For students, founders and leadership teams
The guides describe the method; this page shows it being used. Tovmark Møbler is a fictional company with a real kind of problem: its board has asked whether to enter Germany, and if so how. The team works through the eight cores in the order the strategy guide suggests, writes down what it finds at specific addresses, marks what it actually knows, and lets the blanks and the connections do the work. The answer it reaches is less important than the way a finding in one core keeps changing a decision in another.
The case
Invented for this page, and built to be recognisable: small enough that everyone knows everyone, large enough that a wrong decision costs real money.
Every person, number and date on this page is invented, and so is the company. The German rules and standards mentioned — VgV, UVgO, EN 1729, the Blue Angel — are real, described in outline only, and read here as a business team would read them, not as legal advice.
Every finding carries one of three marks, as the school-projects guide recommends. The distinction is the evidence base, and the blanks are usually the most useful part.
The work
Purpose first, then the horizon, the market, the brand, the business, the experience, the measures and the sequence — the order in which the strategy guide argues each pass needs the one before it. For every core: the question it puts, what the team found at specific addresses, the blanks, the decision, and one consequence in another core.
Pass 01 · Goal Core
The team began where the strategy guide begins, with purpose, on the reasoning that a question about Germany is a choice and a choice needs a criterion. It turned out that the criterion existed; what was missing was the layer between it and the spreadsheet.
“We make rooms that are easier to learn and work in.” Written in 2019. It survives a change of product — it would hold if the company made lighting instead of furniture — so it passes the test the guide sets.
DocumentedThe 2024 strategy lists “international growth” as a strategic goal. It names no diagnosis and no trade-off, and the board minutes record no option ever declined because of it.
Documented“DKK 120m revenue in the long term.” No date. In interviews the CFO assumed 2030; the founder said “when we are ready”. In the model’s notation the goal is a circle pretending to be a square: it has a number but no horizon.
InferredThree tactical goals for 2026, all Danish, all owned by the sales director. None of them mentions Germany or any other market.
DocumentedReplace “international growth” with a diagnosed goal
The diagnosis the team could support: Danish school furniture volume is likely to flatten after 2027, as the current wave of municipal school renovations ends, so growth has to come from a second market or a second segment. The strategic goal became “establish one second market that can carry 20 % of revenue by 2030”. The trade-off was made explicit: one new market, not three, and the Nordic distributors left as they are. Whether that market is Germany was deliberately left open until the Market Core pass.
Where this reasoning lives: Goal Core · Strategic goals · Diagnosis
Business Core · Finance — A dated goal turns runway from a feeling into something that can be checked. The provisional 2030 date is what later made the funding question answerable at all.
Pass 02 · Vision Core
This was expected to be the short pass. It produced the finding the team least wanted, and the only one on this page that is a correction rather than a choice.
“Classrooms across Northern Europe furnished from recycled material by 2035.” Specific enough to be tested — and it already includes Germany, although nobody had decided that it should.
Documented“We design, make and deliver furniture from recycled materials for rooms where people learn and work.” Six of the seven employees asked recognised their own week in it.
DocumentedA workshop culture: problems are solved on the floor, the same day, by whoever is nearest. It keeps quality high at one site. It has never been tested across a border, with customers the workshop will never meet.
InferredEvery datasheet says “made from 100 % recycled materials”. The bill of materials says otherwise: chair shells are recycled polypropylene, but the steel frames carry about a quarter recycled content and the tops are virgin birch. By weight the range is about 64 % recycled. As worded, the claim is not true.
DocumentedCorrect the claim, and write down a value that had already been acted on
In 2025 a German dealer had offered volume if the chair shells were made from virgin plastic at a lower price, and Anne Holmgaard had declined without much discussion. The team recognised that as a value doing its work, and recorded it where values live, with purpose in the Goal Core: “We do not sell a better room at the cost of a worse material.” The recycled claim is to be corrected to “64 % recycled material by weight” everywhere, before any German material is produced.
Where this reasoning lives: Goal Core · Purpose · Core values
Brand Core · Brand narrative — The company story opens with “made from yesterday’s plastic”. It rests on the claim that has just been corrected, and unqualified environmental claims are treated strictly in German competition law, so the correction reaches the narrative and compliance at once.
Pass 03 · Market Core
The plan the team walked in with was schools first, because schools are 58 % of Danish revenue. This pass is where that plan came apart, and it came apart on the customer’s own process rather than on the size of the market.
Public estimates put the German municipal school investment backlog in the tens of billions of euros, of which furniture is a small and separately unestimated share. The team’s own bottom-up estimate for recycled-material school and office furniture across Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony is EUR 25–40m a year — a wide range, built on assumptions it listed.
InferredThree segments that behave differently: teachers and school leaders who choose, the municipal authorities who buy, and interior architects who specify office fit-outs. In Denmark about 70 % of school orders follow a trial classroom, in which a school uses a full set for a term and then asks for the range by name.
DocumentedGerman school furniture is bought by the municipal school authority, usually in step with its budget year. Public supply contracts are awarded under the VgV above the EU threshold and, in most states, under the UVgO below it. As the team reads them — not a legal opinion — both expect product-neutral specifications, allowing a named product only exceptionally and then with “or equivalent”. A trial classroom that ends in a request by name, which is how Tovmark wins at home, would carry much less weight in a German public school.
DocumentedThe customer’s alternatives: several large German school-furniture makers with their own plants, office dealers’ own ranges, refurbished second-hand furniture — and doing nothing, keeping the existing furniture for another five years, which is the most common choice on a tight budget.
InferredNo route to market in Germany. Three options on the table: an own sales office, a commissioned sales agent, or a partnership with a German dealer.
UnknownOffices first, schools later
The segment order was reversed. Private office fit-out in the Hamburg area moved to the front, because there an interior architect can name a product and the advantage Tovmark has at home can at least apply. Schools were not dropped, only deferred: they come back at the first stage gate, once there is evidence on eco-label requirements and on tender pricing.
Where this reasoning lives: Market Core · Market opportunities · Entering new markets
Brand Core · Brand positioning — In an office fit-out the competitor set is other designed office ranges rather than school-furniture makers, so the positioning has to be written against a different set than the one it was written against in Denmark.
Pass 04 · Brand Core
The brand pass is where the team discovered that the thing customers valued most in Denmark was not the furniture but the delivery date, and that the delivery date did not travel.
“Furnished rooms, delivered in ten working days.” Kept on 94 % of Danish orders in 2025, according to the delivery log. With the current freight agreement, which consolidates loads rather than sending them direct, a realistic lead time to Hamburg is 12 to 15 working days.
DocumentedIn Denmark: the designed, recycled alternative to standard school furniture, sized to EN 1729 throughout. Against German office competitors, recycled content is increasingly common and stops being a point of difference on its own.
InferredIn Germany: not measured. Two German interior architects spoken to at a trade fair had not heard of the company. Two conversations are an anecdote, not a finding.
UnknownThe story leads with “made from yesterday’s plastic”, which now rests on the corrected 64 % figure from the Vision Core pass.
DocumentedRewrite the promise for Germany instead of exporting it
The ten-day promise stays in Denmark, where it can be kept. For Germany the promise became “delivered on the date we agree at order — or the freight is on us”. It sounds weaker. The team accepted that in preference to a promise that would fail on the first delivery, since a broken promise costs more with a new customer than a modest one does.
Business Core · Supply chain — A date-certain promise needs a freight partner with fixed weekly departures to Hamburg. The current agreement has none, so the promise could not be published until logistics changed.
Pass 05 · Business Core
The largest core, and the pass that took longest. Five objects carried findings; the one that changed the most was the one nobody had thought of as strategic.
One moulding line and an assembly hall, two shifts, 74 % utilisation in 2025. German volume at the year-three target would push it above 90 %, which is roughly where the plant has historically started missing dates.
InferredEquity ratio 41 % and an unused overdraft facility of DKK 8m. Estimated cost of German entry over three years: DKK 9–12m, including samples, certification tests, trade fairs and an agent’s retainer. Fundable — but not at the same time as a third shift.
InferredThe investment fund’s term ends in 2031, and funds of that kind usually aim to sell a year or two before. Nobody in the room had connected that date to the Germany question.
InferredThe ERP system leaves vendor support in mid-2027 and cannot invoice in euros with German VAT handling without a paid module. Technical debt that becomes a German problem on the first day of trading.
DocumentedEvery quote above DKK 250,000 is approved by the founder personally. At the quote volume an agent would generate, that is a queue rather than a control.
InferredAlly rather than build — and fix the systems first
The team compared an own German office, a commissioned agent and a dealer partnership, using the build, buy or ally reasoning in the Goal Core. The own office costs roughly twice as much in the first year and would still be learning when the fund’s exit window opens. The choice was an agent in Hamburg for eighteen months, with a stage gate. The ERP replacement was moved ahead of the German launch, and quote approval above DKK 250,000 was delegated to the sales director for German orders.
Where this reasoning lives: Goal Core · Long term goals · Build, buy or ally
Goal Core · Long term goals — The fund’s horizon quietly became the date for the DKK 120m goal. Whether 2030 is the company’s horizon or only the investor’s is a question for the board, and the team wrote it down as such rather than answering it.
Pass 06 · Omni Core
The team mapped a single Danish office project from first contact to the last support call, on the reasoning that it is easier to see what would break abroad once you can see what works at home.
Eleven contacts over seven months. The sample set sent to the interior architect in week two was the moment that decided the specification — and it is the one step in the journey that nobody owns.
DocumentedCaretakers and fitters telephone the two technical advisers directly, in Danish. 31 % of support calls in 2025 concerned the height-adjustment mechanism on the sit-stand desk.
DocumentedFourteen complaints in 2025 about colour variation between batches of the grey chair shells. None of the complainants received an answer about what was done.
DocumentedGerman-language material consists of product sheets only. No assembly guide, no adjustment video, no German-speaking support.
DocumentedNothing is sold in Germany before it can be supported in German
Before the agent starts: an assembly guide and an adjustment video in German, the sample set given an owner and a two-day dispatch standard, and German-speaking technical support in place. The colour complaints were sent to the operations manager as a quality issue, since a batch variation that irritates a Danish customer will lose a German one.
Business Core · HR — German-speaking technical support is a recruitment, not a translation. One of the 42 employees speaks German, and she works in finance.
Pass 07 · Data Core
The Market Core pass had leaned on one figure — how often Tovmark wins when it is chosen by name. The Data Core pass asked where that figure came from.
The monthly board pack reports revenue, order intake and gross margin. Nothing measures specification, which is the step that decides most Danish wins.
DocumentedThe CRM holds project-stage data for 41 % of opportunities in 2024–25. The rest were logged only when an order arrived.
DocumentedOn those 41 %: a win rate of 61 % when a trial classroom or a named specification came first, and 17 % in open tender. Suggestive, but the sample is the part the sales team chose to record, and it may flatter the named projects.
InferredMeasure the leading step, not only the result
One primary measure for the German venture: projects in which Tovmark is named in the specification, with a target of twelve in the first eighteen months. Revenue is still reported, but it lags by up to a year in construction and could not tell the board early whether the model works. The Danish CRM gap is to be closed at the same time, so that the 61 % figure can be tested rather than repeated.
Market Core · Sales channels — An agent paid commission on orders will pursue orders. If specifications are the measure, the agent contract has to pay for them — so the measure rewrote the contract terms.
Pass 08 · Time Core
The last pass put everything the previous seven had produced against a calendar, which is where several of the decisions turned out to depend on one another.
Danish school deliveries crowd into six summer weeks and load the moulding line and assembly hall to capacity. German summer holidays are staggered by state from late June to mid-September, so German school work would spread the load rather than add to the peak.
InferredOffice fit-out in Hamburg follows lease cycles rather than a programme. No window closes in 2026, so waiting a year costs little.
InferredThe ERP replacement is estimated at nine to twelve months and has to finish before the first German invoice.
InferredNo written fallback if the agent underperforms, and no decision point at which anyone would be expected to say so.
DocumentedSequence on dependency, and set the gate now
ERP replacement from October 2026. Correct the recycled claim immediately. German assembly material, the sample process and the German-speaking hire in the first quarter of 2027. Agent contract from April 2027. A stage gate in April 2028 against the specification measure, at which schools are reconsidered and the third shift is decided — not before.
Business Core · Finance — The sequence moves most of the spending from 2026 into 2027 and eases the overdraft, but it puts the first meaningful German revenue into 2028 — close to the fund’s likely exit. That is the argument the board will actually have to weigh.
The connections
None of these would have appeared if each core had been worked through as a separate exercise. They are the reason for doing all eight, and the part a single instrument is not designed to report.
The plan assumed schools first. The finding that German public supply contracts are in principle specified product-neutrally, read together with the Data Core’s 61 % against 17 %, meant the company’s main advantage — being chosen by name — would be weakest exactly where it planned to start. The tactical goal for Germany was rewritten around offices, and schools were moved to the stage gate.
The ten-day promise was the thing Danish customers mentioned most. Tested against freight times to Hamburg it failed, so the promise was rewritten for Germany — and the rewritten promise, date-certain delivery, then required a freight agreement with fixed weekly departures that did not exist. The brand decision created a supply-chain action.
The fund’s term was a fact in a shareholder agreement that nobody had read as strategy. Once it was placed next to the undated DKK 120m goal, it became clear that the goal already had a horizon, chosen by someone else. It also tipped the choice between an own office and an agent, since the own office would still be in its learning phase in 2030.
Take this with you
The eight questions from the strategy guide, answered where the team could and left open where it could not. The open ones are listed for the board rather than hidden in the answers.
Goal Core
What are we trying to achieve, by when, and how would we know?
One second market carrying 20 % of revenue by 2030; Germany, offices first. Known by specifications gained, then by revenue.
Still open: Whether 2030 is the company’s horizon or the fund’s.
Vision Core
What future is this for, and what will we decline on the way?
Rooms for learning and work across Northern Europe, furnished from recycled material. Declined: any sale that needs a worse material.
Market Core
Who is the customer, what else could they choose, and where do we meet them?
Interior architects specifying private office fit-out around Hamburg, reached through a commissioned agent. Alternatives include other designed ranges, dealers’ own ranges and doing nothing.
Still open: Market size is an estimate; the German win rate is unknown.
Brand Core
What do we intend to be understood as — and can we keep that promise?
The designed, recycled-material range with date-certain delivery. A promise written to be kept across a border.
Still open: German perception has not been measured.
Business Core
What must we own, build, hire or partner for in order to deliver it?
Ally through an agent; replace the ERP first; hire German-speaking support; hold the third shift until the gate; fund from the balance sheet.
Omni Core
What will the customer actually experience, across every channel?
A German assembly guide and video, an owned sample process, and support in German from the first order.
Still open: German caretakers and fitters have not been asked what they expect.
Data Core
What do we measure, how often, and what result would change our mind?
Specifications gained, monthly; twelve in eighteen months. Fewer than six at the gate would argue for stopping.
Time Core
What comes first, what waits, and what breaks if we are late?
ERP from October 2026, agent from April 2027, stage gate April 2028. Being late costs little; launching without systems costs a great deal.
Four answered, four partly answered, none fully open. That is not a score. A board that can see which answers are partial is in a better position than one handed eight confident sentences.
From decision to work
Five actions in the seven-field anatomy from the action-planning guide. Each carries an address, one named owner, one measure and a stop condition agreed before the work begins. The fields are the ones set out in the action-planning guide.
The goal at the top of the plan — Tactical goal for Germany: twelve office projects with Tovmark named in the specification by October 2028.
ACTION 01
ACTION 02
ACTION 03
ACTION 04
ACTION 05
Mette Kjær owns two actions. The action-planning guide would flag that, and the team did: the CRM change is small, and the second owner would otherwise have been the founder, whose calendar was the bottleneck the Business Core pass had just found.
In fairness
A worked example is tidier than the work it illustrates. These are the ways in which this one is.
The example is only useful if it makes your own case easier to start. The check and the canvas hold the same eight questions, with room for your own answers — and your own blanks.
Run the eight questions against your own company or case, and see which ones you can answer.
Open the checkOne sheet with all eight cores, for a workshop or a first pass on paper.
Open the canvasThe method this example follows, with the established models placed on the map.
Read the guideWhere the seven-field action line comes from, and how to prioritise a longer list.
Read the guide