StrategyCoach.io glossary
Strategy comes with its own vocabulary, from SWOT and the five forces to OKRs, KPIs and coaching agreements. This glossary explains the terms small-business owners meet most often when they set direction, plan priorities or work with a strategy coach, in plain English and without jargon. It is a general reference, not legal, financial or professional advice.
- Advisory board
- A group of outside advisers a business owner invites to give guidance on strategy and growth. Unlike a corporation's board of directors, which makes major decisions for the company, an advisory board's role is to advise; it typically has no formal decision-making power.
- Related:Peer advisory groupMentorManagement consultant
- Annual planning
- A yearly process in which an owner and team review the past year, revisit the strategy, set goals for the coming year and agree on the first set of quarterly priorities and budgets.
- Related:Strategic planQuarterly prioritiesStrategy review
- Ansoff matrix
- A two-by-two grid named after strategist H. Igor Ansoff that sorts growth options by whether the product and the market are existing or new. The four options are market penetration, market development, product development and diversification.
- Related:Business strategyStrategic trade-off
- Balanced scorecard
- A performance framework introduced by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in Harvard Business Review in 1992 that looks beyond financial results. It tracks measures from four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth.
- Related:Key performance indicator
- Business coach
- A coach who works with business owners or managers on running and growing a business, such as goals, leadership, priorities and accountability. Approaches vary widely, from mostly question-led coaching to a more advisory style.
- Related:CoachingStrategy coachManagement consultant
- Business model
- How a business creates value for customers, delivers it and earns money from it, including who pays, how much, and what it costs to serve them. Two businesses in the same industry can have very different business models.
- Related:Business model canvasValue proposition
- Business model canvas
- A one-page template from the 2010 book Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur that describes a business model in nine building blocks, usually labeled customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships and cost structure.
- Related:Business modelValue proposition
- Business plan
- A document describing a business, its market, operations, management and financial projections, often written to start a business or to seek funding. The U.S. Small Business Administration describes two common formats: a detailed traditional plan and a shorter lean startup plan.
- Related:Strategic planBusiness model
- Business strategy
- The set of choices a business makes about where it will compete, whom it will serve and how it will win there, along with what it will deliberately not do. A strategy is different from a goal or a to-do list: it explains why the business expects to succeed against its alternatives.
- Related:Competitive advantageStrategic trade-offStrategic plan
- Coaching
- The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." In practice, coaching mainly uses questions and reflection to help clients reach their own decisions, which sets it apart from consulting. It is not therapy and is not a substitute for professional mental health care.
- Related:Business coachStrategy coachInternational Coaching Federation
- Coaching agreement
- The understanding between a coach and client, ideally in writing, that sets out goals, logistics, fees, confidentiality and how either side can end the engagement. The ICF Code of Ethics asks coaches to explain the nature of coaching and co-create this agreement before coaching begins, and to respect either side's right to end the relationship under its terms.
- Related:CoachingInternational Coaching FederationDiscovery call
- Competitive advantage
- Something a business does or has that lets it serve its chosen customers better, or at lower cost, than the alternatives in a way that is hard to copy quickly. Examples include specialized expertise, a strong local reputation, a better location or a lower cost structure.
- Related:Porter's generic strategiesCore competencyValue proposition
- Competitive analysis
- A review of the businesses and alternatives your customers could choose instead of you, including what they offer, how they price and where they are strong or weak. Alternatives include doing nothing or doing the work in-house, not just direct competitors.
- Related:Five forcesPositioningSWOT analysis
- Core competency
- A capability that is central to how a business creates value and is hard for others to imitate, such as deep technical know-how or a distinctive process. The idea was popularized by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel in a 1990 Harvard Business Review article.
- Related:Competitive advantage
- Core values
- A small set of principles that describe how people in a business are expected to behave and make decisions. Values are most useful when they are written as concrete behaviors and actually used in hiring, feedback and trade-off decisions.
- Related:Mission statementVision statement
- Cost leadership
- A strategy of competing by having lower costs than rivals, which allows lower prices or higher margins. It usually depends on scale, efficient processes or structural cost advantages, which can make it hard for small businesses to sustain against larger competitors.
- Related:Porter's generic strategiesDifferentiation
- Differentiation
- A strategy of offering something customers value and see as different from the alternatives, such as quality, expertise, service, speed or design, so they are willing to choose you or pay more.
- Related:Porter's generic strategiesValue propositionPositioning
- Discovery call
- A free or low-cost introductory conversation, sometimes called a chemistry call, in which a prospective client and coach discuss goals and approach and decide whether they are a good fit before signing an agreement.
- Related:Coaching agreementStrategy coach
- Eisenhower matrix
- A prioritization grid that sorts tasks by whether they are urgent and whether they are important, suggesting you do, schedule, delegate or drop each one. It is named after U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- Related:Pareto principleStop-doing list
- Five forces
- Michael Porter's framework, first published in Harvard Business Review in 1979, for judging how attractive and competitive an industry is. The forces are rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, and the bargaining power of buyers and of suppliers.
- Related:Porter's generic strategiesCompetitive analysisSWOT analysis
- Focus strategy
- A strategy of serving a narrow market segment, such as one industry, region or customer type, better than broader competitors can. Within the chosen niche a business can compete on cost or on differentiation.
- Related:Porter's generic strategiesTarget marketMarket segmentation
- GROW model
- A widely used coaching conversation structure: Goal, Reality, Options and Will (or Way forward). It was popularized by Sir John Whitmore in his book Coaching for Performance.
- Related:CoachingStrategy session
- Hoshin kanri
- A Japanese planning method, sometimes called policy deployment or strategy deployment, that aligns the work of each function and team, vertically and horizontally, with a few strategic objectives, usually through an annual plan. It uses a back-and-forth dialogue called catchball, in which goals, resources and time are discussed between leaders and teams until the plan is achievable.
- Related:Strategic planOKRs
- ICF credentials
- The International Coaching Federation's three levels of individual coaching credentials: Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Master Certified Coach (MCC). Each level requires more hours of coach-specific education and coaching experience, and credentials are one way to gauge a coach's training.
- Related:International Coaching FederationStrategy coach
- International Coaching Federation
- A global professional organization for coaches, often shortened to ICF. It publishes a code of ethics and a set of coaching competencies and runs a credentialing program for coaches.
- Related:ICF credentialsCoachingCoaching agreement
- Key performance indicator
- A metric a business tracks regularly because it reflects how well the business or a part of it is performing, such as gross margin, customer retention or on-time delivery. Often shortened to KPI; a small, stable set is easier to act on than a long list.
- Related:Leading and lagging indicatorsBalanced scorecard
- Key result
- In OKRs, a measurable outcome that shows progress toward an objective, such as a number, percentage or date. Key results describe outcomes, not the tasks or activities used to reach them.
- Related:OKRsKey performance indicator
- Leading and lagging indicators
- Lagging indicators report results after the fact, such as revenue or profit. Leading indicators move earlier and help predict those results, such as qualified leads, quotes sent or customer response times.
- Related:Key performance indicator
- Management consultant
- An outside expert hired to analyze a business problem and recommend, and sometimes implement, a solution. A consultant typically supplies answers and expertise, while a coach mainly helps the client think through and own their decisions; some professionals do both.
- Related:Business coachMentorAdvisory board
- Market segmentation
- Dividing a broad market into smaller groups of customers who share similar needs or characteristics, so a business can decide which groups to serve and how to tailor its offer to each.
- Related:Target market
- Mastermind group
- A peer group whose members meet regularly to help one another solve problems and reach goals. The idea is commonly linked to author Napoleon Hill, whose best-known book, Think and Grow Rich, appeared in 1937; today the term is used loosely, so formats and quality vary.
- Related:Peer advisory group
- Mentor
- An experienced person who shares advice, knowledge and contacts from their own career, often informally and without pay. Mentoring tends to center on the mentor's experience, while coaching centers on the client's thinking.
- Related:CoachingSCOREPeer advisory group
- Mission statement
- A short statement of what a business does, for whom and why it exists today. A useful mission is specific enough to help the owner and team say no to work that does not fit.
- Related:Vision statementCore values
- OKRs
- Short for objectives and key results: a goal-setting method that pairs a qualitative objective with a few measurable key results showing whether it was achieved. The method was created by Andy Grove at Intel, who taught it to John Doerr; Doerr later wrote about it in his book Measure What Matters.
- Related:Key resultSMART goalsQuarterly priorities
- One-page strategic plan
- A strategic plan condensed onto a single page, usually listing purpose, a few long-term goals, this year's targets, the current quarter's priorities and the measures that will be tracked. The constraint forces clear choices and makes the plan easy to share and revisit.
- Related:Strategic planQuarterly prioritiesKey performance indicator
- Pareto principle
- The observation that, in many situations, a large share of results comes from a small share of causes, often summarized as the 80/20 rule. Quality pioneer Joseph Juran named it after the economist Vilfredo Pareto; the 80/20 split is a rule of thumb, not a law.
- Related:Eisenhower matrixStop-doing list
- Peer advisory group
- A small, confidential group of business owners or leaders, often from non-competing businesses, who meet regularly to discuss challenges, share experience and hold one another accountable. Groups are commonly led by a trained facilitator.
- Related:Mastermind groupAdvisory board
- PESTLE analysis
- A checklist for scanning the outside environment across political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that could affect a business. It is often used to feed the opportunities and threats in a SWOT analysis.
- Related:SWOT analysisFive forces
- Porter's generic strategies
- A framework from Harvard professor Michael Porter's 1980 book Competitive Strategy describing three basic ways to compete: cost leadership, differentiation and focus on a narrow segment. Porter warned that a business trying to do everything at once risks ending up stuck in the middle, with no clear advantage.
- Related:Cost leadershipDifferentiationFocus strategy
- Positioning
- The place a business wants to occupy in customers' minds relative to competitors, such as the fastest, the most specialized or the best value. Positioning is the choice; messaging and branding are how it is communicated.
- Related:Value propositionDifferentiationCompetitive analysis
- Quarterly priorities
- The handful of most important goals or projects a business commits to completing in the next 90 days or so, each with a clear owner. Keeping the list short and visible helps turn an annual plan into action.
- Related:Annual planningOne-page strategic plan
- SCORE
- A nonprofit network of volunteer business mentors and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. According to the SBA, SCORE mentors offer advice at no cost, along with workshops and training.
- Related:Small Business Development CenterMentor
- Small Business Development Center
- A U.S. Small Business Administration resource partner, hosted by universities, colleges, state economic development agencies and other partners, that provides counseling and training to small businesses and people starting one. Often shortened to SBDC; the SBA lists strategy and business planning among the areas SBDCs help with.
- Related:SCOREBusiness plan
- SMART goals
- Goals written to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. The acronym is usually traced to George T. Doran's 1981 article in Management Review, whose original letters were slightly different: specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related.
- Related:OKRsKey performance indicator
- Stop-doing list
- A deliberate list of products, customers, activities or habits a business will end or decline in order to free time and money for its priorities. It makes strategic trade-offs concrete.
- Related:Strategic trade-offEisenhower matrix
- Strategic plan
- A document that sets out where a business is headed over the next few years and how it intends to get there, typically covering mission, vision, goals, priorities and how progress will be measured.
- Related:One-page strategic planBusiness planAnnual planning
- Strategic trade-off
- A deliberate choice to give up one option, customer group or activity in order to do something else well. Trade-offs are what make a strategy distinct: if a choice costs nothing, it is probably not a strategic one.
- Related:Business strategyStop-doing listPorter's generic strategies
- Strategy coach
- A coach who helps a business owner or leadership team clarify direction, make strategic choices, set priorities and follow through. It is a descriptive title, not a credential, so it is worth asking about a coach's training, method and experience.
- Related:CoachingBusiness coachCoaching agreement
- Strategy retreat
- A dedicated session, often one or two days away from daily operations, where an owner and leadership team step back to review results, revisit strategy and agree on priorities. Also called an offsite; a clear agenda and facilitator help it produce decisions.
- Related:Annual planningStrategy session
- Strategy review
- A scheduled meeting, often monthly or quarterly, to check progress on priorities and metrics, discuss what has changed and decide whether to adjust the plan. A steady review cadence keeps the strategy current instead of filed away.
- Related:Annual planningQuarterly prioritiesKey performance indicator
- Strategy session
- A focused working meeting, with or without a coach, devoted to a specific strategic question such as which market to pursue or which priorities to set. It usually ends with decisions and agreed next steps.
- Related:Strategy retreatGROW modelStrategy coach
- SWOT analysis
- A structured review of a business's internal strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats. It is most useful when each point is specific and the results are turned into decisions rather than left as a list.
- Related:PESTLE analysisFive forcesCompetitive analysis
- Target market
- The specific group of customers a business chooses to serve, defined by traits such as industry, location, size, needs or buying behavior. Choosing a target market also means choosing whom not to pursue.
- Related:Market segmentationFocus strategy
- Value proposition
- A clear statement of the specific benefit a business delivers to a specific customer and why that customer should choose it over the alternatives. Good value propositions are concrete and written in the customer's terms rather than as a list of features.
- Related:Target marketDifferentiationPositioning
- Vision statement
- A description of what the business wants to become or achieve in the longer term, often several years out. Where the mission describes the present purpose, the vision describes the destination.
- Related:Mission statementStrategic plan