02 How To Master Strategy Models

Twenty-two strategy frameworks, each taught end to end — with the worked models to put them to work.

Every strategy question — where to compete, how to win, what to do next — turns on a handful of proven frameworks. This handbook teaches all twenty-two in the Strategy category, one chapter each, built the way a practitioner actually uses them: from PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces to Blue Ocean Strategy and Wardley Mapping.

What you get

The complete PDF handbook plus twenty-two worked Excel models — one for every framework in the book. Blue input cells you change, formula cells that respond, and a Read-me tab on each, so you can pressure-test the framework on your own situation.

How every chapter is built

Read one and you can use any. Each framework follows the same thirteen-section rhythm: the question it answers, what it is, who uses it, its anatomy, inputs and outputs, how to apply it step by step, a worked example, strengths, limits and pitfalls, industry notes, how it connects to the other frameworks, modern relevance, using AI on it, and a practitioner’s checklist.

The twenty-two frameworks

PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, Industry Life Cycle, Value Chain, VRIO, Core Competence, BCG Matrix, GE–McKinsey Matrix, Ansoff Matrix, Porter’s Generic Strategies, Strategy Diamond, Balanced Scorecard, SWOT, TOWS, SOAR, Issue Tree, MECE, Hypothesis-Driven Problem Solving, Blue Ocean Strategy, Three Horizons, Wardley Mapping and the Abell Business Definition.

The learning path

The chapters are ordered as a single connected build, not an alphabetical list — from scanning the environment, to choosing where to compete, to structuring the argument and communicating the decision.

Who it's for

Strategists, consultants, founders and executives who need to frame a decision, structure the analysis and defend the recommendation — without reaching for a framework they only half understand.

How to use it

Work straight through to master the category, or jump to a single framework when you need it for live work.

Book 02 of the Business Framework Library, part of The Investment Banking Practitioner’s Handbook Series. Master this category on its own, or reach for the Business Framework Compendium when you want the one-page reference to all 467 frameworks.

By John Colley — Cambridge University MA · MBA with Distinction, Bayes Business School · 30+ years in investment banking, M&A and private equity.