In this article I explore four approaches to building a breakthrough strategy:

1. Contrast. The strategist should identify—and challenge—the assumptions undergirding the company’s or the industry’s status quo. This is the most direct and often the most powerful way to reinvent a business.
2. Combination. Steve Jobs famously said that creativity is “just connecting things”; many smart business moves come from linking products or services that seem independent from or even in tension with one another.
3. Constraint. A good strategist looks at an organization’s limitations and considers how they might actually become strengths.
4. Context. If you reflect on how a problem similar to yours was solved in an entirely different context, surprising insights may emerge.