The Helicopter, the Submarine and the Rollercoaster

It can be tempting to view strategy work as a staircase you climb. A quiet, orderly process where you build insights on top of each other until you reach the summit — where the strategy is finally formulated. That is not how it works.

Fred Pelard, in his book How to be Strategic, describes four different paths to strategy: the staircase, the helicopter, the submarine and the rollercoaster. He clearly recommends the rollercoaster.

Strategy work is a lifelong rollercoaster ride. A dream ride that never ends.

The helicopter

The helicopter takes you up to see the organisation from the outside in. What is happening in the wider world? What are the megatrends? How is the industry evolving? Who are your competitors, and what are your customers really asking for? This is the realm of PESTEL analysis, Porter Five Forces, and Value Proposition Design.

The submarine

The submarine dives deep into facts, data and documentation. What do the accounts really say? How satisfied are employees? What does the digital roadmap look like? This is where you look at the four bottom lines, infrastructure, competencies and owner preferences — all based on hard data, not gut feelings.

The rollercoaster

The rollercoaster combines both. You go up in the helicopter, then dive into the submarine, then up again — all while moving forward with new knowledge. Just when you think you are at the top and "just" need to start executing, you will want to go higher in the helicopter or deeper in the submarine.

This is not chaos — it is creative, structured exploration. And in a way, you quietly take a step up the stairs while riding the rollercoaster. The key is to embrace the dynamic and resist the temptation to treat strategy as a linear, one-time exercise.

"Working and thinking strategically is not a straight path to the goal." — Strategy is Tangible