The first chapter states clearly what strategy is and what it is not. Here we look at the eternal problem with strategy: it is hard, requiring great intellectual exertion, but our managers are pressed for time and out of practice. We square this circle with patterns. Patterns provide a framework for thinking—but they won’t do your thinking for you.

In Chapter 2, we have the patterns themselves. They include Dynamic Strategy, Research Through Action, and Gradually Raising the Stakes. These strategy patterns, when combined, allow us to plot a way forward, step-by-step. They help us to both understand and navigate the landscape we find ourselves in. These patterns have been used multiple times to launch products, capture markets and build defensible positions. As we write this, during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are being deployed again, only this time to help companies navigate through the crisis.

Finally, in Chapter 3, we return to WealthGrid, the fictional company at the center of our book Cloud Native Transformation. Here, we find that our hero, Jenny, is at it again. After successfully transforming WealthGrid into a Cloud Native organisation, Jenny and her team find that innovation is easier for them. However, a perfect storm of changes in regulation and user behaviour puts WealthGrid’s core revenue stream at risk. Jenny immediately makes a series of no regret moves to try and understand her new reality. In doing so, she hopes to get WealthGrid back on track. The question is, will she succeed?