Roger L. Martin, a world-renowned business strategist and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management, has profoundly influenced modern management with his work on integrative thinking, design thinking, and what it truly means to create a winning strategy. His writing cuts through corporate jargon to provide clear, actionable frameworks for leaders.

On Strategy: The 'Playing to Win' Framework

  1. "Strategy is not a long planning document. It is the answer to five simple questions."
  2. "The two most fundamental strategic choices are deciding where to play and how to win."
  3. "Winning should be at the heart of every strategy."
  4. "What is your winning aspiration? The first question frames the entire strategic process around the goal of winning."
  5. "Where will you play? A company must choose the specific industries, customer segments, and geographic areas in which it will compete."
  6. "How will you win? This choice defines the competitive advantage that will lead to victory in the chosen 'where to play' arena."
  7. "The two generic ways to win are cost leadership and differentiation. You must choose. You can't be both."
  8. "What capabilities must be in place? These are the core competencies and reinforcing activities required to support the 'how to win' choice."
  9. "What management systems are required? These are the systems and structures that support the choices and build the necessary capabilities."
  10. "Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It is hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices and trade-offs."
  11. "True strategy is about placing bets and making hard choices. The objective is not to eliminate risk but to increase the odds of success."
  12. "Strategy is a cascade of choices. The choices at the top of the organization constrain and guide the choices below."

On Possibility vs. Proof: The Strategist's Core Task

  1. "In strategy, what counts is what would have to be true—not what is true."
  2. "The most powerful question in strategy is: What would have to be true for this choice to be a brilliant one?"
  3. "Data is about the past. Strategy is about the future. You can't prove a new idea in advance."
  4. "If you need proof before you act, you will never do anything new."
  5. "Analysis should be used to build your confidence in a possibility, not to 'prove' it. If you can prove it with data, your competitors already know it."
  6. "Strategy requires imagination and design, not just analysis and forecasting."
  7. "Strategy is not about being right. It is about being thoughtfully wrong in a way that you can learn and adapt."

On Integrative Thinking: The Core Philosophy

  1. "Integrative thinking is the ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas...[and] generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each."
  2. "The conventional thinker prefers to accept the world as it is. The integrative thinker welcomes the challenge of shaping the world for the better."
  3. "Don't just choose between option A and option B. Ask yourself, 'How can I create a better option C that combines the best parts of both?'"
  4. "In order to have a hope of creating better answers, we need to deeply understand the logic of the opposing answers."
  5. "The status quo is more tenacious than anyone would ever imagine. The human mind prefers continuity rather than change."
  6. "Instead of merely asking 'What should I do?' leaders should consider 'What should I think?'"

On Design Thinking & Innovation

  1. "Business people don't need to understand designers better. They need to be designers."
  2. "The Knowledge Funnel: Innovation is the process of moving an idea from a mystery (something we can't explain) to a heuristic (a rule of thumb) to an algorithm (a repeatable formula)." The job of the innovator is to live in the world of mystery.
  3. "When it comes to innovation, business has much to learn from design. The philosophy in design shops is, 'try it, prototype it, and improve it'."
  4. "It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows."
  5. "Strategy and design thinking shouldn't be thought of as separate... Rather, there are just more and less designerly ways of doing strategy."

Critiques of Conventional Business Wisdom

  1. "Shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world." Martin argues that focusing on shareholder value leads to short-term actions that often destroy long-term value.
  2. "Peter Drucker had it right when he said that the primary purpose of a business is to acquire and keep customers."
  3. "95% of what is called strategy... is actually a thing called planning. And planning involves making up a list of all laudable and doable initiatives that are in the areas under our control."
  4. "The harder a CEO is pushed to increase shareholder value, the more the CEO will be tempted to make moves that actually hurt the shareholders."
  5. "The problem with best practices is that they are past practices." Following them ensures you will never be better than the competition.
  6. "Being 'strategic' is not a synonym for 'long-term' or 'important'. It means making a choice."
  7. "We have optimized the efficiency of our system at the expense of its resilience." A core argument from When More Is Not Better, critiquing the obsession with efficiency above all else.
  8. "The problem with OKRs is that they are a tool for communicating a desired future, not for causing it to happen."
  9. "Will AI eliminate the need for strategists? No. But it will eliminate the need for analysts who masquerade as strategists."

Key Learnings from Medium

  1. On personal strategy: "Being 'Too Busy' Means Your Personal Strategy Sucks." Constant busyness is a sign of a lack of clear choices about what truly matters.
  2. On your current strategy: "Your actions reveal your real strategy, not your presentations." Reverse-engineer what your strategy is today based on what you do, not what you say.
  3. On making choices: "Not making a choice is a choice." Indecision is a passive form of strategic choice that often has negative consequences.
  4. On meetings: "If the purpose of a meeting isn't to make a decision, it shouldn't be a meeting." It should be a memo, a call, or a workshop.
  5. On making your case: "In the part of the world where things can be other than they are... may the best argument win not may the most powerful data win."
  6. On functional strategy: "A functional strategy should be a set of choices that explains how the function will help the company win."
  7. On starting strategy work: "The best starting point for strategy is a problem."
  8. On the language of strategy: "The single biggest barrier to the creation of a good strategy is the use of the word 'and'." It signals a refusal to make a trade-off.
  9. On transformation: "A superior possibility may be one for which one or more key elements are currently not true, but we develop a transformation plan that is both plausible and compelling for making them true."
  10. On what strategy is not: "Strategy is not a vision. Strategy is not a plan. Strategy is the integrated set of choices that positions you on the playing field of your choice in a way that you win."
  11. On mission statements: "Your Mission Statement is Not Your Strategy. It is your statement of purpose. It doesn't tell you how you will achieve that purpose."
  12. On the fear of choice: "The fear of being wrong is the single most powerful obstacle to the development of a great strategy."

On Leadership and Culture

  1. "The job of the leader in the modern model changes from hero to community builder."
  2. "Don't think of the barriers to choice—i.e., the things that would have to be true but currently aren't—as your enemies. They are the source of your competitive advantage if you can make them true."
  3. "You can't make a renaissance person anymore... But you could actually assemble a renaissance team."
  4. "The job of a leader is not to have all the answers but to ask the right questions."
  5. "A culture of 'no' is a culture of fear. A culture of 'yes' is a culture of irresponsibility. A culture of 'maybe, if' is a culture of strategy and innovation."
  6. "The job of the leader is to create a context within which others can make great choices."
  7. "A leader's job is not to be a cheerleader. It's to be an architect of choice."
  8. "You have to be humble enough to say, 'I'm not sure if this is going to work,' but bold enough to make a choice."
  9. "Stop trying to motivate people. Instead, stop demotivating them." Remove the obstacles that prevent people from doing great work.
  10. "The art of leadership is the art of giving people a reason to do things they wouldn't otherwise do."
  11. "The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference. The opposite of a good strategy isn't a bad strategy; it's indifference to choice."
  12. "Trust is the lubricant of a high-performing organization."
  13. "The only thing a leader can control is his or her own behavior. But that behavior has a disproportionate impact on the behavior of others."
  14. "A leader's job is to create a future that is better than the present."
  15. "The best leaders are the best learners."
  16. "Don't mistake politeness for kindness. Kindness is telling someone the truth, even if it's hard to hear."
  17. "The best way to build a great team is to give them a great problem to solve."
  18. "If everything is a priority, nothing is."
  19. "The ultimate test of a strategy is whether it creates a sustainable competitive advantage."
  20. "The world doesn't need more managers. It needs more leaders."

Sources and Further Reading:

  • Books: Playing to Win, The Opposable Mind, The Design of Business, When More is Not Better, and A New Way to Think.
  • Medium Profile: Roger Martin's "Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights" series can be found at rogermartin.medium.com.
  • Harvard Business Review: Numerous articles, including "The Big Lie of Strategic Planning" and "The Age of Customer Capitalism."
  • Interviews and Talks: Widely available on YouTube and podcast platforms. A search for "Roger Martin talk" will yield many valuable results.