Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker)

Jul 25, 2024

Roger Martin, a leading expert on strategy and author of "Playing to Win," shares his insights on crafting effective business strategies. He discusses the five essential questions that drive a winning strategy and highlights why many companies fail. Martin advocates for integrating strategic thinking across all levels, not just top executives. Using examples from brands like Procter & Gamble and Southwest Airlines, he emphasizes the importance of differentiation over low cost and critiques the shortcomings of traditional strategy education.

01:22:03

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Episode guests

Roger Martin

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Quick takeaways

Answering five key strategy questions aids in formulation.

Choosing differentiation or low-cost is crucial for competitive advantage.

Becoming a great strategist requires continuous practice and learning.

Deep dives

Strategic Framework and Business Schools

Developing effective strategies is challenging due to inadequate educational preparation and corporate constraints. The strategy choice cascade, consisting of answering five crucial questions, aids in strategy formulation. Leading business schools often fail to teach these essential components.

Start. What is strategy

01:24

Keys to Winning: Aspiration, Strategy, Capability, and Management

00:56

Once you find a gap, apply the Strategy Cascade Questions

00:46

The ultimate way to compete is to never be forced to compete

02:09

Intro

3min

The Strategic Power of Brand Managers in Corporations

2min

The Complexities of Crafting Effective Business Strategy

5min

Challenging Business Strategy Norms

8min

Crafting Winning Strategies

19min

Building and Understanding Competitive Moats

2min

Strategic Moats and Market Dynamics

26min

Adapting to Change: Navigating Technology and Customer Preferences

16min

Roger Martin is one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and the author of Playing to Win, one of the most beloved books on strategy. He’s written extensively for the Harvard Business Review; consulted for dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including P&G, Lego, and Ford; and written 11 other books. In our conversation, we discuss:

• The five key questions you need to answer to develop an effective strategy

• Why most companies get strategy wrong

• How to avoid “playing to play” instead of playing to win

• Real-world strategy examples from Procter & Gamble, Southwest Airlines, Lego, and Figma

• How to think about differentiation vs. low cost

• Shortcomings of current strategy education

• Much more

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Correction: Roger pointed out that he made an error during our chat. When I asked him about Richard Rumelt (~16 mins), he thought I said Richard D'Aveni.

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-strategy-roger-martin

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Where to find Roger Martin:

• X: https://x.com/RogerLMartin

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-martin-9916911a9/

• Website: https://rogerlmartin.com/