Position · Plan

Non-market strategy

The three ways an organisation engages regulators, government, media and activists to influence the rules of the game — not just read them or block them.

Stage

04 Plan

Works at

Corporate, Business

Maturity

Established SME → Large organisation

Time

One week

What it is

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve's three strands of action through which an organisation engages the non-market environment — regulators, governments, media, activists — to influence the rules that shape its competitive position, sequenced across an issue's life cycle rather than treated as a single undifferentiated activity called 'government relations'.

Representation: Direct engagement with decision-makers — meetings, formal responses to consultations, direct lobbying. Usually first in the sequence, while an issue is still being defined.
Majority-building: Building a coalition of allied interests to shift the outcome, most relevant once an issue reaches a legislative or formal decision-making arena where numbers and breadth of support matter.
Information provision: Supplying evidence, data and analysis to the public debate and to decision-makers, running across the whole life cycle rather than confined to one stage.
The issue life cycle: Where a given issue currently sits — early agenda-setting, active legislative consideration, or settled and being implemented — which determines which strand to lead with.
Sequencing: The three strands are not mutually exclusive and typically run in combination, but the emphasis shifts as an issue moves through its life cycle: representation first, majority-building in the legislative arena, information provision throughout.

The mistake people makeTreating non-market engagement as a single undifferentiated activity — generic 'monitoring' or 'government relations' — rather than a sequenced strategy matched to where each specific issue actually sits in its life cycle.

What it’s forRegulators, government, media or activist pressure are materially shaping the competitive position and the organisation has no deliberate strategy for engaging them.

What it’s not forThe non-market environment genuinely does not affect this business's competitive position. Not every business needs a non-market strategy, and building one where it is not warranted wastes real capacity.

How you run it

Name the specific live or emerging issuesRegulatory, political or reputational — specific enough to have a life-cycle stage, not a general category like 'regulation'.
Place each issue in its life cycleEarly agenda-setting, active legislative consideration, or settled and being implemented. This determines which strand leads.
Choose the lead strand for each issueRepresentation while an issue is still being defined, majority-building once it reaches a formal decision-making arena, information provision running throughout.
Identify who else is active on the same issueCompetitors, industry bodies, opposing interests — the coalition landscape a majority-building strategy would need to work within.
Write the specific engagement planNot a statement of intent to monitor — named actions, on named issues, sequenced against the life cycle stage each has reached.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

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🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

The specific regulatory, political or reputational issues currently live or emerging
Where this issue sits in its life cycle — early agenda-setting through to settled legislation
Who else — competitors, industry bodies, opposing interests — is already active on the same issue

You’ll end up with

A named strategy for each live issue — representation, majority-building or information provision — sequenced across its life cycle
A read on where the issue currently sits and what that implies for which strand to lead with
A specific engagement plan, not a general statement of intent to 'monitor the regulatory environment'

Runs well with

AI operating model options AI risk classification and governance Alliance and partnership design Assumption log