Finally, the book and its accompanying website cover strategy tools and link them to the five strategy approaches, creating five strategy toolboxes. This is a good development but one with insufficient coverage of the available strategy tools. In my research on strategy tools covering the same period (-), I identified over strategy tools. Some of these strategy tools include backcasting [], business wargaming [], assumption-based planning [], strategy under uncertainty [], the three horizons framework [], strategy diamond [], portfolio of initiatives [], strategy as active waiting [], the strategy tripod framework [], and capabilities-driven strategy []. BCG’s narrow coverage of strategy tools combined with fewer strategy approaches results in limited and incomplete strategy toolboxes and consequently, inadequate strategy guidance.

The generic visionary strategy approach is entrepreneurial and usually used by start-ups. It involves envisaging, building, and persisting. The approach starts with envisaging an opportunity that has arisen due to technological discontinuity, change in customer behavior, or the emergence of a megatrend. Once a vision has been agreed on, the entrepreneurs move to create a company that can fulfil the vision. Then, they commit resources and persist in pursuing the vision. BCG research has identified seven strategy tools that can be used with the visionary approach. These strategy tools are innovation adoption curves, discontinuous innovation, disruptive innovation, value innovation, competing for the future, tipping point, and blue ocean strategy.

The Strategy Palette is one of the more recent and probably the most recognized framework for selecting the appropriate strategy approach. The framework’s use of dichotomous variables with low and high values makes it simple and easy to understand. It does not stop at identifying the strategy approaches, instead further linking them with the relevant strategy tools. BCG also has an interactive website for the strategy tools providing a short description of the tool, its author(s), and the original reference. The linking of the various strategy tools to strategy approaches allows for the creation of a strategy toolbox for each approach that can be used by strategists []. Moreover, the book provides several case studies and vignettes to explicate the strategy approaches.

The Strategy Palette framework was first published in Harvard Business Review (HBR) in by the lead author, Martin Reeves, and two colleagues, Claire Love and Philipp Tillmanns []. It had two dimensions: predictability and malleability; as well as four strategy approaches. Subsequently in , the framework was updated, and a third dimension was added called harshness, resulting in five strategy approaches. This updated version was published in the book “Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach”, which was written by the lead author, Martin Reeves, and two new co-authors, Knut Haanaes and Janmejaya Sinha [].

The adaptive strategy approach is evolutionary, necessitating the creation of solution hypotheses and testing them through experiments, then selecting promising options and scaling them up. The emphasis here lies in creating strategic flexibility. BCG research has identified strategy tools that can be used with the adaptive approach. These strategy tools include time-based competition, first mover advantage, dynamic capabilities, strategy as simple rules, adaptive advantage, and transient competitive advantage.