About Plain Strategy
Plain Strategy helps people understand, develop, and assess strategy. Its concepts, principles, and practical guidance support those who propose courses of action, make decisions, and carry them out.
Development and ownership
Plain Strategy was developed by Dr Julien Maréchal. The framework is owned by The Governance Practice (TGP).
Acknowledgements
The development of Plain Strategy draws on Dr Julien Maréchal’s research into the plurality of action descriptions (2010) and J. L. Austin’s Philosophical papers (1979).
The framework also draws on Fillmore’s account of frame semantics (1982) and the Berkeley FrameNet project (Baker, Fillmore, and Lowe, 1998).
The interactive examples are constructed illustrations of a manufacturer introducing a paid maintenance service.
References
- Austin, J.L. (1979) Philosophical papers. 3rd edn. Edited by J.O. Urmson and G.J. Warnock. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/019283021X.001.0001.
- Baker, C.F., Fillmore, C.J., and Lowe, J.B. (1998) ‘The Berkeley FrameNet project’, in 36th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and 17th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Volume 1. Montreal, Quebec: Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 86–90. doi: 10.3115/980845.980860.
- Fillmore, C.J. (1982) ‘Frame semantics’, in The Linguistic Society of Korea (ed.) Linguistics in the morning calm: selected papers from SICOL-1981. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company, pp. 111–137.
- Maréchal, J. (2010) Comment faire les choses : du pluralisme des descriptions de l’action. Doctoral thesis. Université catholique de Louvain. University repository.
Using and acknowledging the materials
Except where otherwise indicated, the original Plain Strategy framework text, diagrams, application guidance, and learning activities on this website are licensed by The Governance Practice under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
You may copy, share, and adapt these materials, including for commercial purposes, under the licence terms.
When sharing these materials, including adaptations, credit Dr Julien Maréchal and The Governance Practice, provide the source and licence details, and indicate any changes, in a manner reasonable for the medium and context.
Suggested attribution
Plain Strategy, developed by Dr Julien Maréchal. © 2026 The Governance Practice. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Where reasonably practicable, include a link to the relevant Plain Strategy page with this credit.
We also welcome acknowledgement when you apply the approach in your work, including where attribution is not legally required.
This licence excludes the Plain Strategy and TGP logos, third-party material, and website software.