Strategy itself is perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts [14]. There are many definitions and interpretations. As a consequence, there does not seem to be the one single true approach for designing a data strategy. So where to start?
3.1 The Playing to Win Framework
What we propose here is to select a proven and generic framework, which can be used to develop (any kind of) strategy and apply this to data strategy design. For this, we use the “Playing to Win” (P2W) strategy framework [4], which originates from joint work of Alan G. Lafley, who was former CEO of P&G, and Roger Martin, who worked for Monitor Consulting when starting to develop the framework.
The approach became the standard strategy approach at P&G and has successfully been applied in many industries since. In addition, the P2W framework has constantly been complemented and refined by Roger through a series of Strategy Practitioner Insights [15,17].
The benefits of choosing the P2W approach above others are, that it is widely known and applied and comes with an entire ecosystem of processes, templates and trainings that can be leveraged for designing your data strategy.
In the P2W framework, strategy is defined as follows [4]:
“Strategy is an integrated set of choices that uniquely positions a firm in its industry so as to create sustainable advantage and superior value relative to the competition.” [4]
So strategy is all about choice, making these tough decisions that give you a competitive edge, with no bullet-proof certainty that the choices will turn out to be the right ones. Note, that this quite differs from declaring strategy being a kind of plan [9].
The P2W strategy framework boils down to two core tools for strategy design.
3.2 Tool 1: The Strategy Process Map
The Strategy Process Map is a set of steps guiding the strategy design process [5,6]. In essence, it helps to innovate several scenarios or so called possibilities for what your strategy might look like. These possibilities are subsequently evaluated and compared, so that the strategy team can choose the most promising possibility as final strategy.
It makes use of a rigorous evaluation methodology. This helps to create clarity for each possibility about the underlying assumptions that would have to be true, such that a possibility is considered to be a good strategy.
The Strategy Process Map consists of 7 phases and can be visualized as follows:
3.3 Tool 2: The Strategy Choice Cascade
The Strategy Choice Cascade is the second tool that is used to document essential components of the strategy, which serves as output of the strategy work and is a nice way to visually communicate the strategy to stakeholders [7,8]. It consists of five elements and is often visualized similar to a waterfall:
These five elements of the Strategy Choice Cascade are defined as:
- Winning Aspiration: The definition of what winning looks like for your organization.
- Where to Play: The playing field on which you will, and will not, choose to compete. Typically, this element comprises five dimensions: i) Geography, ii) Customer, iii) Channel, iv) Offer, v) Stages of Production.
- How to Win: Your competitive advantage, how you will win with customers sustainably. This boils down to either lower costs or differentiation.
- Must-Have Capabilities: Capabilities required to build a competitive advantage.
- Enabling Management Systems: Infrastructure (systems, processes, metrics, norms & culture), which is needed in order to effectively execute this strategy.
The actual heart of the strategy is made of the coherent choices made in box two and three: Where to Play & How to Win.
The boxes of the cascade each stand for a topic for which those tough choices, that we mentioned earlier have to be made.
How the cascade works is best illustrated using a real-world example, which is taken from [9] and describes choices for the corporate strategy of Southwest Airlines.
During the strategy design process, the Strategy Choice Cascade is not only filled once, but is repeatedly utilized at several phases of the Strategy Process Map. For example, every strategic possibility, which is created in the innovation phase, is described using the cascade to build a joint understanding within the strategy team. Also, the current strategy of the organization is described as a starting point for the strategy design process, in order to build a common understanding of the status-quo.
3.4 The Playing to Win Framework for Data Strategy Design
The P2W framework is not limited to the design of corporate strategies, but can be utilized to build any kind of strategy, e.g. for company divisions, functions (such as IT, Marketing or Sales) or even for individuals.
Consequently, it can also be utilized to design data strategies. So, what makes picking the P2W framework for designing a data strategy a particularly good choice?
- Data strategy design teams often jump into details such as what organizational design to choose (central, decentral or hub-and-spoke), or what technology to apply (data mesh, fabric, lakehouse). These are both part of the last box (Enabling Management Systems) and certainly need to be addressed, but not as the first step. The initial focus should lie on the heart of the data strategy, the where to play and how to win. The P2W framework helps to step back and to focus on the strategic questions to be answered.
- As the P2W framework is widely spread, there are good chances, that your organization already applies it. If this is the case, it is straightforward to integrate the data strategy with other existing and connected strategies (see also Section 4) and it helps to communicate the data strategy to relevant stakeholders, as the they are familiar with the methodology.
- Some data strategy approaches seem to me like picking choices from best practices or following check lists to tackle all elements required, lacking real strategic thinking. The P2W framework guides and forces the strategy design team to apply strategic thinking with rigor and creativity.
Whilst the idea of applying the P2W framework for data strategy design is neither rocket science nor new, existing literature [e.g. 12,13] does — to the knowledge of the author — not provide a detailed description of how to adapt the framework for the application to data & AI strategy design in a straightforward manner.
In the remainder of this article, we therefore adopt the Strategy Choice Cascade to data strategy design, equipping data strategy design teams with the tools required to readily apply the P2W framework for their strategy work. This results in a clear definition of what a data strategy is, what it comprises and how it can be documented and communicated.
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