Strategy Education

Business Strategy:
A Complete Framework Reference

This reference guide consolidates every framework, model, and analytical tool covered across the Business Strategy course at Melbourne Business School. Use it to refresh your understanding of any concept, trace the logic from competitive advantage through to corporate portfolio decisions, and apply the frameworks to live case analysis.

Not sure which tool to reach for? Use the Framework SelectorOpen selector Test your judgement with Scenario Quizzes — 3-minute executive dilemmas testing framework application.Start a challenge

Topic Areas

From competitive advantage through to corporate vs business strategy

40+

Frameworks

Every named framework, model, and analytical tool from the course notes

100+

Examples

Apple, Southwest, Amazon, Tesla, Bunnings, Aldi, Netflix, Kodak and more

Governing Logic

Every framework connects to the central question: why do some firms win and others don't?

The strategic logic

How the Topics Connect

The course builds a cumulative strategic logic. Each topic adds a lens that the previous one requires to be complete. Understanding the connections is as important as understanding each framework individually.

Why do we win? (W2)→What resources explain it? (W3)→Is the industry worth playing in? (W4)→How do we position? (W5)→How do we grow? (W6)→What threatens us? (W7)→Platform or pipeline? (W8)→Where should we play? (W9)

🏆 Competitive Advantage

The WTP–Cost gap, value map, and the two dimensions of advantage. Establishes what winning actually means and how to measure it.

🔩 Strategic Resources

VRIO, Collis & Montgomery, dynamic capabilities, and the bathtub model. Explains why winners keep winning — and why competitors can't simply copy them.

🏭 Industry & Macro

Porter's Five Forces, PESTLE, SCQ. Asks whether the game is worth playing at all — industry sets the ceiling, firm strategy determines how close you get to it.

📍 Strategic Positioning

Activity systems, value maps, positioning maps, Blue Ocean. Clarifies where you compete, how you differentiate, and what you deliberately exclude.

💡 Innovation

Three Horizons, S-curves, Henderson & Clark, ambidexterity. Determines how you renew advantage over time without destroying the core that funds renewal.

⚡ Disruption

Christensen's disruption types, the Kodak Test, business model wars. Identifies when someone else's innovation threatens your core — and what to do about it.

🌐 Platforms & AI

Network effects, ecosystem governance, AI paradox. Explains why some digital businesses achieve winner-take-all dynamics while others fail to launch.

🏢 Corporate Strategy

Porter's Three Tests, parenting advantage, synergies, M&A failure. Determines which markets to be in, and whether corporate ownership creates or destroys value.

🎯 How to use this guideClick any tab above to navigate to that topic. Within each topic, frameworks are presented with their definition, key components, visual diagram or table, worked examples from the course, and the key strategic insight the framework produces. Bold terms highlight the most important vocabulary you need to know for exam application.