VSTRAT.ai

Bring Your Strategy to Life

Marketing, Blue Ocean, and Competitive Strategy Tools.
Interactive strategy tools; not another chatbot.

VSTRAT: Discover what VSTRAT can do to increase value and decrease cost.

Research-Backed Tools

Interactive frameworks for marketing strategy, blue ocean strategy, and competitive strategy.

Backed by decades of research and real-world use, not AI hype.

Business Solutions

From boardroom to classroom, VSTRAT empowers teams to think strategically.

Use VSTRAT for strategic excellence.

Innovation Through Strategy

Break free from traditional approaches with dynamic, interactive strategic tools.

Experience the future of strategic planning.

Strategic Success

Make better decisions, execute more effectively, and grow sustainably.

Start your strategic transformation today.

Academic Roots. Real-World Muscle.

Built by seasoned entrepreneurs who went into top-tier schools and came out knowing how to make those ideas work in the real world. VSTRAT turns proven strategy frameworks into interactive tools that help you find customers, create new markets, and build lasting advantage.

VSTRAT: A Better Thinking System

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is strategy and execution. Logos and colors come later. You need a strategy before you get to execution. That's what VSTRAT is about. Identify precise customer segments, bring personas to life with rich detail, discover your brand archetypes that resonate, and create journey maps to see and feel your customers' pain points. Build your marketing foundation first, then execute with confidence.

Competitive Strategy

Master Porter's frameworks that brought competitive advantage to life. Analyze your industry with PESTLE factors, map your industry value chain to find strategic positions, and optimize your company's internal value chain for maximum efficiency. Understand what drives competition and where you can win.

Blue Ocean Strategy

From a longtime INSEAD Fellow working directly with the authors of the book: discover how noncustomers, six paths, and strategy canvas made Nintendo, Marvel, and Wawa shine. Break free from bloody competition by creating uncontested market spaces where competition becomes irrelevant.

Our Mission

VSTRAT transforms how organizations approach strategy including marketing strategy, blue ocean strategy, and competitive strategy. We use proven business frameworks with interactivity and GenAI to make business tools accessible and engaging for everyone—from the boardroom to the classroom to the consulting suite.

Our mission is to update how people think about and execute strategy. We replace static presentations with dynamic tools that foster real-time collaboration, enabling teams to explore scenarios and make decisions adjusted on the fly. When everyone participates in strategic thinking, organizations don't just plan better—they execute more effectively, innovate more consistently, and grow more sustainably.

Through continuous innovation and expansion of our toolset, we're building a future where strategic thinking isn't confined to quarterly meetings or annual retreats. It's an ongoing, inclusive process that drives daily decisions and shapes organizational success.

Peter Zemsky and Michael Olenick publish early results about what became VSTRAT used in INSEAD classes

Peter Zemsky and Michael Olenick at Station F testing VSTRAT

Our Story

Strategy ideation once looked like a chaotic maze on a whiteboard — lines and ideas connecting in every direction, creating a complex web almost impossible to navigate. The abstract concepts were solid, but the way they were plotted out was, quite literally, a tangled mess.

From that complexity came the birth, decades ago, of our computer-assisted strategy tools. These tools were designed to help people focus on strategic ideas by organizing and clarifying them visually. They took on the heavy lifting of sorting, connecting, and arranging concepts, letting people do what they do best: think and innovate, while the technology handled the structure.

Our tools enable people to participate meaningfully in strategic discussions. With the recent integration of GenAI, our technology now adds a starting point for those daunting blank pages. GenAI offers that initial nudge to shape ideas, but instead of overwhelming users with endless paragraphs, we keep it focused, using charts, diagrams, and interactive elements to turn abstract thought into accessible, actionable strategy.

Combining GenAI with interactivity, we’re enabling people at every level to contribute strategies that aren't just impressive in theory but practical and empowering in real-world applications.

VSTRAT is the next evolution in strategy creation.

Our Values

Growth

Sustainable, meaningful growth of your business by harnessing AI-powered insights leveraging time-tested frameworks.

Empowerment

Equipping everyone with the tools and insights needed to make informed decisions, and take control.

User-Centric Solutions

Aligning with customer needs, ensuring decisions are focused on delivering real value and impact for the problems you are facing.

Breakthrough Innovation

By blending traditional business strategy tools with AI and interactivity, VSTRAT propels innovation and ideation.

Agility

Dynamic, real-time adjustments allow you to stay flexible and responsive in a rapidly changing business environment.

Collaboration

Blending strategy with interactivity and technology, VSTRAT encourages cross-functional collaboration.

Trusted By

The VSTRAT Difference

Empowerment

We empower people and their teams to accomplish what once took months to complete: effectively, efficiently, at a low cost and on your own timeframe. Our mission is to democratize management practices, making strategic tools accessible to everyone. By giving teams the power to act, we overcome the age-old issue of “culture eats strategy,” creating organizations where strategy is embraced, understood, and executed by all. This shift enables businesses to move faster, make better decisions, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Impact

There's a lot of hype around AI in management, but not enough real-world application. VSTRAT changes that with tools backed by research and proven use. Our tools don't just churn out generic responses from LLMs — they make people think and inspire growth. By augmenting Generative AI with deep interactivity and timeless management frameworks, we deliver tools that create meaningful impact on your business. Grounded in decades of research, VSTRAT addresses real challenges with proven success, driving measurable improvements where it counts most: in the day-to-day operations of your firm.

Research

Management tools and frameworks have evolved through decades of rigorous research and real-world application. VSTRAT builds on this wealth of knowledge, combining proven methodologies with cutting-edge interactivity and AI. Since the early experiments in 2003, VSTRAT has applied this foundation to address today’s business challenges with precision. It's not just a new tool — it’s the result of years of research and practical application, designed to leverage the full potential of management frameworks for real-world impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you a school?

No, we're a business designed to help businesses. While VSTRAT is widely used in various schools, our tools are created and designed to have real-world impact inside and outside the classroom.

Can I use VSTRAT in my school, business, or consultancy?

Yes! We'd love to hear what you're doing and what you have in mind and see how we may help. Please write to us at info@vstrat.ai.

Are you part of INSEAD?

VSTRAT originated as an INSEAD research project but is now fully independent.

Who exactly are you then?

We're a group of businesspeople working with high-quality educators to bring management tools into the twenty-first century.

What's the difference between VSTRAT and ChatGPT or another LLM?

Much like business tools were designed to streamline and enable management - rather than offering longhand descriptions - our tools do the same. Further, our interactive and collaborative functions are beyond the scope of an LLM.

What LLM do you use?

We use different many LLMs and we're always updating and switching. Further, we believe interactivity is as important as using the right LLM.

Are you training with the data?

No - our ties to LLMs are all under strict no-training privacy policies. Unlike ChatGPT, your data is never used to train.