Students and managers who wish to map out business performance through time, and the strategic architecture of resources that explains and delivers that performance, face a significant barrier – spreadsheets and other modelling software are simply not suited to capturing these critical structures. This has led to the development  of the "My Strategy" strategy mapping and modelling software for fact-based strategy analysis and development (available from October, 2002). The following simple illustration shows just a small part of an architecture for a low-fare airline. The red time-lines display historic and anticipated performance for Easyjet, and the green lines show the simulated outcomes from simple relationships between accumulating resources (passengers and routes) and the revenues and earnings that arise.

Note that these are numerically-based diagrams, not simply arbitrary sketches from a drawing software.
 

Although cases provide some context for discussing how the principles of Strategy Dynamics apply in real situations, dynamics have to be experienced to be truly understood. So cases are supported by easy-to-use computer simulations, which immerse student groups in a wide variety of challenges. In contrast to case-discussions, students must commit to, and live with, the analysis and recommendations that they negotiate with each other.

This combination of simulation plus case is known as a ‘microworld' – a term first coined by Seymour Pappert (Mindstorms, 1980, New York: Basic Books) to describe learning environments where students (and managers) could learn on simplified versions of reality, rather than by trial and error with the real world! Here is a screen-shot of one of simplest of these learning devices, which explores the building of a consumer brand. The strategic architecture of the business, with current performance data, is shown on the resource-map at centre-screen, and supported by a rich variety of performance time-charts (just 3 shown here).