How do you choose and apply the appropriate corporate strategy models and frameworks?

The Ansoff Matrix was actually inspired by military strategies. Igor Ansoff, the creator of the matrix, was influenced by his background in applied mathematics and his experiences during World War II. The straightforward 2x2 matrix structure was initially designed to help businesses make decisions similar to how military strategists would choose the best course of action based on the terrain and the enemy. Just as military strategies involve assessing risks, rewards, opportunities, and threats, the Ansoff Matrix provides companies with a structured way to evaluate their growth opportunities in relation to the products they offer and the markets they serve.

Acknowledge that your chosen strategy should not be set in stone. Markets and product landscapes evolve, and your strategy must evolve with them.

In my experience, when using the Ansoff Matrix to assess growth strategies, it's essential to have a comprehensive market research as the base. A weak or non-exhaustive market research can generate misleading growth strategies. So as a pre-requisite to using this framework, I would suggest to dig deep as much as possible on current market conditions, customer preferences, and emerging future trends.

Look for areas where your organization can form strategic alliances with suppliers, customers, or even competitors to create mutually beneficial synergies.

Consider incorporating additional criteria beyond financial metrics. Integrate factors such as environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and technological innovation.

I think it is important not to forget that once you position your corporate portfolio in each category of the matrix (Stars, Question Marks, Cash Cows, and Dogs), continue by further segmenting your portfolio items based on strategic importance. Remember, not all Stars or Question Marks are equal: some may be more critical to Corporate's long-term strategic goals than the others.

From my experience, I prefer the BS approach. This approach tightly targets the objectives that may provide competitive advantage for my team while utilizing the disparate advantages between Acute-Care & Post-Acute-Care providers. This approach has the feature of integrating the strengths between AC & PAC. This approach is highly scalable, and can be readily applied to specific healthcare challenges/opportunities. It can be applied simultaneously between my team and disparate prospective clients in a unified fashion. Acute-Care providers have a set of characteristics that differ from Post-Acute-Care providers, but both groups have disparate strengths. Those disparate strengths can be utilized to the financial advantage of both groups.

When it comes to choosing your strategy framework, I am a big believer of Simplicity, not oversimplification, of Structure, not rigidity. I have crafted a clear and robust canvas designed to guide the whole strategy development process across three distinct phases: 1. Define Your Strategy, 2. Frame Its Execution, 3. Empower Your Stakeholders. Each of these steps requires the use of appropriate tools and models, but I found this big picture necessary before embarking on a strategic journey …

Many smaller businesses are fearful of ‘strategy’ because it can be over complicated and complex. With so many different frameworks it’s easy to get sucked into a rabbit hole of jargon and spend more time on perfecting a strategy and less delivering it!

Michael E. Porter said in his Competitive Advantage book, that, "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." Most times the documents and different information available to an entrepreneur can be his biggest distraction because in the words of Peter F. Drucker, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Hence the need for any organised idea of value creation and market share ownership (called strategy) to be so responsive to the realities of resources, transaction, value and narratives as winning remains the goal. Dogs don't bark in books, every dog is friendly on paper, so are strategies, they all work on paper. Choose the one that makes you your target market's and don't lose the charm.

What do I do to maximize the effectiveness of the framework and strategy? I look at the company on several levels: Macro-Level( e.g. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions) Industry-Level( e.g. Porter's Five Forces etc) Corporate-Level( e.g. McKinsey 7S Model etc) Business-Level ( e.g. Ansoff Matrix or Bartlett and Ghoshal's Matrix etc) Product-Level ( e.g. Product Life Cycle etc) Management-Level ( e.g. Lewin's 3 Step Model of Change (Management) etc) Despite the fact that each of these levels has some frameworks that are valuable if used correctly, it is important to not focus on just one level, or you will lose control of the entire picture.

Utilizing the Balanced Scorecard approach with powerful data to information to knowledge my team quadrupled revenue to $40 Million/year in a span of 2 years. The transfer of knowledge to my team and prospective clients, coupled with a plan that simultaneously met the needs of Acute-Care & Post-Acute prospective clients was key. This process is highly scalable and agnostic to diagnoses/disease states. We used psychology to get into senior healthcare managers…CEO, COO, CFO. Psychology may have gotten us into the client, it was our integrated plan than got the sale. We developed equity with our prospective clients. Our clients believed we could help them solve their problems. Our team knew our plan would benefit our clients. Belief!!