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This Month

📝 Newly created content: From Concept to Code: The Story of Building the Strategic Analysis Toolkit

📝 Trending created content: The Balanced Scorecard: How to Align Strategy with Action

📝 Trending curated content: How to use LLMs to humanize your content and scale your research

From Concept to Code: The Story of Building the Strategic Analysis Toolkit

It’s one thing to have a great idea, and another entirely to commit to the daunting process of building it from the ground up. the

This month, I want to pull back the curtain on the journey of creating the Strategic Analysis Toolkit (strategicanalysistoolkit.com). This project was born out of frustration and a desire to make high-level strategic planning accessible to everyone, from the student to the management consultant to the small business owner.

​This isn't just a piece of software; it's the bridge between textbook theory and real-world results.

​The Genesis: Fixing the Broken Strategy Process

​For years, I watched smart, capable professionals and students struggle with strategic analysis for the same reasons:

• ​Analysis Paralysis: where do you start? PESTLE? SWOT? Porter’s Five Forces? They are often taught as isolated exercises, leading to a pile of disconnected documents instead of a cohesive plan

• ​The Theory/Practice Gap: academic frameworks felt rigid and theoretical, making the jump to a dynamic, real-world business context messy and inefficient

• ​The Output Problem: after weeks of work, the final deliverable was often a scattered set of PowerPoint slides or a dense, unreadable Word document

​The mission became clear:

The idea for the "Toolkit" was born: a digital mentor that guides you from discovery and foundational analysis through implementation planning and change management.

​The Blueprint: Designing the "Guided Flow"

​The core challenge wasn't just integrating a few frameworks; it was enforcing a proper consulting methodology. We decided on a sequential path that ensures every new analysis builds on the insights of the last:

1. ​Discovery & Foundation: starting with the big picture (PESTLE, Porter’s Five Forces) and understanding the ecosystem dynamics (Value Chain)

2. ​Strategic Analysis: synthesising the data (SWOT Analysis, GOST, Ansoff Matrix and Blue Ocean Strategy)

3. ​Implementation Planning: setting goals (TOWS Matrix and Prioritisation, Balanced Scorecard)

4. ​Change & Improvement: planning, execution, and tracking (Kotter's 8-Step, PDCA Cycle and What-if Scenarios)

​This structured approach eliminated the anxiety of "where next?" and ensured, for instance, that the PESTLE output informed the SWOT Analysis, leading to an integrated analysis.

​The Build: Harnessing AI as a Strategic Partner

​The actual inflexion point in the development process was the decision to integrate generative AI. This wasn't about using AI to write AI Slop; it was about leveraging it to perform the heavy, contextual lifting that usually takes consultants hours:

• ​Contextual Synthesis: for foundational steps, the AI sifts through authoritative web sources, actively filtering out unreliable ones like personal blogs, to provide real-time, objective data streams tailored to the organisation's unique context

• ​The Digital Mentor: for frameworks like SWOT and TOWS, the AI acts as a sophisticated reasoning engine. It doesn't just list factors; it synthesises the findings from PESTLE, Porter's, and the Value Chain to generate genuine, high-quality strategic insights

• ​Advanced "What-If" Scenarios: this was one of the most challenging but rewarding features. We built a system that allows a user to select a factor, say, a "Threat" from the SWOT, and ask, "What if this threat were eliminated?" The AI then re-evaluates all downstream frameworks, like TOWS, GOST, and the Balanced Scorecard, to show the ripple effects of that hypothetical change. This transforms the tool into a powerful, zero-risk strategy sandbox for high-stakes decision-making

​The Launch and The Future: Democratising Strategy

​After months of testing, refining the prompt engineering, and perfecting the user experience, the Strategic Analysis Toolkit went live.

The response has been great, confirming my initial belief: there is a need for a tool that focuses on rigour, quality, and structure.

​The final output is the most satisfying part of the entire build. The platform generates a beautiful, unified, and professionally formatted report, a deliverable that democratises strategy.

​Building the Strategic Analysis Toolkit has been a marathon of code, cognitive modelling, and design thinking. But seeing it empower consultants, students and small businesses has been rewarding.

The Balanced Scorecard: How to Align Strategy with Action

It is the most frustrating scenario in business: The CEO has a clear, compelling vision. The strategy is sound. The market opportunity is massive. Yet, six months later, nothing has changed. Sales teams are chasing the wrong leads, product development is stalled on low-priority features, and customer service is overwhelmed.

This is known as the “Execution Gap.”

To find out more, read the full article here.

How to use LLMs to humanize your content and scale your research

Discover how to use LLMs to scale research without losing the human touch. Learn strategies to analy se customer feedback, automate SME interviews, and gain competitor insights.

To find out more, read the full article here.

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