My dissertation explored the questions organizations ask when setting strategy. I wanted to develop an approach to strategic thinking that produced better insights and more options. Ironically, while I scrutinized the influence of leaders’ mental models on the strategy questions they ask, I failed to notice the mental model driving my own research. Why should there be a generic approach to strategic thinking?
Not every chess player analyzes the board the same way. Doctors don’t recommend a one-size-fits-all strategy for an individual’s health. As I age, I want to continue running for exercise, but I’m also happy to take “run a marathon” off the table.
Organizations want to thrive and grow, but they don’t all share the same appetite for growth. Organizations are also constrained by their situations and choices, but not to the same degree. Strategy questions should match the logic of how a given organization actually makes choices. To help me continue running as I age, my doctor shouldn’t focus on shaving time off my pace, she should help me think about stretching.
Contrasting what an organization wants to do with what an organization won’t consider doing creates a simple, powerful, and customized approach to planning.
Appetite for Growth versus Degrees of Freedom
Understanding how an organization’s appetite for growth intersects with its degrees of freedom creates four distinct strategy settings. I’ve labeled each quadrant with a persona that captures the motivations and constraints shaping that organization’s strategic logic.
The Surfer: High degrees of freedom and low appetite for growth
Surfers value agility, mission, and meaningful work over aggressive growth. They read the environment carefully, pursue opportunities that align with their purpose, and adapt quickly without getting locked into rigid structures. Like a chef-run restaurant with a seasonal menu or a nonprofit that shifts programs as community needs evolve, Surfer organizations maintain a high degree of freedom so they can do the work they believe in. Their strategy is sensing, choosing, responding, and releasing—not scaling.
Strategy question for Surfers:
What useful lessons have you harvested about the work that lights you up?
The Watchmaker: Low degrees of freedom and low appetite for growth
Watchmakers value reliability, precision, and consistency. They prioritize longevity and mastery over growth. Some Watchmaker organizations are constrained by regulation and risk, think hospitals or nuclear plants. Others are constrained by self-imposed ideals like heritage and craftsmanship, luxury brands or artisan workshops. Rather than catching the next wave, Watchmakers want to perfect what is already in motion. Reliability comes from doing fewer things exceptionally well.
Strategy question for Watchmakers:
How will you ensure that the next generation of stakeholders continues to experience the ideal value of your offering?
The Industrialist: Low degrees of freedom and high appetite for growth
Industrialists value volume, standardization, and leverage. They prefer optimizing what already exists to inventing what doesn’t. They scale by acquiring undervalued assets and extracting hidden value. Private equity firms and conglomerates are classic Industrialists. Sometimes their constraints come from regulation, other times they impose constraints through strict acquisition and divestiture criteria. Industrialist organizations create power through accumulation, not invention.
Strategy question for Industrialists:
How will you sense and respond to emerging environmental trends that could alter the calculus of your growth strategy?
The Inventor: High degrees of freedom and high appetite for growth
Inventors value innovation and discovery. Because they combine creativity with the resources to scale big ideas, Inventor organizations don’t spend time trying to predict the future, they cultivate it. Inventors take risks with prototypes and minimally viable products. They release solutions quickly, learn from users, and iterate. Thomas Edison personifies the Inventor mindset, Henry Ford personifies the Industrialist.
Strategy question for Inventors:
What unarticulated human needs are hiding behind the world’s status-quo assumptions about constraints?
The sooner we stop insisting that every organization needs the same strategy process, the sooner strategy will feel less like ritual and more like relevance. When leaders understand their authentic strategic posture, they give themselves permission to work in ways that feel natural, energizing, and aligned. Strategy becomes less about chasing someone else’s version of success and more about manifesting the conditions under which the organization, and the people in it, will flourish.
I soo appreciate the provocative assertion that questions a generic approach to strategic thinking and challenges the thinking that one size should fit ALL.
I really enjoyed the thesis that companies and organizations DO desire to thrive and grow while NOT ALL have the same appetite for growth and enjoy different degrees of freedom.
Thank you for the four “types” framed as Surfer, Watchmaker, Industrialist and Inventor AND the very helpful questions each “type” might pose to itself.