The strategic impact of uncertainty

The innovation blog

What’s the point of having a strategy when everything is changing so rapidly and radically? That is a question many business executives have raised with Roger Martin (http://rogerlmartin.com), the Dean of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. While he understands the thinking behind the excuse, he points out: “If we live in an uncertain, turbulent, fast-moving world today, why would it be any different a week, a month, a rear from now?” He argues that that companies that say they don’t ‘do strategy’ actually have one in reality because every day, hour and minute they have to make choices and decisions. If they are taken without any reference to agreed goals, companies risk making daily choices that are incoherent, contradictory and inconsistent.