill that forces TikTok to have American ownership or cease operations – We’ll see what the Senate does). Legally requiring American Ownership of a popular and often beneficial social media platform that has been quietly adapted and actually […] The post TikTok is a Cyberweapon. Changing ownership…
KPI’s – Key Performance Indicators are the business performance dashboard metrics you use to keep track of business performance (sales metrics, finance metrics, HR metrics – they vary by industry), and sometimes progress to strategic goals if you link KPI’s to a Balanced Scorecard or similar Tool. That’s what they are built for. OKR’s – […] The post The Difference Between KPI’s and OKR’s is Night…
Obligatory Dalle AI Generated image for “AI” and no, Dalle can’t spell “AI” IntroTL:DRWhat is it?How does it work?What can it do?What can’t it do?Who controls it?How do I leverage it?What is the strategic context?So what? Obligatory AI Disaster Meme Key Takeaways: ChatGPT is a chatbot powered by GPT AI. AI is so much more […] The post You Don’t Know AI – The AI Strategy Guide first appeared on…
No. Here’s a free Strategy Lesson. The best way to protect somone from a bully, is to empower them to stop the bully themself. Or, give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life. Replace fish with deffending your country from Russian invasion. Which only […] The post Isn’t the rest of the world sitting idle while Putin decimates Ukraine? first appeared on…
Funny thing I always see with OODA Loops. Today it was on Linkedin between meetings. Let me start with – I’ve respected Mihai and his work for years. He’s a good business strategist. But we may disagree on this fine point. While OODA Loops and the PDCA Demming Cycle cosmetically look and sound the same, […] The post Misuse of OODA Loops – not as simple as you think first appeared on…
So honestly guys, I get asked a lot about how to get into strategy and/or consulting. Or simply how to do a strategy. On LinkedIn, on Twitter, on Facebook. And these days even IG and TikTok. There are many ways to get into strategy and consulting. Here’s what I tell the people who come to […] The post How to get into strategy work, how to do strategy. first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
I’m writing this on April 24th, 2020. Much is still unknown. Much will Change. Sun Tzu said, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never fear defeat. You don’t know CV19 – technically SARS-CoV-2, which I’m calling CV19, because the kids on Reddit taught me how to save space. “Currently, CV19 is at […] The post You Don’t Know Coronavirus first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
Been working on the social media strategy. Tik Tok is a good place to learn how to make videos. Not always time to do the long expository essays. But something is better than nothing. So here’s some brief strategy for ya. Strategy Lesson – People only do what they know. And that means they won’t […] The post People Are Predictable first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
TLDR: Grand Strategy is not only where military strategy meets statecraft. Grand strategy is understanding everything about a nation and it’s place in the world. Agriculture, business, water, energy, weather, people, religion, pop culture, internal and external politics, risks, threats, infrastructure and foreign deals at all levels. Grand Strategists have to understand how all those moving […]…
First a quick reading list: These are Basic Books that will cover the topic broadly: Most of these are available as audio books if you prefer. Complete MBA for Dummies – to cover business basics. Doesn’t hurt to memorize. The Strategy Book by Max McKeown – Accessible, simple, covers the Basics. Memorize it. Strategy: A […] The post What are the best ways to learn business strategy? first appeared…
Oh fun. TLDR – a win – win strategy is a scenario where all stakeholders in a situation get what they want, or “win”. First, the text book. In game theory, A win–win game is a game which is designed in a way that all participants can profit from it in one way or the other. In […] The post What is a win-win strategy? first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
OK vague question, so there a a few different ways to look at it: Top Down vs Bottom up. Already been tried here: What is the difference between top down and bottom up approaches? From an organizational perspective: Top down is having the leadership develop the plan, and the push it down to those below them on […] The post What is the difference between a top down and bottom up design appoach?…
Let’s assume it’s physically possible to travel backwards in time… Every one forgets the earth is a spaceship traveling through the heavens.. Some Astrophysics 101: The earth is orbiting the sun at a fast speed. The Sun is orbiting the Milky way galaxy at an even faster speed. The Milky Way galaxy is moving relative […] The post Why are people from the future not time traveling to our period,…
TLDR – The business model is a part of the toolkit used in business strategy. Is a business model the same thing as a business strategy? Yes and no. Business models are how you make money and how the business works. Not just “I’m going to open a coffee shop that sells to such and […] The post What is the difference between business strategy and a business model? first appeared on…
This is a strategic exercise in understanding how large groups of people operate. TLDR: You try getting a large group of people to agree on anything while trying to figure out how to pay for it while keeping them all out of trouble. If you can get three strangers to agree on Pizza toppings I’ll […] The post Why is it that governments (or large organizations) rarely do anything intelligent? first…
This is a guilty pleasure. Yes, I have read far too many books, and a star wars fan, and spend too much time on Quora. Honestly, this is just an illustrative exercise in assessment and investigation scenarios and options. At first Glance, it would seem that anything vs the Death Star is no contest. But […] The post Who would win between Grand Admiral Thrawn with 6 Imperial Star Destroyers vs Grand…
TLDR : YES Strategy – Longer Term – Bigger picture Tactics – Shorter Term, immediate, smaller picture But it’s a yin-yang sort of thing. Can you win today while considering how that impacts tomorrow? Can you consider pig picture, long-term consequences and positioning while getting through immediate problems and challenges? That is really called operation […] The post Can you be strategist and…
Why Mars? What is Elon Musk’s Strategy? Hey guys. I actually went over this a few times with colleagues over the summer, and started writing this right before Elon Musk started his Mars PR campaign in September. Just missed the chance to appear prophetic. As it is this is still a fun topic. So Ted, […] The post Why Mars? Elon Musk’s Strategy first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
So kids, this is something I killed a morning with on Quora back in April – an excuse to write about a scenario I’ve obviously been thinking about for a long time. After a few months it’s at 161,500 views, so I figure it’s worth sharing on my blog that gets a handful of hits […] The post Is the US uninvadable? first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
So here’s one I first took on in Quora, and it’s a fun topic – Can Bruce Bueno de Mesquita predict the future? NYU Professor BBdM claims to predict international policy events with >90% accuracy in his book “The predictioneers game”. It seems grotesque, now we have a paper where he descibes his method. Can […] The post Can Bruce Bueno de Mesquita predict the future? first appeared on…
A new strategic science. That could have so many meanings. So what do I mean? First obviously I haven’t been publishing much on the Blog the last couple of years. Due to a combination of things – raising a small child, some family health issues, diving in head first to help build a tech startup (which […] The post A New Strategic Science? first appeared on StrategicScience.Org .
So, I got some highly unanticipated free time, so here’s a quick run through some important fundamentals. I don’t care what you do, mastery of the fundamentals is the key to being successful, be it sports, work, or strategy. First the obligatory definitions, I could argue these, but for today we’ll go by what’s currently […] The post Strategy vs. Tactics (not what you expect) first appeared on…
First in a series on prediction. I hope. Today is a simple if abstract discussion. The math of strategy. Now the majority of my peers at ASP specifically avoid the quantitative, and most strategists I’ve encountered are MBA’s, historians, or soldiers that are not that keen on math, and don’t have much use for it […] The post TED, FRY, Complexity, Systems and Strategy first appeared on…
Leo over at Zen Habits is suggesting I would be happier if I write more. He’s probably correct. So here’s a story boys and girls… (And usual rules apply, keep Google handy for my obscure references, HTML links go stale too fast) About a year ago, an interesting gentleman named Max McKeown apparently found my inconsistent effort […] The post The Strategy Book first appeared on StrategicScience.Org…
Just short on my lunch break, but had some fascinating side discussions helping out with the strategic planning for ironically the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP). (Warning, on a reread this is heavy wonk on esoteric terminology, and I’ve found hyperlinks outside the blog to reference ideas expire and then do little good, keep google […] The post And we’re back – with some thoughts on the…
So, been gone for a very long time. Explanation – life is what happens while you are making other plans. Survived the “new normal” economy. New day job, new house, lots of new changes. First a good strategic lesson I just picked up from a really popular blog: The Art of Non-Conformity “…one important fact: […] The post Motives, Managing Expectations, Alignment and Friction. first appeared on…
Hi there world. First – A warning to all you young turks out there gearing up to change the world. It will vary with circumstances, but infants are resource consuming schwerpunkts, that will make it difficult to finish any other projects (Apologies for the slow trickle of articles). Teaser – the lead in is a […] The post The coolest thing I’ve seen all year (AI) first appeared on…
First thing – sorry for the months without posts. The site got hacked while I was out of town, followed immediately by a nice contract that’s using 50 hours a week (paying jobs come first), and did I mention that toddlers benefit from time and attention. I had to create the opportunities to actually plug […] The post Strategic Science on the Competitive Intelligence Podcast! first appeared on…
Top Ten strategy Tricks — Really our ten favorite strategy concepts. Here at strategic science we have a bag of tricks — mostly different strategic techniques used for intelligence, planning, execution and adaptation. Things like SWOT, PESTL, five forces, value chains, PERT, Gannt Logic, Mett — TC, C4ISR, The Kill Chain… etc. Given our time […] The post Top Ten Strategy Tricks: #10…
An outside the box strategic discussion by Ted S Galpin The Difference Between Intelligence and Espionage. Is a matter of life and death. (2016 Bonus answer – because this article gets a ton of traffic – here’s the direct answer: Intelligence is information gathering. Espionage is illegal. When you break the law to obtain information […] The post The Difference Between Intelligence and…
An outside the box strategic discussion by Ted S Galpin You don’t know Sun Tzu Well, actually maybe you do. But Probably not the same way I do. I’ve been working long days on the strategy book, and Sun Tzu certainly takes some time to internalize. There’s a saying — “there’s nothing new under the sun.” That’s […] The post You don’t know Sun Tzu first appeared on StrategicScience.Org…
An out side the box strategic discussion by Ted S Galpin The Problem with CI When keeping up with the CI practice, a common theme is CI falls on deaf ears and is heavily under utilized. How do you fix that? In a nutshell, if you don’t maintain a close relationship with your CI customers, especially executives, […] The post The Problem with Competitive Intelligence first appeared…
In Afghanistan, there are no coincidences. An outside the box strategy analysis by Ted S Galpin. Reprint from July 2nd, 2010 This week we’ll talk about Afghanistan, mainly because current events make it too fun not to. Last week I originally started doing a detail referenced thesis on Afghanistan, but realized that Stratfor has already done that, so […] The post In Afghanistan, there…
Strategy bogged down by reality? A personal note. Ok seriously, one of my problems is getting “looped” by the everyday grind. Let’s step back a moment. What do I mean by looped? I need to explain John Boyd, his OODA loop, and a little historical context. In brief, John Boyd was an Air Force Colonel, reputably […] The post Strategy bogged down by reality? first appeared on…