Business Strategy with AI: 10 MBA Frameworks in Your Terminal
You have spent 34 lessons mastering Claude as a technical tool -- writing code, managing files, orchestrating agents, and building skills. But Claude does not care whether you ask it to refactor a codebase or analyze a competitive landscape. The same reasoning engine that debugs your Python applies Porter's Five Forces to your industry, reads financial statements like a Wharton professor, and coaches your leadership like a Stanford GSB advisor.
This lesson puts 10 MBA-level frameworks in your hands. Not as theory to memorize, but as tools to use -- right now, on your own business, career, or startup idea. By the end, you will have installed a business strategy plugin and produced real strategic analysis you can act on.
The frameworks are grouped into three tiers:
| Tier | Frameworks | Depth |
|---|---|---|
| Analytical (deep dive) | Harvard Case Study, Porter's Five Forces, Christensen Disruption, Financial Statements | Full worked examples |
| Strategic (applied) | Marketing Strategy, Negotiation, Pricing Strategy | Framework + prompt |
| Leadership (applied) | Leadership & Management, Organizational Design, Operations | Framework + prompt |
Tier 1: Analytical Frameworks (Deep Dive)
1. The Harvard Case Study Method
Harvard Business School has taught strategy through case studies for over a century. The method works because it forces you to analyze a real company's dilemma before you know the outcome -- building judgment, not just knowledge.
Ask Claude to teach you any business concept through this lens:
You are a professor at Harvard Business School teaching the case study
method. Walk me through a real company case study:
1. Company background and the strategic situation it faced
2. The central dilemma — the specific decision with no obvious right answer
3. Stakeholder map — who was affected and what each stakeholder wanted
4. Key financial and market data that informed the decision
5. 3-4 realistic options with pros and cons for each
6. Which MBA framework applies (Porter, SWOT, BCG Matrix) and how
7. What actually happened — the decision and real-world outcome
8. 3 timeless principles I can apply to my own business
9. Ask me 3 tough cold-call questions about this case
The topic: competitive strategy in the streaming industry
The power is in step 9 -- the cold-call questions force you to think through the case yourself, not just read Claude's analysis.
2. Porter's Five Forces
Michael Porter's framework is the most widely used tool in competitive strategy. It answers one question: how attractive is this industry to compete in?
The five forces:
| Force | What It Measures | High = Bad For You |
|---|---|---|
| Threat of new entrants | How easy is it for newcomers to enter? | Low barriers = more competition |
| Supplier power | Can suppliers dictate terms? | Few suppliers = they set prices |
| Buyer power | Can customers dictate terms? | Commodity products = buyers choose on price |
| Threat of substitutes | Can customers switch to alternatives? | Many alternatives = price pressure |
| Competitive rivalry | How intense is existing competition? | Many equal competitors = margin pressure |
Run this analysis on your own industry:
You are Michael Porter teaching competitive strategy. Analyze my
industry using the Five Forces framework:
For each force, rate it 1-10 with specific evidence:
1. Threat of new entrants
2. Bargaining power of suppliers
3. Bargaining power of buyers
4. Threat of substitutes
5. Competitive rivalry
Then:
- Industry attractiveness verdict: is this profitable to compete in?
- Which generic strategy fits: cost leadership, differentiation, or focus?
- Strategic positioning: where do I sit vs competitors?
- 5 specific moves for the next 12 months
- One-sentence strategy statement every employee can understand
My industry: [YOUR INDUSTRY, MAIN COMPETITORS, BIGGEST CHALLENGE]
3. Christensen's Disruption Analysis
Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma explains why great companies fail. The theory: incumbents over-serve their best customers with features nobody asked for, while startups offer simpler, cheaper alternatives that "good enough" customers adopt.
The critical concept is Jobs-to-be-Done -- customers do not buy products, they "hire" them to do a job. A milkshake's "job" is not "be a dairy product" -- it is "give me something to do during my boring commute."
You are Clayton Christensen teaching disruption theory. Analyze my
business or industry:
1. Disruption scan: is my industry being disrupted, about to be, or safe?
2. What are incumbents overserving and underserving?
3. Low-end disruption opportunity: simpler, cheaper version?
4. New-market disruption: non-consumers who would use an accessible version?
5. Jobs-to-be-done: what job is the customer actually hiring my product for?
6. Am I building sustaining innovation (for existing customers) or
disruptive innovation (for overlooked ones)?
7. Innovator's dilemma test: am I at risk because I'm too focused on
my best customers?
8. If I'm the incumbent: defense strategy
9. If I'm the challenger: offense playbook
My situation: [YOUR BUSINESS, WHETHER INCUMBENT OR CHALLENGER,
WHAT INNOVATION THREAT YOU FACE OR CREATE]
4. Financial Statement Literacy
Every business runs on three financial statements. You do not need an accounting degree -- you need to read them as stories about a business:
| Statement | The Story It Tells | Key Question |
|---|---|---|
| Income statement | How the business makes (or loses) money | Is revenue growing? Are margins healthy? |
| Balance sheet | What the company owns vs what it owes | Can it pay its debts? |
| Cash flow statement | Where real money moves | Is it generating cash or burning it? |
The critical insight: a profitable company can still go bankrupt if it runs out of cash. Profit is an opinion (accounting rules); cash is a fact.
You are a Wharton professor teaching financial accounting to someone
who has never read a financial statement.
Teach me using a real public company's most recent annual report:
1. Income statement decoded — revenue through net income as a story
2. Balance sheet decoded — assets, liabilities, equity as a snapshot
3. Cash flow decoded — operating, investing, financing flows
4. The 10 key ratios: gross margin, net margin, ROE, ROA, current ratio,
debt-to-equity, P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA, free cash flow yield
5. 5 red flags that indicate trouble even when headlines sound positive
6. Revenue quality: real and sustainable or artificially inflated?
7. 3-5 year trend analysis: improving or deteriorating?
Company to analyze: [PICK A PUBLIC COMPANY — APPLE, TESLA, OR ONE
YOU'RE CONSIDERING INVESTING IN]
Tier 2: Strategic Frameworks (Applied)
These three frameworks address specific strategic decisions. Each prompt is ready to use -- paste it into Claude with your situation.
5. Marketing Strategy
You are a marketing professor who has advised Fortune 500 CMOs.
Build a marketing strategy for my business:
- Target market definition (demographics, psychographics, behavior)
- Positioning statement: for [target], [product] is the [category]
that [key benefit] because [reason to believe]
- Channel strategy: which 3 channels will reach my target most effectively
- Content pillars: 4-5 themes that build authority in my space
- Metrics that matter: CAC, LTV, conversion rate targets
- 90-day marketing plan with specific weekly actions
My business: [DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT, TARGET CUSTOMER, AND BUDGET]
6. Negotiation
You are a Harvard Law School negotiation professor teaching the method
from "Getting to Yes." I have an upcoming negotiation.
Prepare me:
- BATNA analysis: my best alternative if this negotiation fails
- ZOPA identification: where our ranges likely overlap
- Interest mapping: what does each side really want (beyond positions)?
- Value creation opportunities: can we expand the pie before dividing it?
- 5 specific tactics for this negotiation with scripts I can practice
- Anchoring strategy: what first offer to make and why
- Walk-away point: when to leave the table
My negotiation: [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU'RE NEGOTIATING, WHO WITH, AND STAKES]
7. Pricing Strategy
You are a pricing strategy consultant who has set prices for SaaS
companies, consumer products, and professional services.
Design my pricing:
- Value metric: what unit should I charge for?
- Pricing model: subscription, usage-based, tiered, freemium, or hybrid?
- Price point analysis: willingness-to-pay research approach
- Competitive pricing map: where I sit vs alternatives
- Packaging: which features in which tier?
- Psychology: anchoring, decoy effect, and price ending strategies
- Revenue projection: expected revenue at 3 price points
My product: [DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT, TARGET MARKET, AND COMPETITORS' PRICING]
Tier 3: Leadership Frameworks (Applied)
8. Leadership and Management
You are a Stanford GSB professor teaching the legendary "Interpersonal
Dynamics" course. I need a leadership development plan.
Coach me on:
- Leadership style assessment: directive, collaborative, visionary, or servant?
- Communication upgrade: giving feedback that motivates, having difficult
conversations without damaging relationships
- Decision-making framework: high-stakes decisions under uncertainty
- Delegation mastery: what to delegate, how, and how to let go
- Team motivation: how to motivate achievers, collaborators, innovators
- Conflict resolution: step-by-step framework
- Effective 1:1 structure: building trust and driving accountability
- 90-day leadership plan: specific actions to become noticeably better
My situation: [YOUR ROLE, TEAM SIZE, BIGGEST LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE]
9. Organizational Design
You are an organizational behavior professor. My company is growing and
our current structure is breaking.
Redesign my organization:
- Structure options: functional, divisional, matrix, flat, or hybrid?
- Span of control: how many direct reports per manager?
- Communication architecture: how should information flow?
- Decision rights: who decides what, at which level?
- Culture design: what behaviors to reward and which to discourage?
- Scaling playbook: what to change at 10, 50, 100, and 500 people
My company: [SIZE, INDUSTRY, CURRENT STRUCTURE, WHAT'S BREAKING]
10. Operations and Supply Chain
You are an operations management professor at MIT Sloan.
Optimize my operations:
- Process mapping: identify my critical path and bottlenecks
- Capacity planning: am I over or under capacity?
- Quality framework: where do defects enter and how to prevent them?
- Inventory strategy: just-in-time, safety stock, or hybrid?
- Supplier management: single-source risks and diversification plan
- Automation opportunities: which manual processes should be automated first?
- KPI dashboard: 5 metrics I should track daily
My operations: [DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE DELIVERY PROCESS AND
BIGGEST OPERATIONAL PAIN POINT]
Install: The StratArts Business Strategy Plugin
The prompts above work in any Claude session. But for structured, repeatable business analysis, install the StratArts plugin -- 27 business strategy skills built on proven frameworks like Business Model Canvas, JTBD, OKRs, RICE, and AARRR.
Installation
/plugin install stratarts@maigent
What You Get
| Category | Skills | Key Frameworks |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Strategy | business-model-designer, competitive-intelligence, customer-persona-builder, value-proposition-crafter, market-opportunity-analyzer, business-idea-validator, product-positioning-expert | BMC, JTBD, April Dunford positioning |
| Market & Product | go-to-market-planner, pricing-strategy-architect, feature-prioritization-framework, strategic-roadmap-builder | RICE, OKR alignment |
| Marketing & Growth | content-marketing-strategist, growth-hacking-playbook, social-media-strategist, seo-content-planner, email-marketing-architect, brand-identity-designer, community-building-strategist | AARRR, Traction Bullseye |
| Retention & Metrics | metrics-dashboard-designer, retention-optimization-expert, onboarding-flow-optimizer, customer-feedback-framework | Cohort analysis, NPS |
| Fundraising & Ops | financial-model-architect, fundraising-strategy-planner, investor-pitch-deck-builder, investor-brief-writer, operational-playbook-creator | Van Westendorp pricing, unit economics |
Hands-On: Run Your First Analysis
After installing, try the competitive intelligence skill:
/competitive-intelligence
Analyze the AI-powered tutoring market. Identify the top 5 competitors,
their positioning, pricing models, and undefended market segments.
Then build a Business Model Canvas:
/business-model-designer
Create a Business Model Canvas for an AI tutoring platform that teaches
domain experts to build sellable AI agents. Target: business professionals
who are not developers.
The plugin skills produce structured outputs -- tables, canvases, scored frameworks -- that are more actionable than freeform conversation. They are reusable: run the same skill on different ideas or revisit an analysis as your business evolves.
When to Use Which Framework
| You Need To... | Use This Framework | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Understand competitive dynamics | Porter's Five Forces | Maps all competitive pressure sources |
| Evaluate if your industry is being disrupted | Christensen Disruption | Identifies over/underserved segments |
| Design a business model | Business Model Canvas (StratArts) | Structures all 9 model components |
| Size a market opportunity | TAM/SAM/SOM (StratArts) | Separates dream from realistic targets |
| Understand a company's health | Financial Statements | Numbers tell the real story |
| Set prices | Pricing Strategy | Balances value, competition, and psychology |
| Prepare for a deal | Negotiation (BATNA/ZOPA) | Structured preparation beats improvisation |
| Develop as a leader | Leadership Framework | Targeted development, not generic advice |
| Launch a product | Go-to-Market (StratArts) | Channel strategy + positioning + metrics |
| Learn from a real company's decision | Harvard Case Study | Builds judgment through analysis of outcomes |
What's Next
You have the strategic frameworks. The Chapter Quiz (Lesson 36) tests your understanding across all 35 lessons -- from your first Claude Code session through skills, MCP, hooks, plugins, agent teams, scheduled tasks, Cowork, and now business strategy.
Try With AI
Exercise 1: Porter's Five Forces on Your Industry
Pick an industry you know well -- your current job, a side project, or one you are considering entering. Paste the Porter's Five Forces prompt from this lesson into Claude, filling in your industry details.
Review each force rating Claude assigns. Do you agree? Where does Claude's analysis match your experience, and where does it miss nuance that only an insider would know?
What you're learning: How to use Claude for structured competitive analysis. Evaluating AI output against your domain knowledge builds the critical skill of knowing when to trust and when to override AI recommendations.
Exercise 2: Install StratArts and Build a Business Model Canvas
Install the StratArts plugin and generate a Business Model Canvas:
/plugin install stratarts@maigent
Then run:
/business-model-designer
Create a Business Model Canvas for [YOUR BUSINESS IDEA OR CURRENT BUSINESS].
Include all 9 components: key partners, key activities, value propositions,
customer relationships, customer segments, key resources, channels,
cost structure, and revenue streams.
Compare the output to a Business Model Canvas you would draw by hand. What did Claude surface that you had not considered?
What you're learning: How plugin skills produce structured, repeatable analysis. The Business Model Canvas forces you to articulate every component of your business model -- gaps become visible immediately.
Exercise 3: Financial Statement Decode
Pick a public company you are interested in (Apple, Tesla, your employer if public, or a company you might invest in). Paste the Wharton Financial Accounting prompt from this lesson.
Focus on:
- Can you explain the difference between the income statement and cash flow statement in one sentence each?
- Which of the 10 ratios surprised you most?
- Did Claude identify any red flags?
What you're learning: Financial statement literacy -- the single most transferable business skill. Every professional benefits from reading numbers as business stories, whether you are investing, negotiating a raise, or evaluating a partnership.
Exercise 4: Full Strategy Brief
Combine frameworks into a one-page strategy brief for your business or career. Ask Claude:
Create a one-page strategy brief that combines:
1. Porter's Five Forces analysis of my competitive landscape
2. Disruption scan: am I at risk, or is there an opportunity?
3. Business Model Canvas (key components only)
4. Financial reality check: what revenue model fits my positioning?
5. 90-day action plan: 5 specific strategic moves
My business/career situation: [DESCRIBE IN 2-3 SENTENCES]
This is the capstone exercise: synthesizing multiple frameworks into a single, actionable document.
What you're learning: Strategic synthesis -- combining multiple analytical lenses into a coherent recommendation. Real strategists do not use one framework; they triangulate across several to build conviction.