ABSTRACT
Core strategy selection is a complex and potentially confusing activity with conflicting priorities and an infinite number of possibilities. In this sense, the process is a reflection of reality but the resulting strategy has to rise above this complexity to deliver a framework that can be communicated and understood throughout the organization. The management literature is full of hefty tomes seeking to explain in ever more detail every aspect of strategy. This chapter presents a structured approach based on straightforward core concepts. The aim is to find a basis for the business that lifts the corporations out of the hypercompetitive space with a strategy that is likely to endure. The chapter presents two special cases: 'Blue Ocean' and 'Civic Monopoly'. Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) are natural civic monopolies which will become widespread. In 1990 Finnish State Railways ceased to be a civil service department and became a public enterprise, and five years later a state-owned limited liability company.
