Publications

Identifies how value is a combinatorial function in stakeholder capitalism – your performance is only as good as your weakest link. Contrasts this to the compensatory nature of shareholder capitalism where financial performance makes up for the deficiencies in your performance on other dimensions

In this feature article from the March/April 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review, we unpack the different meanings of “purpose” and identify the four business agendas that are impacted by it. We lay out a five step process for ensuring that your corporate purpose is defined in a way that is authentic and actionable.

In the sixth article of “The Strategy of Change” series in the MIT Sloan Management Review, we explore how the focus of the three key tasks of leadership vary according to the type of change you are trying to achieve.

In the fifth article of “The Strategy of Change” series in the MIT Sloan Management Review, we explore how your innovation efforts need to be informed by the type of change you are trying to achieve.

In the fourth article of “The Strategy of Change” series in MIT Sloan Management Review, we explore how a focus on creating value for a broader range of stakeholders can result in much better strategy.

In this third article in our MIT Sloan Management Review series, we share three key insights emerging from the MADStrat research – the proportion of companies for which change in magnitude vs. activity vs. direction are appropriate; the need to be both relevant and distinctive; and the requirement to consider the interests of multiple stakeholders in order to develop truly sustainable strategies.

In our second article in the “strategic management of change” series in the MIT Sloan Management Review, we identify how traditional approaches to strategy development embody two assumptions (industry stability; and shareholder primacy) that limit their usefulness now that a dynamic, multi-stakeholder approach is required. We describe how a focus on fit to purpose and relative advantage provides the key to identifying what form of change is appropriate to the specific context of a business.

The word “change” covers a broad spectrum of possibilities – in the first article of “The Strategy of Change” series in the MIT Sloan Management Review, we identify the three major forms that change can take: magnitude, activity or direction.

Commentary on Nike’s masterful alignment of its brand with a social cause that was authentic for the company to champion – and that drove purchase consideration among its target customers, even as it provoked a negative response from peripheral customers.

Coauthored with two senior marketing executives, we explore how B2B businesses have to go beyond talking about their capabilities (aka solutions) and focus on the outcomes that they enable their customers to achieve. We identify five areas in which change is required in order to reflect this orientation towards customer outcomes.