The Strategy Engine¶

Strategic Thinking Fundamentals

• What strategy actually is (and isn't)
• First principles thinking for strategic analysis
• Critical evaluation of popular frameworks
• Developing strategic intuition

Understanding Markets & Competition

• Market analysis and opportunity sizing
• Deep customer understanding
• Competitive analysis that works
• Revenue model design

Business Model Design

• SaaS & subscription models
• Marketplace & platform economics
• Zero-margin and adjacent monetization
• Fintech, e-commerce, and D2C models

Competitive Strategy

• Sources of competitive advantage
• Building and defending economic moats
• Disruption theory and response
• Winner-take-all dynamics

Growth & Scaling

• Growth strategy frameworks
• Scaling operations and organization
• Strategic positioning
• Geographic expansion

Business Acumen

• Financial literacy for strategists
• Unit economics mastery
• Pricing strategy
• Decision-making under uncertainty

Strategy Execution

• Bridging strategy and execution
• Organizational design
• Pivots and turnarounds

Indian Business Context

• Strategy in the Indian market
• India-only business models
• Ethical design and dark patterns

Your mission: Build on solid strategic foundations before you scale into a wall.

Start here and follow this sequence:

1. Chapter 1: What Strategy Actually Is Most "strategies" aren't strategies at all. Learn the difference between goals, plans, and actual strategy---and why that distinction will save your company.

2. Chapter 2: First Principles Thinking Stop copying competitors. Learn to reason from fundamentals so you can see opportunities others miss and avoid the "best practices" trap.

3. Chapter 5: Market Analysis and Opportunity Assessment Size your market with rigor. Top-down, bottom-up, and value-theory approaches---so you know if you're chasing a real opportunity or a mirage.

4. Chapter 6: Customer Understanding for Strategy Go beyond personas. Learn the jobs-to-be-done framework and discover what customers actually hire your product to do.

5. Chapter 8: Revenue Models and Monetization Strategy Choose your revenue model deliberately. Understand the trade-offs between transactional, subscription, freemium, and marketplace models.

6. Chapters 9-14: Business Model Deep Dives Master the economics of SaaS, marketplaces, fintech, D2C, and zero-margin models. Learn what makes each work---and what kills them.

7. Chapter 25: Unit Economics Mastery The numbers that determine your fate. LTV, CAC, contribution margin, payback periods---calculated correctly, not the vanity version.

Your mission: Move beyond framework theater to strategies that actually create competitive advantage.

Your path focuses on competitive dynamics and execution:

1. Chapter 1: What Strategy Actually Is Rumelt's distinction between good and bad strategy. Learn to spot---and avoid---the strategic fluff that plagues corporate planning.

2. Chapter 3: Strategic Analysis Frameworks Porter's Five Forces, SWOT, VRIO---when each works, when each fails, and how to actually make them useful instead of performative.

3. Chapter 4: Developing Strategic Intuition Bridge analysis and action. Learn pattern recognition across industries and develop the judgment that frameworks alone can't provide.

4. Chapter 15: Sources of Competitive Advantage What actually creates sustainable advantage? Spoiler: it's not what most strategy decks claim.

5. Chapter 16: Building and Defending Economic Moats Network effects, switching costs, scale economies, intangible assets. Learn to build moats deliberately and defend them ruthlessly.

6. Chapter 17: Disruption Theory and Response When to worry about disruptors and when to ignore them. How incumbents can respond---and why most responses fail.

7. Chapter 19: Competitive Dynamics and Game Theory Anticipate competitor moves. Understand when to compete, when to cooperate, and how to shape the competitive game itself.

8. Chapter 28: From Strategy to Execution The graveyard of strategy is filled with brilliant plans and poor execution. Bridge the gap.

9. Chapter 29: Organizational Design for Strategy Structure follows strategy. Learn to design organizations that enable strategic execution rather than undermine it.

Your mission: Evaluate businesses with rigor. Separate temporary advantage from durable moats.

Your analytical toolkit:

1. Chapter 3: Strategic Analysis Frameworks Master the tools---Five Forces, value chain analysis, VRIO---and more importantly, know their limitations.

2. Chapter 5: Market Analysis and Opportunity Assessment TAM/SAM/SOM done right. Learn to size markets accurately and spot when management is selling dreams instead of reality.

3. Chapter 7: Competitive Analysis That Actually Works Go beyond surface comparisons. Understand competitive positioning, strategic groups, and where real differentiation exists.

4. Chapter 15: Sources of Competitive Advantage Identify what creates durable advantage. Learn to distinguish structural advantages from temporary market positions.

5. Chapter 16: Building and Defending Economic Moats The Buffett framework, operationalized. Assess moat strength quantitatively and understand moat erosion dynamics.

6. Chapter 18: Winner-Take-All Markets Identify WTA dynamics early. Understand power laws, network effects, and why market share concentration happens.

7. Chapter 24: Financial Acumen for Strategic Decisions Connect strategy to financials. ROIC, capital allocation, value creation metrics that reveal strategic quality.

8. Chapter 25: Unit Economics Mastery See through the narrative. Calculate real unit economics, spot manipulation, and understand path to profitability.

Your mission: Master strategy in one of the world's most complex and rewarding markets.

India-specific strategic knowledge:

1. Chapter 1: What Strategy Actually Is Strategic foundations are universal. Start here before adapting to Indian context.

2. Chapter 11: Zero-Margin Service Layer Models The playbook that built Indian tech giants. Understand how Jio, Zerodha, and others won by giving away the core product.

3. Chapter 12: Fintech & Payments Models UPI changed everything. Learn the economics of India's fintech revolution and where value accrues in the stack.

4. Chapter 31: Strategy in the Indian Context Regulatory navigation, distribution challenges, formalization opportunities, and the unique dynamics of Indian markets.

5. Chapter 32: India-Only Business Models That Scaled Jio's distribution model, UPI flywheel economics, social commerce for Bharat, EdTech for the masses. Models that work only here.

6. Chapter 23: Geographic Expansion Strategy India isn't one market---it's dozens. Learn tier ⅔/4 expansion, regional strategies, and Bharat vs. India dynamics.

7. Chapter 6: Customer Understanding for Strategy Indian consumers are unique. Understand the value-consciousness, trust dynamics, and purchase behaviors that define this market.

Your mission: Build products that create strategic advantage, not just features that ship.

Strategic product thinking:

1. Chapter 6: Customer Understanding for Strategy Jobs-to-be-done, customer journey mapping, and understanding what customers actually value---not what they say they want.

2. Chapter 8: Revenue Models and Monetization Strategy Product and business model are inseparable. Understand how monetization choices shape product decisions.

3. Chapter 10: Marketplace & Platform Business Models Platform thinking for product leaders. Network effects, chicken-and-egg problems, and building multi-sided products.

4. Chapter 22: Strategic Positioning and Differentiation Position your product in customers' minds. Create differentiation that matters and avoid feature parity traps.

5. Chapter 26: Pricing Strategy and Value Capture Pricing is a product decision. Learn value-based pricing, psychological pricing, and how to capture the value you create.

6. Chapter 14: Business Model Innovation and Transformation When and how to evolve your business model. Recognize transformation signals and manage model transitions.

7. Chapter 33: Dark Patterns & Ethical Business Design The economics of ethical design. Why dark patterns destroy long-term value and what alternatives actually work better.