Rethinking strategy

For a while, planning was the dominant approach in business strategy. But companies are stretched across a broader range of business environments that are increasingly diverse, fast changing, and more uncertain, according to Martin Reeves, head, BCG Strategy Institute. "One size no longer fits all. How do we rethink strategy in dynamic and diverse world?" he wonders. This is the question addressed in BCG's forthcoming book, Your Strategy Needs a Strategy (HBR, June 2015).

BCG proposes the strategy palette as a means to enable matching and mixing of optimal strategic approaches to specific business environments. The environments are classified based on their unpredictability, malleability and harshness, leading to five strategic approaches to win in an environment. For example, stable environments, like household goods, require classical strategy - analysis, planning and execution. The question which companies should ask is: which environment you are playing in and how do you go about winning?