Strategy Comparison
| Dimension | Estuarine Framework (Snowden) | Playing to Win (Martin & Lafley) | Business Model Canvas (BMC) | Honeycomb Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approach | Strategy emerges from actant interaction, systemic modulation, and substrate awareness | Strategy is a cascade of deliberate choices aimed at winning in defined arenas | Strategy is aligning internal components to deliver customer value | Strategy is co-created across stakeholders through dynamic exchange and purpose alignment |
| Practice | Transdisciplinarity, Theory-informed (natural, complexity, cognitive sciences) & ethnography social science | Evidence-based and case-driven; built from corporate strategy experience | Case-based and tool-driven; derived from startup and business modeling practice | Theory-informed and case-based; integrates stakeholder theory, ESG, systems thinking |
| Best Use Case System Fit | Dispositional Complex system: wicked/intractable problems, unpredictable emerging markets | Stable Order system: markets with known practices, corporate growth via hypothesis testing | Linear, causal Order system: startups, product-market design, investor pitches | Predictable Order system: user behaviour on digital platforms in a social media substrate |
Context | Substrate is central— affordances and boundaries define viability | Contextual analysis of competitive terrain | Treated as external “environment” | Stakeholders imply substrate, but not explicitly modeled |
| Strategic Evolution | Built for navigating complexity and shifting strategic landscapes | Strategy evolves through deliberate choices | Static snapshot; needs external tools for evolution | Designed for iterative modeling and layered analysis |
| Focus | Where are you presently, What is afforded, What is the next right thing | Strategic choices to win in chosen arenas | Internal business mechanics and customer value | Multi-stakeholder value creation and exchange |
| Structure | Energy/Time grid from mapping actants (actors, constructors, constraints), boundaries | 5 cascading questions: What is winning goal, Where to play, How to win, What capabilities, What systems | 9 building blocks in a linear canvas | Hexagonal cells representing dynamic stakeholder relationships |
| Key Methods & Tools | Narrative data, small, safe-to-fail experiments, portfolio of Cynefin action plans | Action plans from coherent strategic choices | Problem-solving tools like Root Cause Analysis, Lean to optimize building blocks | Participatory stakeholder engagement, alignment, feedback |
| Stakeholder Inclusion | Reframed as actants—human and non-human entities | Focused on human stakeholders—customers, competitors, decision-makers | Primarily human-centric—customers, partners, channels | Includes human stakeholders explicitly; can be extended to non-human agents |
|
Concept | Value is emergent, context-dependent, and shaped by substrate | Value as the ability to deliver superior value relative to competitors | Value proposition focused on customer needs | Value defined per stakeholder, including intangible and social |
| Systems Thinking | Not holistic but fractal, entangled representation of the system | Present but not explicit | System relationships limited to customers and internal operations | Mapping of flows, feedback, and systemic impact |
| Complexity Science | Fully integrated: emergence, feedback loops, self-organization, no central control, non-linearity, irreversible | Implicit in strategic iteration | Not addressed; assumes linear causality | Partially addressed via stakeholder interdependence |
| Culture | Emerges from human interaction, Narrative maps provide visual representation | Implied within its strategic execution logic | Not explicitly addressed | Embedded in shared purpose, stakeholder empathy, and relational trust |
| Wayfinding | Core capability—navigate existing substrate through ecological sense-making | Strategic iteration based on feedback | Not supported—assumes goal-driven planning | Can support iterative direction-setting via stakeholder feedback |
| Wayshaping | Central: influence the substrate to make future navigation faster & use less energy | Strategy shapes market and organization | Not addressed—no mechanism to shape systemic conditions | Can modulate stakeholder incentives and feedback loops |
| Scaling | Bottom-up: accelerate through “more stories like these, fewer like those” fractal interventions | Top-down: scales through strategic replication and market expansion | Middle-up-down: scales via modular building blocks and operational leverage | Middle-up-down: scales through stakeholder co-creation, feedback loops, and purpose alignment |
| AI LLM | Apply to collect new information, probe substrate, simulate affordances | Can support strategic analysis and iteration | Can augment for faster modeling and iteration of building block optimization | Can support stakeholder mapping, sentiment analysis, and co-creation |
| AI Context Generation | Potential role as a substrate-aware agent shaping and responding to systemic shifts | Emerging role in strategy generation | Limited—used for automation or content generation | Promising—can co-create stakeholder narratives and emergent models |