Skip to Main Content
HBS Online
  • Courses
    Open Courses Mega Menu
    • Business Essentials
      • Credential of Readiness (CORe)
      • Business Analytics
      • Economics for Managers
      • Financial Accounting
    • Leadership & Management
      • Leadership Principles
      • Management Essentials
      • Negotiation Mastery
      • Organizational Leadership
      • Strategy Execution
      • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
      • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
    • Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
    • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Entrepreneurship Essentials
      • Disruptive Strategy
      • Negotiation Mastery
      • Design Thinking and Innovation
      • Launching Tech Ventures
    • Strategy
      • Strategy Execution
      • Business Strategy
      • Economics for Managers
      • Disruptive Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Sustainable Business Strategy
    • *New* Marketing
      • Digital Marketing Strategy
    • Finance & Accounting
      • Financial Accounting
      • Leading with Finance
      • Alternative Investments
      • Sustainable Investing
    • Business in Society
      • Sustainable Business Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Sustainable Investing
      • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
      • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
    • All Courses
  • For Organizations
    Open For Organizations Mega Menu
    • Corporate Learning
      Help your employees master essential business concepts, improve effectiveness, and expand leadership capabilities.
    • Academic Solutions
      Integrate HBS Online courses into your curriculum to support programs and create unique educational opportunities.
    • Need Help?
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Contact Us
    • Black, Latinx, and underrepresented minority professionals
      Pathways to Business

      Stories designed to inspire future business leaders.

  • Insights
    Open Insights Mega Menu
    • Business Insights Blog
      • Career Development
      • Communication
      • Decision-Making
      • Earning Your MBA
      • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Finance
      • Leadership
      • Management
      • Negotiation
      • Strategy
    • All Topics
    • Sample Business Lessons and E-Books

      Gain new insights and knowledge from leading faculty and industry experts.

    • Free Guide

      Learn how to formulate a successful business strategy.

  • More Info
    Open More Info Mega Menu
    • Learning Experience
      Master real-world business skills with our immersive platform and engaged community.
    • Certificates, Credentials, & Credits
      Learn how completing courses can boost your resume and move your career forward.
    • Learning Tracks
      Take your career to the next level with this specialization.
    • Financing & Policies
      • Employer Reimbursement
      • Payment & Financial Aid
      • Policies
    • Connect
      • Student Stories
      • Community
    • Need Help?
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Request Information
      • Support Portal
    • Apply Now
Login
My Courses
Access your courses and engage with your peers
My Account
Manage your account, applications, and payments.
HBS Home
  • About HBS
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
HBS Online
  • Courses
  • Business Essentials
  • Leadership & Management
  • Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Strategy
  • *New* Marketing
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Business in Society
  • For Organizations
  • Insights
  • More Info
  • About
  • Support Portal
  • Media Coverage
  • Founding Donors
  • Leadership Team
  • Careers
  • My Courses
  • My Account
  • Apply Now
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • HBS Online→
  • Business Insights→

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

 
Filter Results Arrow Down Arrow Up

Topics

Topics

  • Accounting
  • Analytics
  • Business Essentials
  • Business in Society
  • Career Development
  • Communication
  • Community
  • ConneXt
  • Decision-Making
  • Earning Your MBA
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Negotiation
  • News & Events
  • Productivity
  • Staff Spotlight
  • Strategy
  • Student Profiles
  • Technology
  • Work-Life Balance

Courses

Courses

  • Alternative Investments
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Strategy
  • CLIMB
  • CORe
  • Design Thinking and Innovation
  • Digital Marketing Strategy
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Entrepreneurship Essentials
  • Financial Accounting
  • Global Business
  • Launching Tech Ventures
  • Leadership Principles
  • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
  • Leading with Finance
  • Management Essentials
  • Negotiation Mastery
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy
  • Sustainable Investing
Subscribe to the Blog
*
Please complete this required field.
Email must be formatted correctly.
Please complete all required fields.
RSS feed

Filters

Topics

Topics

  • Accounting
  • Analytics
  • Business Essentials
  • Business in Society
  • Career Development
  • Communication
  • Community
  • ConneXt
  • Decision-Making
  • Earning Your MBA
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Negotiation
  • News & Events
  • Productivity
  • Staff Spotlight
  • Strategy
  • Student Profiles
  • Technology
  • Work-Life Balance

Courses

Courses

  • Alternative Investments
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Strategy
  • CLIMB
  • CORe
  • Design Thinking and Innovation
  • Digital Marketing Strategy
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Entrepreneurship Essentials
  • Financial Accounting
  • Global Business
  • Launching Tech Ventures
  • Leadership Principles
  • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
  • Leading with Finance
  • Management Essentials
  • Negotiation Mastery
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy
  • Sustainable Investing
Subscribe to the Blog
*
Please complete this required field.
Email must be formatted correctly.
Please complete all required fields.
RSS feed

4 Strategy Frameworks & Tools You Can Use Right Now

businesswoman using strategy frameworks at desk
  • 10 Dec 2020
Catherine Cote Author Staff
tag
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Global Business
  • Strategy
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy

As a manager, business owner, or employee, you’re always looking for ways to contribute to your organization’s growth. One way to do so is by helping formulate or execute an effective business strategy.

Your organization’s strategy should be tailored to fit its specific priorities and goals. It also requires consistent reassessment as new challenges and opportunities arise.

While crafting and executing a strategy takes time, there are frameworks and tools you can use to assess your business’s position in a competitive landscape and its approach to factors like pricing and product-market fit.

Here are four strategy frameworks and tools you can use right now to contribute to your organization’s growth.


Free E-Book: How to Formulate a Successful Business Strategy

Access your free e-book today.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Strategy Frameworks and Tools You Should Know

1. Jobs to Be Done Framework

The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework, developed by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, is a way to validate a consumer’s need for a product.

The basis of Christensen’s theory is that, when people purchase products, they “hire” them to do a “job.”

By asking yourself what job your company’s offering can do for consumers, you can hone brand messaging, differentiate your product from competitors’, and improve it to more effectively complete the job to be done.

One example of this framework in action is Kind Snacks’ line of breakfast bars. While Kind Snacks sells many types of granola bars, cereals, and other healthy options, the breakfast bars contain at least one full serving of whole grains, and some flavors contain extra protein and probiotics. These specific bars fill its customers’ need for a healthy, filling breakfast option that can be taken on the go.

The JTBD framework can be used during any stage of product development—to create a new product based on a customer job that isn’t being done yet, or to reassess the jobs your existing products fulfill. How has the customer need shifted since the conception of your offering, and how can this knowledge shape your business strategy?

A strong understanding and alignment on the customer need your product fills can be a foundation for following through on broad, strategic plans.

2. Value Stick Framework

The value stick framework is a visual representation of a product’s value based on customers’ willingness to pay for it. This framework is helpful when formulating a product’s pricing strategy, and it can also be an important part of an organization’s broader strategic plan.

The value stick has four components: willingness to pay, price, cost, and willingness to sell. Each of these components fall somewhere along the stick, and their locations determine the value of the product to the customer, supplier, and business.

the value stick

Picturing each of these factors as sliders on a stick can allow you to test out different scenarios and aid in strategic decision-making. If you lower the production cost, will the customer’s willingness to pay decrease? If you raise the production cost and price, will the customer’s willingness to pay increase? If so, is it worth it?

Understanding the relationship between the supplier, business, and customer, and how each entity gains value from your product, is an important exercise during strategy formulation.

Related: 2 Ways to Increase Profit Margin Using Value-Based Pricing

3. Job Design Optimization Tool

The Job Design Optimization Tool, or JDOT, was created by HBS Professor Robert Simons and is a free, online tool that anyone can use.

In the online course Strategy Execution, Simons explains that jobs are optimized for high performance when they’re designed in service of the company’s strategy. The JDOT enables you to assess the degree to which each role at your organization is optimized for strategic success.

Each job is evaluated based on four factors, or “spans,” which are presented on a sliding bar: control, accountability, influence, and support. By adjusting the bars, you can determine the amount of each span that a specific role in your organization holds.

If the bars you’ve adjusted form an “X” in the tool, this indicates that the job is “balanced”—its supply of resources is equal to its demand for resources.” The JDOT then provides recommendations to improve the role, depending on which spans are out of balance. For instance, if you’re looking to increase the span of influence, the JDOT suggests implementing cross-unit task forces and providing stretch goals.

“If you get the settings right, you can design a job in which a talented individual can successfully execute your company’s strategy,” Simons writes in the Harvard Business Review. “But if you get the settings wrong, it will be difficult for any employee to be effective.”

Keep your organization’s strategy in mind when using the JDOT to assess its roles. If any role is revealed to be unbalanced, consider raising the tool’s suggestions to your team so that everyone has the resources necessary to support the company’s strategy.

Related: 5 Keys to Successful Strategy Execution

4. Disruptive Innovation Framework

Disruptive innovation, another concept coined by Christensen, refers to the process by which a smaller company—usually with fewer resources—moves upmarket and challenges larger, established businesses.

There are two types of disruptive innovation: low-end disruption and new-market disruption.

Low-end disruption occurs when an organization uses a low-cost business model to enter at the bottom of a market and claim an existing segment. New-market disruption, on the other hand, occurs when an organization enters at the bottom of an existing market and creates and claims a new segment.

Think about your organization’s place in the market. What segments does your brand own? Who are your competitors, and what differentiates them from your business? Are there any opportunities for your organization to either claim an existing low-end market segment or create a new one? If your organization is a big player in the market, how can you prepare for potential disruption?

Considering questions like these can raise valuable insights, opportunities, and concerns that influence your organization’s strategy.

Which HBS Online Strategy Course is Right for You? | Download Your Free Flowchart


Creating a Strategic Foundation

The process of setting goals and formulating and executing a strategy to reach them is time-intensive and requires daily reassessment. Leveraging tools and frameworks to shift your perspective, offer insight, and ensure alignment can make all the difference between an unsuccessful strategy and one that provides positive organizational growth.

Interested in elevating your strategic formulation, execution, or decision-making skills? Explore our online strategy courses and download our free flowchart to find the right HBS Online Strategy course for you.

About the Author

Catherine Cote is a marketing coordinator at Harvard Business School Online. Prior to joining HBS Online, she worked at an early-stage SaaS startup where she found her passion for writing content, and at a digital consulting agency, where she specialized in SEO. Catherine holds a B.A. from Holy Cross, where she studied psychology, education, and Mandarin Chinese. When not at work, you can find her hiking, performing or watching theatre, or hunting for the best burger in Boston.
 
All FAQs

Top FAQs

How are HBS Online courses delivered?

+–

We offer self-paced programs (with weekly deadlines) on the HBS Online course platform.

Our platform features short, highly produced videos of HBS faculty and guest business experts, interactive graphs and exercises, cold calls to keep you engaged, and opportunities to contribute to a vibrant online community.

Are HBS Online programs available in languages other than English?

+–

We expect to offer our courses in additional languages in the future but, at this time, HBS Online can only be provided in English.

All course content is delivered in written English. Closed captioning in English is available for all videos. There are no live interactions during the course that requires the learner to speak English. Coursework must be completed in English.

Do I need to come to campus to participate in HBS Online programs?

+–

No, all of our programs are 100 percent online, and available to participants regardless of their location.

How do I enroll in a course?

+–

All programs require the completion of a brief application. The applications vary slightly from program to program, but all ask for some personal background information. You can apply for and enroll in programs here. If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before starting an application for the program of your choice.

Our easy online application is free, and no special documentation is required. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.

After submitting your application, you should receive an email confirmation from HBS Online. If you do not receive this email, please check your junk email folders and double-check your account to make sure the application was successfully submitted.

Updates to your application and enrollment status will be shown on your Dashboard. We confirm enrollment eligibility within one week of your application.

Does Harvard Business School Online offer an online MBA?

+–

No, Harvard Business School Online offers business certificate programs.

What are my payment options?

+–

We accept payments via credit card, wire transfer, Western Union, and (when available) bank loan. Some candidates may qualify for scholarships or financial aid, which will be credited against the Program Fee once eligibility is determined. Please refer to the Payment & Financial Aid page for further information.

We also allow you to split your payment across 2 separate credit card transactions or send a payment link email to another person on your behalf. If splitting your payment into 2 transactions, a minimum payment of $350 is required for the first transaction.

In all cases, net Program Fees must be paid in full (in US Dollars) to complete registration.

What are the policies for refunds and deferrals?

+–

After enrolling in a program, you may request a withdrawal with refund (minus a $100 nonrefundable enrollment fee) up until 24 hours after the start of your program. Please review the Program Policies page for more details on refunds and deferrals. If your employer has contracted with HBS Online for participation in a program, or if you elect to enroll in the undergraduate credit option of the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program, note that policies for these options may differ.

 

Sign up for News & Announcements


  • • Please complete this required field.
  • • Email must be formatted correctly.
  • • Please complete all required fields.

Subject Areas

  • Business Essentials
  • Leadership & Management
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Strategy
  • Marketing
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Business & Society

Quick Links

  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Request Info
  • Apply Now
  • Support Portal

About

  • About Us
  • Media Coverage
  • Founding Donors
  • Leadership Team
  • Careers @ HBS Online

Legal

  • Legal
  • Policies
Harvard Business School
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College
  • Site Map
  • Trademark Notice
  • Digital Accessibility