Alternative strategies: A systematic approach to generate strategy options

Strategy formulation for an organization requires generating alternative strategies to consider. We propose and demonstrate a systematic approach for generating strategy options. Our approach, which we call alternative strategies, is adapted from the intelligence community's “Alternative Futures,” which others call “Scenario Planning.” Based on the organization's core values, we develop strategy drivers that the organization may choose, express the choices as polar extremes, group them by compatibility, and select the two most influential groups as the axes of a 2 × 2 matrix, where each quadrant represents an alternative strategy. We evaluate these strategies accounting for the organization's range of potential activities and future uncertainty. We refine the quadrant strategies based on strategy drivers not included in the matrix axes and consider hybrid strategies. As a case study, we apply this technique to developing potential strategies for the United States Air Force.