The power of the analogy: An interesting logical management tool

"Analogy" is a useful logical tool. It is a comparison or correspondence between two things. In business strategy, analogies are for instance used to compare your company with another one, often a successful one in its industry (Carroll & Sørensen, 2024; Levitt, 2025). The objective is to identify the elements, or premises, that both companies have in common, but also to be aware of the differences. For instance, Rover dog walking, a service that connects pet owners with local dog walkers may at first sight be perceived as a kind of Uber of dog-walking. However , an important difference is that Rover customers still have to schedule their dog walks in advance (prescheduled). In Uber's case, you can schedule a ride any time of day,  if available of course (immediate-on demand). So yes, Rover may learn from Uber how it runs its business, but it should keep the important differences in mind as well.

Anyway, analogical thinking is an interesting path for cultivating creativity. The art is to spot structural similarities between seemingly unrelated concepts (whether it is a business model of a company or a certain challenge) and to apply insights from one concept/domain (the source) to the other (the target) (Gruner, 2025).

References

Carroll, G. R. & Sørensen, J.B. (2024), "Strategy Theory Using Analogy: Rationale, Tools and Examples", Strategy Science 9(4), pp. 483-498.

Gruner, R. L (2025, November 12), "Unlock Creativity Through Analogical Thinking", MIT Sloan Management Review , retrieved from: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/unlock-creativity-through-analogical-thinking/

Levitt, A.(2025, March 6), "Tapping Into the Incomparable Power of a Good Analogy", Insights by Stanford Business, retrieved from: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/tapping-incomparable-power-good-analogy