Your company's strategy is a list of ambitions
Grow, delight, lead: it names nothing you would stop doing.
Courses
Start with three things you can do today
How to think strategically at work
Tell a strategy from a list of goals.
A useful strategy connects a specific challenge to choices about where to focus, what to do and what to leave out. Test whether the choices can work together. The example below makes an assumption and a tradeoff visible without claiming that the plan is guaranteed to succeed.
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A starting goal
I want to understand what makes a business strategy useful. Help me examine tradeoffs, competitive advantage, and the choices that distinguish a strategy from a list of goals.
Change any word so it fits your situation. The course is built from what you type and a few setup questions.
Start today
Three things you can do before the course exists.
Useful on their own. The course is for when you want the whole skill, not just the first move.
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Turn an ambition into a choice
Original fictional example: a repair shop wants more repeat business. Instead of only saying "grow loyalty," it chooses to offer scheduled maintenance to existing bicycle customers. It defers opening an unrelated product line so the same staff can deliver the service.
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Find the assumption that matters
The choice assumes existing customers need maintenance and will value a dependable appointment. The shop must investigate that need and whether it can deliver at a viable cost. A tidy strategy sentence is not evidence that the assumption is true.
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Check the fit of the actions
Ask whether staffing, appointment capacity and customer communication support the chosen service. Adding unlimited same-day work could conflict with dependable appointments. Record what evidence would justify revisiting the choice, rather than treating consistency as refusal to learn.
- Best for
- Business
- Prerequisites
- None. Bring the situation you have.
- Course length
- 7 to 30 lessons
- Pace
- Yours. One lesson at a time, as often as you like.
- Format
- Read it, or play the audio
- Access
- Available on the App Store and Google Play, with an optional early testing list
Before the course is built
Setup asks about your situation first.
Lesson 1 opens on the moment you describe, and the examples use your role. For this request, expect questions like these.
- Do you need this for your own team or business, or to understand the strategy you are handed?
- Have you seen a strategy document that felt empty, and can you say why?
- Is there a real decision you are trying to think through strategically?
Right for now
If any of this sounds familiar, start here.
You are asked to think strategically and cannot say what that means
The word gets used as praise and criticism without a definition.
You make choices without a frame
Decisions get taken one at a time and never add up.
Course arc
Where the course goes, in order.
Cadence writes the lessons for you, so the exact path follows your answers. This is the ground a course built from this sentence covers.
01 / 06Goals are not strategy
Why aspirations feel like strategy, and what is missing from them.
Diagnosis first
Naming the real challenge before choosing what to do about it.
Where to play, how to win
The core choices, and how they constrain each other.
Competitive advantage
What lets a business keep its profits, and how advantage erodes.
Tradeoffs and coherence
Choices that reinforce each other, and the ones that quietly cancel out.
Testing a strategy
Questions that reveal whether a strategy document actually decides anything.
What changes
What you will be able to do, and what you will stop believing.
You will be able to
Recognize a real strategy
Tell a coherent set of choices from a list of hopes.
Reason about advantage
Explain why a business wins where it wins, and where it does not.
Make tradeoffs explicit
State what a choice gives up, which is what makes it a choice.
Ideas this course corrects
An ambitious target is a complete strategy
A target describes a desired result. It still needs a diagnosis, choices and workable actions.
A strategy is good if it disappoints someone
Tradeoffs may disappoint people, but disagreement itself is not evidence of a sound strategy.
Course questions
What to know before you start.
How to think strategically at work: what can I do today?
Turn an ambition into a choice. Original fictional example: a repair shop wants more repeat business. Instead of only saying "grow loyalty," it chooses to offer scheduled maintenance to existing bicycle customers. It defers opening an unrelated product line so the same staff can deliver the service. Find the assumption that matters. The choice assumes existing customers need maintenance and will value a dependable appointment. The shop must investigate that need and whether it can deliver at a viable cost. A tidy strategy sentence is not evidence that the assumption is true. Check the fit of the actions. Ask whether staffing, appointment capacity and customer communication support the chosen service. Adding unlimited same-day work could conflict with dependable appointments. Record what evidence would justify revisiting the choice, rather than treating consistency as refusal to learn.
Is this a fixed course?
No. Cadence builds the course when you type the sentence and answer a few setup questions, so the lessons follow your situation. This page describes what a course built from this request covers. You see the whole path before Lesson 1.
Who is this course for?
A useful strategy connects a specific challenge to choices about where to focus, what to do and what to leave out. Test whether the choices can work together. The example below makes an assumption and a tradeoff visible without claiming that the plan is guaranteed to succeed. It sits under Business in the Work & ambitions part of the library.
Do I need any prior experience?
No. Setup asks what you already know and where you want to use it, and the course starts from there. Bring a real situation if you have one; the examples are built around it.
How long does it take?
Most courses run 7 to 30 lessons. The course length is sized to what you asked for. You set the pace: one lesson at a time, as often as you like. Lessons can be read or played as audio.
Does this course award a certificate or degree?
No. Cadence is for practical self-learning and does not award accredited degrees or professional certification.
Start today
Type it, answer a few questions, open Lesson 1.
A starting goal
I want to understand what makes a business strategy useful. Help me examine tradeoffs, competitive advantage, and the choices that distinguish a strategy from a list of goals.
Want new features first?