Strategy

Strategy in AME3 is not a plan. As Roger Martin puts it, planning is about activities within your control, while strategy requires making choices about where to play and how to win in the face of uncertainty. A plan tells people what to do. A strategy tells them how to think when the plan runs out. It does this through doctrines.

In military strategy, a doctrine sets out the fundamental beliefs, priorities, and methods that shape policies, operations, and the use of power over time. It provides a framework for tactics. The concept originates from US Air Force doctrine (AFDD-1), where it describes “officially sanctioned beliefs and warfighting principles that guide the proper use of forces.”

A Strategic Doctrine provides a framework for tactics, setting out the fundamental beliefs, priorities, and methods that shape policies, operations, and the use of power over time.

Simon Wardley brought the concept into business strategy, defining doctrine as “basic universal principles applicable to all industries regardless of the landscape and its context.” In AME3, we take this idea further and establish three strategic doctrines that every enterprise must adopt from the start.

Empirical Control structures learning through Anticipate-Advance-Assess loops at multiple timescales. Overall Optimization ensures that local improvements benefit the entire enterprise, not just the unit making them. Evolution Focus maps products along their evolution path so the enterprise invests where it matters most.