Because A Plan is Not a Strategy, strategies don’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) complicated. You should be able to write your strategy down on ~1 sheet of paper. It should lay out the logic simply, not hide behind jargon (see: Feynman Technique), and it should cover:
Component Breakdown
- Here’s where we’re playing
- Here’s how we’re choosing to win
- Here’s the capabilities we need
This is all per the Harvard Business Review video, but there is no universally agreed upon strategy document. In fact, being overly reliant on a framework or template is a hallmark of Bad Strategy.
Alternative Component Breakdown
- Cross-section of random Google results
- Mission Statement
- Vision for the future
- SWOT Analysis
- Another HBR source
- Why do you exist?
- What is your value proposition?
- Who are you serving?
- How do you know you’re winning?
- From the UCLA Anderson School of Management (see: Good Strategy)
- Diagnosis explaining the challenge
- Guiding policy for dealing with the challenge
- Coherent actions for carrying out the policy
Source
- Harvard Business Review Video
- Googling Strategy Document Example and scanning results
- https://hbr.org/2011/06/strategy-on-one-page
- https://jlzych.com/2018/06/27/notes-from-good-strategy-bad-strategy/