From Booz amp; Company comes a model for classifying business strategy that, with a few edits, may be useful for independent schools.

• Has a truly distinctive way of providing value for students and families.
• Is very coherent--everything the school does points in the same direction; programs perfectly fit together and support the overall value proposition.
• Has download music for freeunique, powerful capabilities--can do some things better than anyone else in the market.
• Controls especially valuable assets (e.g., resources, facilities, brand, identity, etc.).
• Is very diversified--able to succeed by offering different program components to many different categories of customers and markets.
• Is an agile, fast-moving innovator that stays one step ahead of challenges and the market.

Together, distinction, coherence, capability, assets, diversification, and agility form a taxonomy of ways schools pursue success in their markets. No one school can (or should) chase all six at the same time; rather, the essence of strategic planning is in picking which one, two or (maybe) three the school will embrace given its unique context. This is one way of answering Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley's first question of strategy: How will you win?