
Discovering Insights at the Edges
Strategic Minds
Discovery-Driven (Checkpoint) Planning
Rita defines checkpoint-based planning, emphasizing learning, testing assumptions, and containing risk for new ventures.
In this episode, Rich Horwath sits down with Dr. Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and one of the worldās foremost experts on strategy and innovation. Known for her books including, Discovery-Driven Growth, The End of Competitive Advantage and Seeing Around Corners, Dr. McGrath reveals how leaders can identify the early signals of change and shape organizations that thrive through disruption.
From checkpoint-based planning to the power of systematic disengagement, Rita explains how todayās most successful leaders move beyond rigid planning and instead experiment, learn, and adapt. She explores the value of leading indicators, resource reconfiguration, and discovering opportunity in emerging āarenasā rather than static industries.
Together, Rich and Rita discuss why true strategic clarity demands courageāthe willingness to stop doing what no longer serves and the foresight to invest in what could be.
š Key Quotes:āMy friend Sharon Price-John, who happens to be the CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, has a great way of framing this. She said, stop doing stupid stuff.ā
āAnd what an inflection point does is it changes that envelope of possibilities. So now you can do things you never could before.ā
āAnd if you think about things like a mission, Patagonia would come to mind as a firm thatās centered on that. So I think the first choice you need to make isāwhat are we sort of centering ourselves on?ā
āAnd if you donāt invest in creating the conditions for those future choices, you just wonāt have those choices to make.ā
āA leading indicator is giving you some clues about what could beānot necessarily will beābut what could be in the future.ā
āAnd I think strategy is really critical, because how else are you going to have the clarity to say, yes, Iām doing this and not that?ā
š Winsights:This weekās Winsight comes from Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, who reminds us: āIf you are not genuinely pained by the risk involved in your strategic choices, then itās not much of a strategy.ā
Real strategy requires trade-offs. Itās not about doing everythingāitās about deciding what matters most, and having the discipline to say no to what doesnāt. Great leaders make those choices consciously, knowing that clarity comes with discomfort.
As Hastings suggests, the anxiety we feel when we commit to one path and close off others is the signal that strategy is working. If every decision feels easy, weāre not being strategicāweāre just being busy. This week, reflect on the trade-offs you and your team are making. If you feel that tension, youāre likely heading in the right direction.
š Links:Connect with Rita Mcgrath:
Website: ritamcgrath.com
LinkedIn: Rita McGrath on LinkedIn
Books:
Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen ā Amazon Link
The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business ā Amazon link
Discovery-Driven Growth--Amazon Link
The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty ā Amazon Link
š Resources from Rich Horwath, Host of Strategic Minds:š Strategic Thinking Institute Website
š¤ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn
š„ Rich Horwath on YouTube
š¦ Rich Horwath on X
šø Rich Horwath on Instagram
š STRATEGIC Book
š§ Strategic Fitness System
š¬ Free Strategic Thinker Newsletter
š§Ŗ Strategic Quotient (SQ) Assessment
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š§ Listen on Spotify


