All activities need a compass to align with. The first thought of many strategists is to win. However, that does not always mean that you are the first, the fastest, the greatest, or that you have to grow constantly. The desired impact direction might be a fitter company or better utilization of existing means or happier employees. The selected alignments can be undermined by different simultaneous directions. The impact direction is therefore an important basis for the design of the future.

The common direction can be found between growth and contraction (horizontal axis) and gradual first order change and radical second order change (vertical axis). The following options arise.

• Consolidate
  Making the current business more robust doesn’t sound very exciting. Securing viability on the basis of available means is a good preparation for the future. For this purpose, the offers can be enhanced, better placed and advertised. Or the chosen value discipline (customer, product or flow orientation) persistently pursued. As long as the turnover has good prospects, this is a reasonable approach.
• Activating
  If the existing core aspects, the offers, flows and skills, are expanded, it favors the business. For this purpose, the corporate image is revamped, the culture is described and the entrepreneurial awareness of the employees is refreshed. It is a matter of better utilizing the current palette on the bogged down paths.
• Expand
  If neighboring areas are identified and expanded, new work contents, forms and market areas emerge. This is made possible by continuous design, a wide variety of cross-enterprise teamwork and the shifting of the boundaries of end-to-end procedures. On closer look, additional sources of income can be found in customer touchpoints.
• Reinvent
  When you leave the comfort zone, different options open up. New trades can be revealed and thereby common tasks shared. In the end, the building blocks of the business model change. The whole thing starts with radical redesign of the flows, the development of new product lines and the disclosure of completely new customer groups. Such developments are driven by individuals, who have a clear idea of what else is imaginable.
• Concentrate
  If the enterprise body suffers from overweight and the incomes do not cover any longer the current expenses, a thoughtful compression of the activities is inevitable, if the whole does not want to be dragged into the deep. This is made possible by the sacrifice of certain tasks, the bundling of the core business e.g. in which regular handlings are outsourced. Needless business and routines arise, if you are not prepared to take care of them at an early stage.
• Close
  When all fitness measures have been exhausted, sooner or later economic collapse will occur. In the interest of all involved people, the orderly surrender or separation of individual areas or locations is the last resort, if it enables employees to make a secure transition to new tasks. Early dissolution may allow external enterpriser to find ways to continue the business under different premises.

Bottom line: It may sound strange that the common alignment can be condensed for all cases into six possible directions. Once you have performed the clarification of the direction beforehand, you will quickly notice that debates on principles are replaced by joint plans. The unambiguous intention should be clear and all areas should be aligned to one direction. Before any strategizing it requires the one thought.