Roger Martin
Higher education teacher and former dean of the Rotman School of ManagementWikipedia
30
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22
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19
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Search complete. 30 mentions across 22 episodes found for "Roger Martin".
Sep 17, 2026
Kamran AyoubHOST
And he interviewed one of my favorite people ever.
Kamran AyoubHOST
And I think one of Eric's favorite book writers, Roger Martin, strategy guru.
Kamran AyoubHOST
who wrote Playing to Win, as well as several other books and lots of articles at the Harvard Business Review.
Kamran AyoubHOST
He's basically the strategy guy.
Kamran AyoubHOST
So he got very good at writing to CEOs, which was really cool.
Kamran AyoubHOST
So anyway, episode goes deep into that and how that worked out for him.
Erik OnarheimHOST
Yeah, I feel like Roger Martin is the person you wish your CEO was talking to.
Kamran AyoubHOST
I know, isn't it? Yeah, exactly.
Mark RhodesGUEST
So you've got to decide what is that one.
Mark RhodesGUEST
And that's the essence of strategy, isn't it? What's going to have the, I think that's the Roger Martin thing.
Mark RhodesGUEST
Yeah.
Alan SmithHOST
Right, yeah.
25 MINS LATER
Mark RhodesGUEST
I mean, I'm sure there's lots of things out there.
Mark RhodesGUEST
That's really good.
Mark RhodesGUEST
Roger Martin talks a lot about strategy and things like that as well.
Mark RhodesGUEST
But Michael Porter, what is strategy article? And as far as podcasts, obviously this podcast, but also the Happiness Lab.
Brady WilsonHOST
Which brings up something I really wanna get into.
Brady WilsonHOST
Roger Martin wrote The Responsibility Virus, and so basically just saying if, let's say you and Pam, if you become over responsible with the finances, what will Pam become? Like under responsible.
Brady WilsonHOST
If, if you become under responsible in terms of raising the kids, what will Pam become? Over responsible.
Brady WilsonHOST
And so he basically says there's a fixed amount of responsibility that can be assumed in any relationship.
Michael Bungay StanierHOST
[instrumental music] And here's where we end up agreeing.
Michael Bungay StanierHOST
Make clear parameters, allow people to riff, and I'd suggest you listen to episode eighty with Roger Martin for more on this.
Alex M H SmithGUEST
If we take the great strategy case studies like IKEA or something like that, where you get down to the point of saying, as they did back in the day, "We are going to make people build their own furniture so that we can then essentially massively reduce costs through supply chain and so forth-
Michael Bungay StanierHOST
Mm-hmm
8 MINS LATER
Alex M H SmithGUEST
Mm
Michael Bungay StanierHOST
... and different.
Michael Bungay StanierHOST
And, you know, you then are taken to Roger Martin's great strategy question, which is like, "What needs to be true for us to run a change process that is only about removal and stopping and elimination?" And as you say, who knows where that takes you, but it probably takes you into some interesting spaces.
Alex M H SmithGUEST
Yeah, I mean, I guess like one of the fundamental unavoidable truths of the era of hyper abundance is that the primary driver of success for any venture, change project, new business, whatever-
Kathy OnetoHOST
I love it.
Kathy OnetoHOST
You know, Roger Martin, the strategy guru, talks about strategy, and he talks about it as being about choices, right? Making choices.
Jenn FisherGUEST
Mm-hmm.
Kathy OnetoHOST
But he also talks about it in the sense of, like, as a leader, don't think you're directing down.
Dave SnowdenGUEST
I mean, they totally ruined design.
Dave SnowdenGUEST
And Roger Martin was partly responsible for that.
Dave SnowdenGUEST
It lost all the energy at the d.school. Yep.
Dave SnowdenGUEST
By the time
Roman PichlerHOST
So if the company used the strategy stack, the executive leadership team would create an overall business strategy and derive business objectives from it.
Roman PichlerHOST
Now, for the former A framework like Roger Martin's Playing to Win might be used, and OKRs might be applied to capture the business objectives.
Roman PichlerHOST
Based on the business strategy, the company would define a portfolio strategy for each of its product portfolios, such as 365, formerly known as Office, Xbox, Windows, and Surface.
Roman PichlerHOST
The 365 strategy, for instance, would describe how the productivity suite as a whole, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, creates value.
Amelia BruinMODERATOR
Now to the APCO WAFL Women's League Awards.
Amelia BruinMODERATOR
Please welcome Roger Martin, APCO General Manager of Corporate Affairs to present the 2026 Joanne Huggins Leading Goalkicker Award.
Amelia BruinMODERATOR
Welcome.
Amelia BruinMODERATOR
Joanne founded the WAWFL in 1987, and Joanne's initial work developed the WAWFL into a growing league which provided opportunities for female players for 32 years.
Ed OffterdingerGUEST
I can't help myself giving my background into the strategy.
Ed OffterdingerGUEST
And so what I would say is that, you know, for me, there are multiple ways to think about strategy, but I'm a big fan of the choice cascade, which is came, you know, when a plane to win by Lafley and Roger Martin.
Ed OffterdingerGUEST
And this is just this idea that you have your goals and aspirations.
Ed OffterdingerGUEST
Where are you going to play? So that's where you figure out, you know, service lines, geographies, how are you going to win? What's your value proposition? And then the fourth one, which gets to the point you're asking is like, and what are the assets and capabilities you need to execute this first thing? So we go through that over a period of time.
Mark BinkleyHOST
And what came out of the trough for you? Well, there's really one line that the value of AI is less about the tool and it's more about how it forces us to think.
Vassilis DourosHOST
That's an interesting reframe, which connects to something Roger Martin said when we interviewed him earlier in the year.
Vassilis DourosHOST
Yeah.
Vassilis DourosHOST
Why don't you walk us through it, Vee? Yeah, Roger called AI a mode-seeking entity, not the mean, not the median, the mode, the most frequent answer, essentially.
6 MINS LATER
Mark BinkleyHOST
And that's a really important leadership conversation.
Mark BinkleyHOST
Again, it's not a procurement conversation.
Vassilis DourosHOST
Roger Martin wrote a piece for HBR, I think it was back in 2013, that we both keep coming back to from time and time again.
Vassilis DourosHOST
He called the modern white-collar organization a decision factory.
12 more episodes mention Roger Martin.
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