What it is
We assess the strategy you are operating on today, build a new one on evidence, and leave you with an implementation plan and the rhythm to keep it alive.
Most businesses do have a strategy. It has just never been written down, so nobody can say whether it is working, and every decision gets argued from scratch. The loop starts by making it explicit — what you are implicitly betting on, and what the results say about those bets.
Then it works through in order, and each move has to clear a gate before the next one starts.
The cardinal rule: don't jump to CHOOSE. The most common way strategy work fails is leaping to answers before doing the honest diagnostic work. We won't pick a direction until there's an evidence-based picture of your situation and a written diagnosis of the real problem. The discipline of the sequence is where most of the value sits.
The six moves
Each move is a sensible question asked in a sensible order. Work them in sequence and you end up with a clear strategy and clear actions — then you go round again, a little sharper each time.
Know your why
What the business is for, what the owners actually want from it, and where it's headed. We reconcile competing expectations into one mandate everyone has signed.
Gate: one shared, resourced aim.Look around, and in the mirror
Your market, your industry and the job customers really hire you for — plus an honest audit of what you're genuinely good at. The internal half is the one most firms skimp.
Gate: evidence-based and candid, both ways.Find your edge
Score yourself against real rivals, work out what kind of problem you're facing, and write the diagnosis: the one thing everything turns on. Then distil your decisive edge.
Gate: a real crux named, not a goal.Pick your battle
Generate real options, test them for defensible ground and timing, then commit: who you're for, how you win, and — written down — what you'll stop doing.
Gate: wins by position, not by out-spending.Make the money work
Turn the choice into a business that pays: value proposition, business model, unit economics, and an operating model you can actually supply, fund and move at.
Gate: can supply, fund and move fast enough.Make it happen
Put your best people on the decisive ground, align structure and incentives behind the strategy, and install the scorecard, OKRs and cadence that show whether it's working.
Gate: aligned and measured.Keep the loop turning
Not a seventh step but a standing discipline: sense what's changing, mine results for learning, rebalance your bets, and make honest scale, persevere or kill calls — then feed it all back into AIM.
Gate: what you learn changes the next turn.How we run it with you
A facilitated sprint. We do the heavy analysis between sessions, so your team's time goes on decisions rather than data gathering.
Pre-work
We assemble the dossier — market scan, industry structure, customer jobs, your internal audit and value chain. One to two weeks, mostly on us.
Session 1 — AIM
Half a day with the owners. Map stakeholders, draw out and reconcile the mandate, set purpose, values and intent.
Session 2 — OBSERVE + ORIENT
A full day. Walk the dossier, score yourself against rivals, write the diagnosis and distil the edge.
Session 3 — CHOOSE
Half a day. Generate and test options, commit to a position, write the guiding policy and put it through the tests.
Session 4 — DESIGN + ACT
A full day. Build the business and operating model, set alignment actions, the scorecard, the first OKRs and the cadence.
Close & renew
Owners, dates and review rhythm agreed, with your first quarterly review booked. Then the loop keeps turning.
What you get
- AIM Canvas — mandate, purpose and intent
- A situation picture, outside and in
- A written diagnosis naming the real crux
- Your decisive edge, in one sentence
- A guiding policy — where to play, how to win
- Business model and unit economics
- Operating model and tempo plan
- Balanced scorecard and cascaded OKRs
- A running review cadence
The rhythm afterwards
Strategy dies when it is treated as a document. What keeps it alive is a light, repeating rhythm — and we set it up before we leave.
- Weekly — glance at the leading indicators
- Monthly — operating review against the scorecard
- Quarterly — run RENEW; scale, persevere or kill; reset OKRs
- Annually — work the full loop again
Quarterly check-ins are available at $850 if you would like us to keep facilitating them.
Common questions
How is this different from growth strategy?
Growth strategy answers one question — usually “where do we expand next?” — in four to six weeks. Complete strategy development works the whole loop across the whole business, starts by evaluating what you are already running on, and includes the execution and measurement side.
Why won't you just tell us what our strategy should be?
We will — but not in week one. The most common way strategy work fails is jumping straight to the answer before doing the diagnostic work. That is why the loop has gates. Clients who have been sold a strategy deck in a fortnight elsewhere usually recognise why it did not stick.
Who needs to be in the room?
The owners for AIM, and the leadership team for the rest. Four to six people is the sweet spot. We handle the analysis between sessions so nobody is asked to do homework they do not have time for.
What is the Strategos Loop?
A published six-move system for setting and running strategy, wrapped in a continuous RENEW ring. You can read about the method itself at strategosloop.com.
Is our business too small for this?
Strategy matters more when resources are limited, because every choice counts double. That said, if you are pre-revenue or still testing the idea, start with a validation sprint instead — we will tell you on the first call.
Let's talk it through.
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