How to develop a strategy that wins in competitive markets

This episode is with Roger Martin, writer, strategy advisor and in 2017 was named the #1 management thinker in the world, he is former Dean and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in Canada, he is a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, Lego and Ford, and he's the author of 12 books including Playing To Win - how strategy really works. This is a discussion about how to develop a strategy that wins in competitive markets. SHOW NOTES 00:01:19 Roger Martin's introduction to the Growth Manifesto Podcast 00:02:10 How do you define strategy? 00:03:33 Strategy does not always assume that there is a competitive landscape or that you have a competitor 00:05:57 How do you define your "where to play" in your strategy? 00:07:33 Roger unpacks the confusion between "strategy" and "planning" 00:10:37 How the military definition of strategy relates to the business definition of strategy 00:15:55 What do you need to create a winning strategy? 00:19:06 Roger explains the "How might we?" questions in strategy 00:20:25 How many possibilities should a strategy session come up with? 00:23:24 Should companies try to win in just one area with their strategy or can they play across many different areas? 00:27:50 According to Roger, you need to pick a "where" in which you aspire to be number 1 in share for a successful strategy 00:30:29 In strategy, you need to have a winning aspiration that helps you pick a "where to play" and a "how to win" 00:31:39 How Roger sees good business strategy as a positive force for humanity 00:33:30 How do we choose the one idea that has the best likelihood of success amongst all the possibilities in our strategy? 00:35:55 How long does the process of choosing the best idea in our strategy usually take? 00:37:58 Roger talks about how clever entrepreneurs can enable the world to "de-risk" from whatever it is that they're doing or selling 00:44:01 Strategy is an exercise in shortening your odds 00:45:51 Roger explains why it's a tricky time for big companies these days in terms of taking risks due to smaller companies trying to disrupt industries 00:50:12 Roger and Alex talk about some of the measures big companies can take to protect themselves from the small disruptors 00:52:08 Once you've established what to do or which direction to take your strategy, how do you actually win? 00:55:49 When you find out that your strategy doesn't fit, do you simply adjust the strategy or go through the whole process again? 00:57:50 How can management systems help with your strategy? 01:05:15 Roger talks about how management systems are the hardest and most boring part to work on to ensure your strategy succeeds 01:08:35 According to Roger, when you're the market leader in your industry, you always have to be on the lookout for different kinds of competitors 01:09:58 How do you measure strategy? 01:13:51 Roger believes that companies that are trying to make the world a better place by being good to the rest of humanity are more likely to create shareholder value 01:17:13 What's the one thing you'd want our listeners to do? Subscribe to our channel to get new content as soon as it's released https://www.youtube.com/c/GrowthManifestoPodcast ---- LINKS Roger's Website https://rogerlmartin.com/ Roger Martin on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-martin-9916911a9/ Roger Martin on Medium https://rogermartin.medium.com/ Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/1491528796 ---- The Growth Manifesto Podcast is brought to you by Webprofits. We interview business leaders, marketers, and entrepreneurs to share inspiring stories of real people who have succeeded in the business world. Hosted by Alex Cleanthous. * Podcast: https://www.growthmanifesto.com/podcast/ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/webprofits/ * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/web-... * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Webprofits/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/webprofits * Agency: https://www.webprofits.io