Roger Martin

“When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency” (2020)

American Democratic Capitalism Is In Danger. How Can We Save It? For Its First 200 Years, The American Economy Exhibited Truly Impressive Performance. The Combination Of Democratically Elected Governments And A Capitalist System Worked, With Ever-increasing Levels Of Efficiency, Spurred By Division Of Labor, International Trade, And Scientific Management Of Companies. By The Nation's Bicentenary In 1976, The American Economy Was The Envy Of The World. But Since Then, Outcomes Have Changed Dramatically. Growth In The Economic Prosperity Of The Average American Family Has Slowed To A Crawl, While The Wealth Of The Richest Americans Has Grown To A Level Never Seen Before. This Imbalance Threatens The American Democratic Capitalist System, Which Only Works When The Average Family Benefits Enough To Keep Voting For It. In This Bracing Yet Constructive Book, World-renowned Business Thinker Roger Martin Starkly Outlines The Fundamental Problem: We Have Treated The Economy As A Machine For Which The Pursuit Of Ever-greater Efficiency Is Considered An Inherently Good Thing. But It Has Become Too Much Of A Good Thing. Our Obsession With Efficiency Has Inadvertently Shifted The Shape Of Our Economic Outcomes: From A Large Middle Class And Smaller Numbers Of Rich And Poor (think Of A Bell-shaped Curve) To A Greater Share Of Benefits Accruing To A Thin Tail Of Already Rich Americans (a Pareto Distribution). We Must Stop Treating The Economy As A Perfectible Machine, Martin Argues, And Shift Toward Viewing It As A Complex Adaptive System In Which We Must Seek A Fundamental Balance Of Efficiency With Resilience. To Achieve This, We Need To Keep In Mind The Whole While Working On The Component Parts; Pursue Improvement, Not Perfection; And Relentlessly Tweak Instead Of Attempting To Find Permanent Solutions. Filled With Keen Economic Insight And Advice For Citizens, Executives, Policymakers, And Educators, When More Is Not Better Is The Must-read Guide For Saving Democratic Capitalism.

“Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking” (2017)

Conventional Wisdom--and Business School Curricula--teaches Us That Making Trade-offs Is Inevitable When It Comes To Hard Choices. But Sometimes, Accepting The Obvious Trade-off Just Isn't Good Enough: The Choices In Front Of Us Don't Get Us What We Need. In Those Cases, Rather Than Choosing The Least Worst Option, We Can Use The Models In Front Of Us To Create A New And Better Answer. This Is Integrative Thinking. First Introduced By Roger Martin In The Opposable Mind, Integrative Thinking Is An Approach To Problem Solving That Uses Opposing Ideas As The Basis For Innovation. Now, In Creating Great Choices, Martin And Fellow Rotman Expert Jennifer Riel Vividly Show How They Have Refined And Enhanced The Understanding And Practice Of Integrative Thinking Through Their Work Teaching The Concept And Its Principles To Business And Nonprofit Executives, Mba Students, Even Kids. Integrative Thinking Has Been Embraced By Organizations Such As Procter & Gamble, Deloitte, Verizon, And The Toronto District School Board--all Seeking A Replicable, Thoughtful Approach To Creating A Third And Better Way To Make Important Choices In The Face Of Unacceptable Trade-offs. The Book Includes New Stories Of Successful Integrative Thinkers That Will Demystify The Process Of Creative Problem Solving. It Lays Out The Authors' Practical Four-step Methodology, Which Can Be Applied In Virtually Any Context: Articulating Opposing Models Examining The Models Generating Possibilities Assessing Prototypes Stimulating And Practical, Creating Great Choices Blends Storytelling, Theory, And Hands-on Advice To Help Any Leader Or Manager Facing A Tough Choice-- Preface: The Opposable Mind -- Part I. Integrative Thinking 2.0 -- How We Choose -- A New Way To Think -- Part Ii. A Methodology -- Articulating Opposing Models -- Examining The Models -- Generating Possibilities -- Assessing The Prototypes -- A Way Of Being In The World. By Jennifer Riel And Roger L. Martin. Includes Bibliographical References.

“Playing To Win: How Strategy Really Works” (2013)

A Wall Street Journal and Washington Post Bestseller Are you just playing—or playing to win? Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something that doesn’t happen in most companies. Now two of today’s best-known business thinkers get to the heart of strategy—explaining what it’s for, how to think about it, why you need it, and how to get it done. And they use one of the most successful corporate turnarounds of the past century, which they achieved together, to prove their point. A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, in close partnership with strategic adviser Roger Martin, doubled P&G’s sales, quadrupled its profits, and increased its market value by more than $100 billion in just ten years. Now, drawn from their years of experience at P&G and the Rotman School of Management, where Martin is dean, this book shows how leaders in organizations of all sizes can guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around the clear, essential elements that determine business success—where to play and how to win. The result is a playbook for winning. Lafley and Martin have created a set of five essential strategic choices that, when addressed in an integrated way, will move you ahead of your competitors. They are: • What is our winning aspiration? • Where will we play? • How will we win? • What capabilities must we have in place to win? • What management systems are required to support our choices? The stories of how P&G repeatedly won by applying this method to iconic brands such as Olay, Bounty, Gillette, Swiffer, and Febreze clearly illustrate how deciding on a strategic approach—and then making the right choices to support it—makes the difference between just playing the game and actually winning.

“The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage” (2009)