The Playing-to-Win Strategy Canvas

For information on the latest version (now 3.0) of the Playing to Win Strategy Canvas, you may find it on LinkedIn, here.
Strategy vs. Execution: A Meaningless Distinction

Over at HBR blogs, there is a wonderful debate on the subject of strategy between Roger Martin, who authored the post Stop Distinguishing Between Strategy and Execution, and Don Sull, an MIT scholar who believes there’s a meaningful distinction between strategy and execution. Normally, I don’t bother looking at comments to blogs because in today’s […]
How Strategy Transforms

My friend Roger Martin (#3 on Thinkers50 list) penned a terrific article in The European Business Review on how the Canadian professional tennis association rose from oblivion to now boasting two young players ranked well inside the top 10 on the professional tennis circuit…in less than ten years. As of this writing, Eugenie Bouchard is […]
Strategy’s Magic Question

Your grand strategy seems airtight on paper. You’ve arrived at a winning aspiration. You’ve honed in on an open and attractive segment in which to play. You’ve identified the competitive advantages that will enable you to win in your chosen spaces. You’ve got the capabilities and systems to support your choices. But as the saying […]
Rotman on Design. (Get It. Now.)

It has been nearly a decade since Roger Martin, then-dean of The Rotman School of Management (he recently retired from the post), penned a provocative thought: We are on the cusp of a design revolution in business. Competing is no longer about creating dominance in scale-intensive industries, it’s about producing elegant, refined products and services […]
The Business of Design

In his seminal 2004 article The Design of Business, Roger Martin helped usher in a new management zeitgeist focused on infusing business professionals with the sensibilities and tools of a designer. “Businesspeople don’t just need to understand designers,” he wrote. “They need to be designers.” Design thinking remains quite the rage, with companies and business […]