Purpose
Helps clarify the current situation, opportunities, and strategic options in concrete terms. It compares strengths, risks, market logic, and courses of action. The result is captured as a value-chain map and lever list.
Business Strategy
Value Chain Analysis
Moves the current situation, opportunities, and strategic options toward a concrete result through "explain the nine-activity template", "describe primary activities", and "derive levers and weaknesses".
Which activities in our value creation are competitive advantage today, which cost without differentiation, and where are the strategic levers?
HighWorkshopHalf day
How it works
The team follows the steps "explain the nine-activity template", "describe primary activities", "describe support activities", "assess each activity's contribution to differentiation", and "derive levers and weaknesses". Each step is made visible. At the end, a value-chain map and lever list are available so decisions, tests, or actions can continue directly.
Visual orientation
Method sketch for a quick mental model.
Flow
- 1Explain the nine-activity template
- 2Describe primary activities
- 3Describe support activities
- 4Assess each activity's contribution to differentiation
- 5Derive levers and weaknesses
The runsheet guides execution with 5 phases, timeboxes, 5 pitfalls, and clear stop criteria.
Open runsheetIdeal for
- Strategy kickoff
- M and A screening
- Outsourcing analysis
Not good for
- Early-stage startups without stable value creation
Deep dive
In detail
Michael Porter's Value Chain Analysis breaks an organization into five primary and four support activities and examines for each one the contribution to value creation and differentiation potential. It is a classic of strategic management and is often used as an initial diagnosis before strategy workshops.
Facilitation
Avoid collecting activities without evaluating them. Derive concrete levers and weaknesses for each activity.
Output artifacts
Value-Chain-MapHebel-Liste
Artifact templates
Value Chain Analysis Working TemplateCompact working template for Value Chain Analysis with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.canvas
Value Chain Analysis Working TemplateCompact working template for Value Chain Analysis with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
canvasvalue-chain-analysis-working-template.md
Compact working template for Value Chain Analysis with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Value Chain Analysis Canvas
Context
What is this method used for?
Core question
Which question should be answered at the end?
Input
Which data, observations, or materials are available?
Working area
- Area 1:
- Area 2:
- Area 3:
- Relationships / patterns:
Output artifacts
- Value-chain map:
- Leverage list:
Open questions
- ...
Next step
Owner, date, success signal.
When to choose differently
Short decision aid for existing alternatives.
Wardley Mapping
Statt Value Chain Analysis, wenn du mit Wardley Mapping Wertschöpfung und Reifegrad im Marktverlauf kartografieren willst.
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