Attended a breakfast this morning at which Roger Martin and Jennifer Riel spoke about the Rotman iThink programme, an initiative to teach the philosophy and tools from their flagship integrative Thinking MBA program in local secondary schools. This initiative started as a pilot in one progressive private school in Toronto, Branksome Hall and has expanded to encompass teaching in both private and public sectors within Toronto and across Canada.   What has surprised and delighted Roger and Jennifer is the quality of the solutions that these 16 year olds have been able to generate. Reflecting on this quality Roger has observed that the quality is just as good as that which they see from a typical MBA class, which leaves him wondering what six years of additional formal education and several years business experience have delivered.   More than any other Integrative Thinking initiative this has captured the imagination of Roger and the team not only because of the significant and immediate shifts it has created for these pupils but also because of the life skills that is provides them with and which over time they might use to transform the way Canada and perhaps the rest of the world think about problem solving, decision making and creativity

Roger Martin launched his latest book "Playing to Win" in Canary Wharf London this afternoon. Written in collaboration with his long time friend and colleague, AG Lafley, the book provides a revolutionary perspective on the keys to developing great corporate strategy. As if an incentive were required to read this book, Roger promised no more SWOT analysis and no more lengthy strategy documents for those who adopted the premise of the book.   His contention is that strategy is about making explicit choices about where you play and win. The book goes onto to articulate 5 choices that they feel are key to any successful strategy namely:  

• What is your winning aspiration?;
• Where shall we play?
• How we will win?
• What capabilities must we have?
• What management systems are required?

 

The book is peppered with examples gleaned from Roger and AG's successful careers and was describe by one attendee of the launch as "up there with seminal work of Michael Porters". It has been serialised in the Harvard Business Review and reviewed by numerous titles and looks set to rewrite the rules on how organisations "do" strategy