A New Way To Think For Business Leaders

Forbes named, A New Way To Think, as one of the 10 must-read books for 2022. 

In the book, authored by Roger L. Martin, he urges business leaders to toss out the old ways of thinking, and instead try new models in every domain of management – from competition and customers to strategy, data, culture, talent, mergers and acquisitions, and everything in-between. 

More specifically, within 14 chapters, Martin explores his recommended new ways of thinking about:

• Competition
• Stakeholders
• Customers
• Strategy
• Data
• Knowledge Work
• Corporate Functions
• Planning
• Execution
• Talent
• Innovation
• Capital Investment
• Mergers and Acquisitions

Roger L. Martin 

Recently, Martin answered these questions:

Question: What is the secret about strategy that no one tells you? 

Martin: Strategy and planning are entirely different. 

The vast majority of activities referred to as strategy are actually planning. Planning involved creating lists of sensible initiatives. Strategy is the making of an integrated set of choices that positions the organization on a playing field of choice where it can be better than any other organization on that field. 

Strategy is important because lists of sensible initiatives won’t compel customers to take the actions, we wish them to, which is why most plans don’t produce the outcomes that are desired. Our choices need to be designed to compel customer action. Among other things, which will make some initiatives that on their own may appear sensible, are actually a waste of resources.   

Question: In your book, you write that if you feel comfortable with your strategic plan, there’s a strong chance it isn’t very good. Why? 

Martin: The goal of strategy is to compel customer action. But no organization (other than a government monopoly like the Department of Motor Vehicles) can force customers to buy your product/service. So, you can never be comfortable that your strategy will produce what you wish. It requires faith in the set of choices you have made – and that is uncomfortable. 

Planners, on the other hand, tend to believe that that if their choices are sensible, they will automatically produce the results they expect, so they are more comfortable, until such time as their plans fail to compel the customer actions they assumed.   

Question: What is the most important thing you hope readers will take away from your book? 

Martin: Lots of what you have been taught either in formal business education or in the company/industry in which you work are just plain wrong. 

Lots of models that have developed and become dominant over time for thinking about business problems don’t produce the results that the models promise. But very few people question the efficacy of the models, even though they don’t work.

Don’t let your models own you in this way; you need to dump models that don’t work and adopt models that do. To help that, the book covers 14 business models that don’t work and provides 14 replacement models that will work better. 

A New Way To Think is timely, thought-provoking a book to add to your must-read list this year. 

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.