Your Strategy Needs a Strategy by Knut Haanaes & Janmejaya Sinha Martin Reeves Summary

Your Strategy Needs a Strategy provides a framework for selecting the right business strategy based on environmental factors like predictability, malleability, and competitiveness. Authors Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes, and Janmejaya Sinha identify five strategic approaches: Classical (Be Big), Adaptive (Be Fast), Visionary (Be First), Shaping (Orchestrate), and Renewal (Be Viable), helping leaders avoid mismatched tactics in dynamic markets.

Executives, strategists, and business leaders navigating volatile industries or organizational transformation will benefit most. The book offers actionable insights for companies facing disruptive markets, complex global operations, or sustainability challenges, particularly those needing to balance short-term execution with long-term innovation.

Yes—it’s a practical guide for aligning strategy with real-world conditions. The “strategy palette” framework addresses modern challenges like digital disruption and ecosystem collaboration, making it valuable for leaders seeking to avoid outdated planning cycles or one-size-fits-all approaches.

1. Classical: Scale and optimize in predictable, stable markets (Be Big).
2. Adaptive: Experiment and pivot in unpredictable environments (Be Fast).
3. Visionary: Create new markets through innovation (Be First).
4. Shaping: Collaborate to redefine industry rules (Orchestrate).
5. Renewal: Survive harsh conditions by restructuring (Be Viable).

Assess your environment’s predictability (can trends be forecasted?), malleability (can you influence the market?), and harshness (competitive pressure). For example, use Adaptive strategies in volatile tech sectors and Classical approaches in stable manufacturing industries.

The strategy palette is a decision-making tool that maps five strategic approaches to specific business environments. It emphasizes flexibility, urging leaders to avoid rigid plans and instead match tactics to market dynamics—like using Shaping strategies in sectors ripe for ecosystem collaboration (e.g., tech platforms).

Yes—the authors argue global firms often need hybrid strategies. For example, a conglomerate might use Classical tactics in mature markets while deploying Adaptive methods in emerging regions, requiring careful governance to manage internal contradictions.

It cites companies like Facebook (Shaping strategy via ecosystem building) and industries like telecommunications (Renewal strategies during deregulation). These cases illustrate how environmental factors dictate strategic success.

It advocates Adaptive strategies, which prioritize rapid experimentation, decentralized decision-making, and real-time data over long-term planning. This approach is critical in sectors like fintech or renewable energy, where regulatory and technological shifts are frequent.

Some argue the framework oversimplifies complex environments or requires significant organizational agility to implement. Critics note smaller firms may lack resources to execute Adaptive or Shaping strategies effectively.

Haanaes’ focus on sustainability (via IMD’s MBA programs and WBCSD partnerships) informs the Renewal and Shaping strategies, particularly how businesses can align strategic resilience with climate action.

A companion iPad app visualizes the strategy palette, while IMD’s simulations (like the COP climate exercise) offer hands-on practice in applying Adaptive and Shaping strategies.