Why subscribe?
This is a home for people who love business strategy. Especially business coaches, corporate strategists, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs. By joining us, you get access member-only content (newsletter, podcasts, and research), strategy tools, and insider tips from Kaihan Krippendorff and the 4th Option community.
What is the 4th Option Network?
The 4th Option Network is a global community of strategy business coaches. We are trusted strategic advisors committed to helping business leaders generate breakthrough strategic options, build bolder strategies, and execute with strategic clarity. Collectively, we have generated far over $2.5 billion in incremental annual revenue for clients by applying strategic tools and frameworks that work.
Whether you are an independent business coach a consultant inside an established firm (a change-maker or intrapreneur), we invite you to join us if you want to …
Help your clients think differently, guiding them toward breakthrough ideas and build bolder strategies
Guide clients in designing strategies that fulfill on their business and personal goals
Stay on the cutting edge, with direct access to today’s leading strategy and innovation thought leaders, books, and knowledge
Share tips and best practices with global community of coaches like you
Be recognized as top-caliber strategist with the credibility and knowledge of cutting-edge strategy and innovation knowledge
Master core strategic frameworks from Kaihan’s books Outthink the Competition and Driving Innovation from Within
Save time and simplify your work by accessing tools, guides, and best practices as you prepare for strategy sessions
Achieve greater freedom and fulfillment for yourself and your clients
Key Benefits
Live access to Kaihan Krippendorff and other strategy thought-leaders
A monthly virtual “Junto” with Kaihan and peers to network and learn
A member-only platform filled with a portfolio of strategy tools, guides, and tactics
Chances to share feedback and tips with peer coaches
Deep-dive, targeted training in key tools (e.g., in strategic tools and methodologies)
Monthly debriefs on the latest trends, books, and concepts in strategy and innovation
Why join?
1. Master a Proven Strategic Approach:
The strategy tools found in Kaihan’s books, Outthink the Competition, Driving Innovation from Within, the Way of Innovation, and Art of the Advantage, have been rigorously researched and tested. The 4th Option IDEAS model is shown to accelerate growth rates by 50%, has generated in excess of $2.5 billion in new annual revenue for clients to date, and has been applied in companies ranging from start-ups to mid-market and large global companies. It has been successfully applied inside companies such as Bank of America, GE, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Macmillan, Microsoft, Viacom, and hundreds of other businesses.
2. Connect with like-minded peers
When you join the 4th Option Network, you become a member of a community of like-minded strategy students and practitioners. Collaborate with, learn from, and share your experience with peers who share your passion. Whether you are curious student of business strategy, business coach, strategy executive, intrapreneur, business owner, if you have a passion for innovation and growth strategy, this is where you will find your people.
3. Stay Ahead of the Curve with Exclusive Insights:
As a member, you'll have access to monthly sessions with Kaihan and interviews with influential thought leaders in the fields of strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Stay up to date with the latest thinking, gain unique perspectives, and get behind-the-scenes access to cutting-edge ideas before they hit the mainstream. Delve into pre-published content and keep your finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving world of strategy.
4. Boost Your Credibility as a Trusted Strategic Advisor:
By immersing yourself in the curated content and conversations within the 4th Option Network, you'll enhance your expertise and gain the confidence to position yourself as a trusted strategic advisor. Stay ahead of the curve with monthly updates, deep dive into leading strategic concepts, and engage in insightful discussions that will elevate your credibility and set you apart in the field of business strategy.
5. Access a Proven Strategic Toolkit:
Members get exclusive resources and support at their fingertips so they can feel confident and be ready to pull out, deliver, and facilitate strategic conversations that lead to breakthrough ideas. Get case studies, stories, facilitation and practitioner tools, workbooks, first-hand research, and monthly strategy update briefings to ensure you remain on top of the latest concepts and trends in business strategy.
What is a 4th Option?
Successful innovators outthink their competition. They do so by introducing startling, game-changing ideas that leave competitors in their dust.
Gandhi captured the concept this way: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. And then you win.”
In other words, you want to enact a strategy that competitors ignore or laugh at instead of copying or fighting. While they’re ignoring and laughing, you’re growing your idea. By the time they realize your concept is working, it’s too late. You’ve already won.
The 4th Option has been the source of all breakthroughs in strategy. We have simply changed what we call such ideas over the millennia:
Disruptive Innovation is a form of 4th Option whereby the innovator targets a customer segment that competitors view as low-value or a product viewed as non-sophisticated.
Blue Ocean's strategy involves finding a new market or new customers instead of attacking an existing market or customer base.
Take the Enemy Whole is Sun Tzu’s term from The Art of War, meaning you conquer the prize in question with no bloodshed or destruction.
These are all examples of 4th Options. The 4th Option metaphor =hinges on the number three, the number at which most people stop looking for additional options.
As intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs, business coaches, and innovators, we aren’t satisfied with the obvious three that everyone else is choosing between. We look for the 4th Option that nobody has thought of but can revolutionize your business.
What is a Monthly Junto?
We debated whether to call our monthly sessions, but in the end, the word that most closely captures what we have the power to do together is “Junto.”
A "Junto" was a club or society first founded by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, dedicated to sharing and developing ideas that would help themselves and their community. The 12 original members of the Junto were tradesmen and artisans who met on Friday evenings to discuss issues of morals, politics, or natural philosophy. The club lasted 38 years. Franklin said of the group that it consisted of “ingenious [people] –a physician, a mathematician, a geographer, a natural philosopher, a botanist, a chemist, and a mechanician [engineer]”.
Innovations stemming from Franklin's Junto included the establishment of the first public lending library, the pioneering concept of volunteer firefighting brigades, which contributed significantly to community safety during that era, the Union Fire Company, the University of Pennsylvania (where I graduated from and my father taught for 58 years), the volunteer militia, the Pennsylvania Hospital among other public creations.
Every month, Kaihan holds a one-hour live interactive junto with members. Agenda:
20 min strategy update - the latest concepts, books, trends, and insights from the Outthinkers podcast interviews
20 min deep-dive training into a 4th Option strategy tool
20 min peer networking and Q&A
Who is Kaihan?
Kaihan Krippendorff is the author of five best-selling business books, including Outthink the Competition, Driving Innovation from Within, and The Way of Innovation. He is the Founder of Outthinker Networks, a global business think-tank and organizer of professional peer networks. He is an in-demand keynote speaker, author of five best-selling business books, and professor at NYU and FIU.
Global Gurus recognize him as one of the world’s top 20 management thinkers. Thinkers50 ranked him as one of 30 emerging business thought-leaders and top 8 strategy thinkers in the world. Kaihan’s Fourth Option business tools and frameworks have created more than $2.5B of new annual revenue for clients ranging from mid-market to the Fortune 500.1. Belong to a Thriving Community:
When you join the 4th Option Junto, you become a member of a community of like-minded strategists, business coaches, and intrapreneurs. Learn and collaborate with peers who share your passion for strategy and innovation.
To find out more, visit www.kaihan.net.
Which level is right for you?
Our mission is to spread ideas that help people consciously shape a future. As such, we believe in being as “open source” as possible. To make it easy to access to the tools, community, and content that fits best into your practice, we offer three tiers.
Free: we welcome anyone with a passion for strategy and/ or innovation. We are thrilled that you are open to be part of this community. You will receive
Kaihan’s (mostly) weekly newsletter
His biweekly podcast
Occasional “non-public” content like his “notes from the road” posts and short videos
Practioner (monthly/annual): this is for those who are using some of Kaihan’s tools and want to connect with others doing the same and/or continue deepening their command of the tools. Maybe you attended a workshop or speech of Kaihan’s, or have read one of his books, and you want to stay connected and reinforce what you learned. At this level you get
Everything in the free tier
Access to the latest workbooks and tools
A quarterly live, interactive session with Kaihan (live and recorded)
Coach (“Founding” members): this is for experienced business coaches seeking to apply Kaihan’s strategy tools to facilitate strategic conversation, run strategy projects, and design strategies. At this level, in addition to everything you get in the other two levels, you get
Everything in the Practioner tier
A monthly live interactive session (“Junto”) with Kaihan designed specifically for business coaches
Access to coaching guides, tools, and tips from Kaihan and other coaches on ways to use the tools with others
Community content, including sample agendas, questions to ask, slides, etc.
Invitation to member-only platform and chat group
What member coaches say
“The network has elevated my practice and helped make me an essential, trusted strategic advisor to my clients.”
“The tools work. They enable me to help my clients develop bigger, bolder, and more creative strategies.”
“When the team you are advising thinks they have a strategy, but you know it’s not really a strategy. The 4th Option system helps me get them to think strategically.”
“The global community of coaches is remarkable. They are smart, humble, curious, and innovative.”
“There are no pretenses here. Everyone is here to learn and contribute. We are committed to creating strategies that work for our clients and the future.”
“This is for successful coaches who are respected as strategic advisors by their clients. I learn so much from them.”
“The 4th Option approach helps me expand the number of options my clients see so they are not choosing between too few things."
