Any strategy that may be suggested for implementation in a firm must be more than a catalogue of unconnected measures. A strategy can only be coherent and relevant if it really solves the major problems the firm is faced with. To discover those problems, the environment, the firm's resources and the goals of the company's leader must be analysed jointly. A synthesis of the results must then be made although it will not supply any of the traditional analytical techniques, all of which can only come up with partial solutions. The presentation of Aigoual (a firm which processes an agricultural raw material) and the case study stress the relevance of this holistic approach in any strategic diagnosis.
