BCG Growth-Share Matrix — portfolio management framework for allocating resources across business units. Classify units as Stars, Cash Cows, Dogs, or Question Marks based on market growth and relative market share.
Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim & Mauborgne) — create uncontested market space instead of competing in bloody red oceans. Includes Blue Ocean Shift (2017) process, Buyer Utility Map, and Pioneer-Migrator-Settler Map.
Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur) — visualize, design, and pivot business models using 9 building blocks. Includes Value Proposition Canvas for customer fit analysis.
Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton) — translate strategy into action across 4 perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Process, Learning & Growth. Includes Strategy-Focused Organization principles. Use for strategic planning, KPI design, and aligning organization around strategy.
Disruptive Innovation (Clayton Christensen) — predict and respond to market disruption. Understand why great companies fail, how low-end and new-market disruption works, and how incumbents can defend or disrupt themselves.
Drucker's Management Frameworks (Peter Drucker) — MBO (Management by Objectives), Five Essential Questions, Effective Executive habits, Seven Sources of Innovation. The foundation of modern management. Use for goal-setting, organizational self-assessment, executive effectiveness, and systematic innovation.
First Principles Thinking — break problems down to fundamental truths and reason up from there. Use when conventional wisdom is wrong, costs seem fixed, or 'that's how it's always been done' blocks progress.
Game Theory for Business Strategy — analyze competitive interactions, predict rival behavior, and design winning strategies. Prisoner's Dilemma, Nash Equilibrium, commitment devices, and co-opetition.
Jobs to Be Done (Christensen/Ulwick) — understand why customers 'hire' products. Uncover the functional, emotional, and social jobs that drive purchase decisions. The foundation of outcome-driven innovation.
Kotter's 8-Step Change Model — lead organizational transformation from urgency to culture. The definitive change management framework with 2014 Accelerate dual-system update.
OKR (Objectives and Key Results) — goal-setting framework from Intel/Google. Align organization through ambitious objectives with measurable key results. Includes CFR (Conversations, Feedback, Recognition) for continuous performance management.
OODA Loop — John Boyd's rapid decision-making framework. Observe-Orient-Decide-Act. Use for fast-changing situations, competitive response, crisis management, or when the user needs to outpace competitors.
Porter's Frameworks (Michael Porter) — Five Forces for industry analysis, Value Chain for competitive advantage, Generic Strategies for positioning, Diamond Model for national advantage. The gold standard of competitive strategy analysis.
Pyramid Principle (Barbara Minto, McKinsey) — structure thinking and communication top-down. Answer first, then support with logically grouped arguments. The gold standard of executive communication.
Real Options Analysis — apply options thinking to strategic investments under uncertainty. Value the right (not obligation) to expand, defer, abandon, or switch. Turns uncertainty from threat into opportunity.
Scenario Planning (Shell/Schwartz method) — strategic foresight through multiple plausible futures. Build robust strategies that work across different scenarios instead of betting on one prediction.
STP Marketing Framework — Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning. The foundation of marketing strategy: divide the market, choose your target, position your offering. Essential before any marketing mix (4P) decision.