Why strategy sits upstream of everything else.
Strategy pillar introduction for the OTSP open workshop. 45 minutes. Teaches the central argument (strategy is the discipline of choice) through Apple as the worked example, using a condensed Strategy Radar canvas.
Strategy: The Upstream Pillar is the first of five pillar introduction modules in the On The Same Page open workshop. It runs for 45 minutes and is designed for individual leaders and senior HR professionals encountering the Strategy pillar for the first time.
The module's central argument is that strategy is the choices an organisation has made, specific enough to act on and clear enough to defend, distinct from a description of the market or a list of objectives. Apple from the Jobs return onwards is the worked example: a deliberately narrow product range, vertical integration, premium positioning, design as strategic capability, and a willingness to abandon profitable products that did not fit. The Strategy Radar (six categories by three time horizons) makes the choices visible.
The session has four phases. Teaching the central argument (10 min). Walking through the Strategy Radar with Apple as the example (20 min). Participants sketching one or two cells of the radar for their own organisation in pairs (10 min). Bridge into the Leadership session (5 min).
The canvas is a condensed version of the Strategy Radar used in the bespoke Strategy pillar workshop. The structure is identical so participants who later attend a Strategy pillar workshop will recognise the tool and the deeper work will land faster.
Participants understand strategy as the discipline of choice, can recognise what genuine strategic choice looks like through Apple, have had a felt experience of the Strategy Radar's structure, and are ready for the Leadership session that follows.
Teach that strategy is the set of choices an organisation has made about where to compete, where it will not, and how it intends to win. Open with the argument, work a case, then have people sketch their own choices, pushing past describing their market into naming real choices.
Open with the central argument: strategy is the choices an organisation has made, choices specific enough to act on and clear enough to defend under pressure. Distinguish it from market analysis, vision statements, and objectives lists.
Walk through a worked case, mapping Apple's choices across six categories, customer, market, capability, technology, product, and geography, and three time horizons of now, near, and far. Apple's strategy from the Jobs return onwards is the example: a deliberately narrow product range, vertical integration, premium positioning, design as a strategic capability, and a willingness to abandon profitable products that did not fit. Show how the choices visible there produced the strategic position the world sees today. Apple is only an illustration; most people will not run an Apple-style strategy and should not.
In pairs, each person sketches one or two cells of the same map for their own organisation. The work is fast and incomplete on purpose. Push past description into choice, since many will describe their market when the task is to name their choices. Trade-offs are the test: if a person cannot name what their organisation has chosen not to do, the choice is probably an aspiration. Keep this tight at around ten minutes.
Bridge into what comes next. Strategy is upstream, and leadership is what determines whether the strategy actually gets executed. The next session covers leadership as the standard, with Satya Nadella's behavioural turn at Microsoft as the case.
Use Strategy: The Upstream Pillar when a leader is meeting the Strategy pillar for the first time. It establishes strategy as the discipline of choice, using Apple as the worked example, and shows why strategy sits upstream of leadership, culture, teamwork and brand.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
