To apply Ansoff's matrix, companies need to analyze their current market position and products, and then evaluate the four strategic options.

Focusing on increasing sales of current products to the current customer base. This is the lowest-risk strategy.

Read Part I (The Concept of Strategy). Skip the foreword. Go straight to Chapter 2: "The Strategic Problem." Hour 2: Study Chapter 4 (The Product-Market Matrix). Take notes on the "risk dimension" – most people miss that Ansoff attached beta coefficients to each quadrant. Hour 3: Tackle Chapter 7 (Synergy). Calculate the synergy ratio for your own company (Revenue synergy ÷ Cost of synergy). Hour 4: Read the Conclusion (Ch 10) – "The Implementation Gap." Ansoff admits that brilliant strategy fails without organizational culture change. This is where he predicts the rise of change management.

If you’ve typed “corporate strategy Igor Ansoff PDF” into Google, you aren’t just looking for a file. You are looking for the origin story of modern strategic planning.

To develop a corporate strategy using Ansoff's matrix, follow these steps: