Critical to the success of every organization, strategy is not a long planning exercise or document. Strategy can be simple, fun and effective and is founded on a set of five interrelated and powerful choices that positions an organization to win.
Critical to the success of every organization, strategy is not a long planning exercise or document. Strategy can be simple, fun and effective and is founded on a set of five interrelated and powerful choices that positions an organization to win.
Integrative thinking is a form of reasoning which allows you to constructively face the tensions of opposing models. Instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, you generate a creative solution. Your solution contains elements of the individual models, but is superior to each.
Organizations need to incorporate the best of design thinking into their ways of working to unleash innovation and creativity. An organization will be able to counter-balance analytical thinking with intuitive thinking – to enable it to both exploit existing knowledge and create new knowledge.
While prevailing theory holds that stock-based compensation perfectly aligns corporate executives’ incentives with those of shareholders, it does the opposite. As a consequence, executives have done brilliantly while shareholders have become increasingly frustrated. Incentives and governance practice needs to be transformed to enable corporations to prosper in a way that better serves society.
More on Incentives & Governance
The combination of the stagnation of medium incomes and the rapid rise of high incomes is threatening the future of democratic capitalism. Its predictive future requires building a more robust knowledge, transactional and physical infrastructure for broadly shared prosperity.
For both social entrepreneurs and corporations, the key tenet of social innovation is finding ways to make the world a better place. My work focuses on building tools for social entrepreneurs to create more powerful models for creating value for society and developing models to guide corporations on a path of productive corporate citizenship.
Meet Roger
Let's Read
A New Way to Think
When More is Not Better
Creating Great Choices
The Rise (and Likely Fall) of the Talent Economy
Getting Beyond Better
Playing To win
Canada: What it is, what it can be
Fixing the Game
The Design Of Business
The Opposable Mind
The Responsibility Virus
Dia-Minds
The Future of the MBA
Rotman on Design
Let's Engage
Thought Pillars
In 2017, Roger was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers.
Roger is a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, Lego, Ford, BHP & Verizon
Roger Martin is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto where he served as Dean from 1998-2013, Academic Director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship from 2004-2019 and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute from 2013-2019. In 2013, he was named global Dean of the Year by the leading business school website, Poets & Quants.
His newest book is A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Managerial Effectiveness (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022). His previous twelve books include When More is Not Better (HBRP, 2020), Creating Great Choiceswritten with Jennifer Riel (HBRP, 2017) Getting Beyond Betterwritten with Sally Osberg (HBRP, 2015) and Playing to Win written with A.G. Lafley (HBRP, 2013), which won the award for Best Book of 2012-13 by the Thinkers50. He has written 30 Harvard Business Review articles.
Roger received his BA from Harvard College, with a concentration in Economics, in 1979 and his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1981. He lives in South Florida with his wife, Marie-Louise Skafte.
Contact Roger through Twitter or email. Call us to book a speaking engagement or other services.
Roger is available for keynote and other speaking engagements. Advisory services and team workshops can also be booked with Roger.
Articles
The New York Times
September 28, 2012
Harvard Business Review
The Age of Customer Capitalism
January/February 2010
Harvard Business Review
Capital vs. Talent: The Battle That's Reshaping Business
July 2003
HBR.org
How the Attacks on Trump Reinforce His Strategy
January 12, 2017
HBR.org
Use Design Thinking to Build Commitment to a New Idea
January 3, 2017
Harvard Business Review
January-February 2017
Skoll Foundation
December 6, 2016
HBR.org
Are Americans Enamored with the Wrong Kinds of Entrepreneurs?
November 11, 2016
HBR.org
The False Premise of the Shareholder Value Debate
September 26, 2016
Rotman Magazine
Creativity, Clusters-and Why Your Barista Has Mixed Feelings About You
Fall, 2016
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Overhead Sounds Useless, So Stop Calling It That
Summer 2016
Harvard Business Review
M&A: The One Thing You Need to Get Right
June 2016
Strategy + Business
Social Entrepreneurship by the Billions
March 30, 2016
HBR.org
Strategy and Execution Are the Same Thing
January 12, 2016
Harvard Business Review
December, 2015
The Globe and Mail
Getting Beyond Better offers a primer for social entrepreneurs
November 3, 2015
Competitiveness Review
Creativity, clusters and the competitive advantage of cities
2015, Vol. 25 Iss: 5, pp.482 - 496
livemint.com
Book extract | Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works
November 1, 2015
HBR.org
How Social Entrepreneurs Make Change Happen
October 14, 2015
HBR.org
October 13, 2015
HBR.org
Yes, Short-Termism Really Is a Problem
October 9, 2015
HBR.org
Why Talking About Strategy “Execution” Is Still Dangerous
September 15, 2015
HBR.org
What Economists Get Wrong About Measuring Productivity
September 14, 2015
HRB.org
How Talent Pulls One Over on the Capitalists
August 4, 2015
Indian Management
What is Social Entrepreneurship?
July 2015
Inclusive Capitalism, Thoughts from the 2015 Conference on Inclusive Capitalism
Action to Achieve Inclusive Capitalism
June 26, 2015
The Globe and Mail
For retailers, expensive lawsuits focus the mind wonderfully
May 14, 2015
HBR.org
The First Question to Ask of Any Strategy
May 5, 2015
Rotman Magazine
Life Lessons from a Beloved Mentor
Spring 2015
HBR.org
Strategy Is About Both Resources and Positioning
April 27, 2015
Catalyst Review
A Creativity Imperative for the Future of Capitalism
Spring 2015
HBR.org
There Are Still Only Two Ways to Compete
April 21, 2015
Rotman Magazine
In the Know: A Call for the Redesign of Our Knowledge Infrastructure
Spring 2015
HBR.org
Stop Distinguishing Between Execution and Strategy
March 13, 2015
The European Business Review
Strategic Transformation at Tennis Canada
January - February 2015
HBR.org
Two Words That Kill Innovation
December 9, 2014
HBR.org
Capitalism Needs Design Thinking
December 8, 2014
Annual Report 13
Finding Its Own Way: Ontario Needs to Take a New Tack
November 2014
The Hindu Business Line
Creating a better mix of rewards for capital, labour and talent
October 22, 2014
HBR.org
The Dark Side of Efficient Markets
October 15, 2014
Huff Post Business
The Dark Side of Efficient Markets - re-posted in Huff Post Business
October 15, 2014
The Guardian
Cities are businesses' best allies in the battle against climate change
October 14, 2014
Business Day
The Rise (and likely fall) of the Talent Economy - repost in Business Day
October 8, 2014
Huff Post Business
Why Monopolistic Pension Funds Undermine Capitalism - repost Huff Post Business
October 7, 2014
HBR.org
Why Monopolistic Pension Funds Undermine Capitalism
October 6, 2014
Huff Post Business
When Talent Started Driving Economic Growth - repost in Huff Post Business
October 5, 2014
Huff Post Business
We Can't Talk About Inequality Without Talking About Talent - report in Huff Post Business
October 4, 2014
Huff Post Business
A Brief History of America's Attitude Toward Taxes - repost in Huff Post Business
October 3, 2014
HBR.org
When Talent Started Driving Economic Growth
September 30, 2014
HBR.org
We Can’t Talk About Inequality Without Talking About Talent
September 23, 2014
HBR.org
A Brief History of America’s Attitude Toward Taxes
September 16, 2014
Huff Post Business
When Star Talent Grew More Powerful Than Capital - reposted in Huff Post Business
September 10, 2014
HBR.org
When Star Talent Grew More Powerful than Capital
September 9, 2014
HBR.org
The Fall of the Talent Economy?
September 4, 2014
Rotman Magazine
Moving the World Forward: The Quest for a New Equilibrium
Fall 2014
HBR.org
In America, Labor Is Friendless
August 28, 2014
HBR.org
Does Cheap Online Video Trump Text?
July 4, 2014
HBR.org
Strategy Isn’t What You Say, It’s What You Do
June 18, 2014
HBR.org
Strategy Is Iterative Prototyping
June 6, 2014
HBR.org
How to Win the Argument with Milton Friedman
June 2, 2014
HBR.org
Strategize First, Analyze Later
May 29, 2014
Conference on Inclusive Capitalism
Self-Fulfilling Prophesies and Inclusive Capitalism
May 27, 2014
HBR.org
Adaptive Strategy Is a Cop-Out
May 23, 2014
HBR.org
Three Quick Ways to Improve Your Strategy-Making
May 22, 2014
HBR.org
Help Leaders Be Less Useless at Strategy
May 16, 2014
HBR.org
A Simple Nuance that Produces Great Strategy Discussions
May 8, 2014
The Guardian
All business leaders should consider the source of their electrical power
May 7, 2014
HBR.org
Which Strategy “Comfort Traps” Are You Falling Into?
May 3, 2014
HBR.org
Are You Confusing Strategy with Planning?
May 2, 2014
Harvard Business Review
The Public Corporation Is Finally in Eclipse
April 2014
Working Paper 20
Building Better Health Care: Policy Opportunities For Ontario
April 2014
The Guardian
The rush for new oil and gas sources is pushing us towards extreme actions
March 27, 2014
Financial Review
The Big Lie of Strategic Planning - reposted
March 17, 2014
The Guardian
Oil and trains make for a volatile combination in North America
March 13, 2014
HBR.org
The Unexpected Benefits of Rapid Prototyping
February 11, 2014
HBR.org
Strategy in a World of Constant Change
February 3, 2014
Working Paper 19
The Realities Of Ontario’s Public Sector Compensation
February 2014
The Guardian
Do middle-managers and finance block progress towards sustainability?
January 24, 2014
The Guardian
A lack of trust is standing in the way of sustainable collaborations
January 23, 2014
The Guardian
Top tips for overcoming short-termism
January 22, 2014
The Guardian
New research points to risk peak oil presents to business
January 9, 2014
Rotman Magazine
Integrative Thinking 2.0: A User's Guide to your Opposable Mind
Winter 2014
Strategy & Leadership
Instituting a company-wide strategic conversation at Procter & Gamble
Spring 2013
The Toronto Star
For Ontario’s economy, good is not good enough
November 27, 2013
The Guardian
Climate talks will fail unless parties agree to a carbon price
November 25, 2013
The Guardian
Denialism: the shifting relationship between science and industry
November 11, 2013
Huff Post Business
November 8, 2013
The Guardian
New York, London and Mumbai: major cities face risk from sea-level rises
November 4, 2013
Annual Report 12
Course Correction: Charting a New Road Map for Ontario
November 2013
HBR.org
The Five Rules Every New CEO Should Follow
October 14, 2013
HBR.org
The Cure for Self-Inflicted Complexity
October 4, 2013
Working Paper18
Taxing For Growth: A Close Look At Tax Policy In Ontario
October 2013
Working Paper 17
Untapped Potential: Creating A Better Future For Service Workers
October 2013
Harvard Business Review
Rethinking the Decision Factory
October 2013
The Guardian
Are governments' trade policies harming the growth of renewables
September 25, 2013
The Guardian
We are underestimating climate change and underfunding innovation
September 9, 2013
HBR.org
September 6, 2013
Leadership, Innovation and Strategy
August 6, 2013
HBR.org
Should Barnes & Noble Turn into a Mini-Mall?
July 15, 2013
The Conference Board Review
Summer 2013
The Guardian
Climate change puts the value of countless companies at risk
June 26, 2013
strategy+business
Leading with Intellectual Integrity
May 28, 2013
Toronto Star
Roger Martin: Infrastructure and Hernando De Soto
May 17, 2013
Interviews
HBR Ideacast
July 31, 2018
Forbes
Is Everyone Nuts? P&G Now A Dog? And Unilever A Star?
January 11, 2013
Havard Business Review
What the NHL Lockout Reveals About Capital and Labor
January 11, 2013
DNA India
'Capitalism is not as Smartly Managed as Cricket'
October 8, 2012
Forbes
Fighting The Kool-Aid Of Stock-Based Compensation: Q&A With Roger Martin
January 3, 2012