In his book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, strategic adviser and thinker Roger Martin gives insights into his entrepreneurial experiences and provides a handle on why many companies fail to implement strategic changes within their respective organizations. The book seeks to demystify the actual methods of creating, leveraging, and integrating successful strategy.
Playing to Win serves as a handbook for innovation and growth, targeted towards the large business professional. Martin breaks down his philosophy of the “kind of scrutiny and rigor that’s required to succeed as a business executive” by making strategic decision-making understandable. He details an unorthodox decision-making model that systematically and consistently produces creative, effective, and repeatable results.
The first key step in any company’s attempt to become successful is to develop an overarching purpose. This purpose is the company’s “big idea” that inspires a reason for being for everyone in the organization. Once everyone has a shared understanding of the importance and value of what the organization desires to achieve, a clear strategic agenda can be developed. This agenda outlines how to leverage the unique capabilities of the organization to be successful and competitive in the competitive market in which they work.
Martin goes on to discuss how successful companies will develop a strong competitive position by building a competitive advantage around what he calls “choice” - a special type of competitive advantage that makes the company different from its competitors in a meaningful way. This is known as an “asymmetrical advantage,” and it leverages the company’s capabilities to outperform its competitors.
Martin also emphasizes that, while understanding the landscape of the industry they’re in is important, strategy should not be formulated around market conditions - it should be based on the company’s overall mission and value proposition. In addition, he maintains that strategy should involve tradeoffs and should take into account dynamics that are constantly changing in response to technological advances, customer behaviors, and other environmental factors. He encourages companies to embrace this flexibility to remain adaptive to the ever-changing landscape.
To ensure that strategy is effectively implemented, Martin advises that leadership within an organization commit to a systematic process of experimentation and rapid prototyping. This allows for a team to experiment and improve the strategy, thus making the most effective use of resources and capital investments. Although businesses often change the way they operate out of necessity, Martin reinforces the importance of clear, consistent guidelines being established and adhered to for a long-term strategy.
Overall, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works is an important book for anyone who wants to understand how to develop and implement a strategy. With his unique blend of practical advice and theoretical research, Roger Martin demonstrates the value of taking a systematic approach to successful strategy formation. By combining the principles of understanding and actualizing the mission and purpose of an organization with the rigor of strategizing and forming an asymmetrical advantage, the company can grow and outperform the competition.
