Author: Peter Compo https://www.linkedin.com/in/petercompo/ Book: The Emergent Approach to Strategy https://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/the-emergent-approach-to-strategy-adaptive-design-execution/ ISSIP 2022 Event https://issip.org/events-news/events/

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P E T E R C O M P O
The Emergent Approach to Strategy
A Short Introduction to…
I S S I P M a y 2 5 , 2 0 2 2

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What is The Emergent Approach?
New theory of strategy
Modified Practice for Design and
Implementation of Strategy

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Why another book on strategy?
Two reasons

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1 Strategy Still Not Defined
• Goals
• Long term, big, and important
• Plans
• Frameworks (master plans;
ends, ways, and means)
• Making choices
• Defined by requirements
• Patterns and actual outcomes
X
 • Rule

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Worse in Practice
LISTS of (supposedly)
good things to do:
• Goals
• Subgoals
• Plans
• Initiatives
Our strategy for delivering superior returns to shareholders is to:
1. Increase revenue by 10% per year and profitability by 14% per year.
2. Increase customer-based innovation.
• Use agile to deliver new product requests from customers
20% faster than the competition.
• Drive product innovation into white-space technology platforms.
3. Optimize our cost structure and CAPEX
• Improve cost position to rise to the top quintile of benchmarks.
• Reduce asset footprint by $110 million through strategic partnerships.
• Right-size our legal and finance division with 20% cuts in 2 years.
• Optimize manufacturing operations through a lean IT backbone.
4. Drive Marketing excellence
• Become the chosen partner for customers.
• Improve sales-team capability and add 18 new salespeople in Africa.
• Design an advertising campaign that captures the imagination of the 20
to 29-year-old male demographic.
• Launch customer-centered-awareness (CCA) training.
5. Inspire employees using the new People Mindset Module (PMM)
NO Integration
NO Trade-offs

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2 Strategy Still Based on a “Planned View of the World”
B
A
Lists of goals, plans, and initiatives

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B
A
C
Reality

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I’m Not Alone
Survey of 124 corporations concludes no one
knows your strategy—not even your top leaders.
Only 14% of employees understand their
company’s strategy and direction.
More than 70% of executives surveyed said they don’t
like their strategy process, and 70% of board
members stated that they don’t trust the results.
Bad strategy is gaining ground.
But, today, most employees don’t even understand
how they are connected to the strategy.
Continued
Reports of
Chronic
Strategy
Problems

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B
A
Solution—Adapt as Guided by Strategy Framework
➢CAS: Innovations emerge from disciplined
interactions at low-local levels
FRAMEWORK
Values
Goals
Diagnosis
Bottleneck
Scenarios
Strategy
Plans & Tactics
Metrics
➢ About frameworks
Always multiple futures (scenarios)
Plans rigid…what the future must be
Rules flexible…guardrails
➢ Actions and
decisions guided by a
strategy framework
Central rule aimed at
busting the bottleneck
to aspirations
Emergent strategy does not
mean anything goes!

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Finding the Strategy Rule from Model of CAS
Choices
Choices
Choices Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Choices
Aspiration
Bottleneck
Strategy
Self-imposed
constraint
Constraint that
limits progress

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Example: A list of Potentially Good Things To Do
Source: Deloitte, Rethinking Emerging Market Strategies (2009)

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Strategy Follows Bottleneck
Source: Deloitte, Rethinking emerging market strategies (2009)
Bottleneck: Over-designed products
Possible strategy: R&D (try to) de-feature to reduce cost vs. new platform or reduced margin
Trade-off: Fewer new features
Bottleneck : Global customers want lower-price products everywhere
Possible strategy: New platform or new brand vs. defeaturing or reduced margin
Tradeoff: Complexity, cost, customers see through branding
Bottleneck: Customers don’t understand our products
Possible strategy: technical service paid for by simplifying mature-market offering
Tradeoff: cost, distraction from existing

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Service
Strategy  Possible Bottlenecks  Aspiration
Improve service
impact on
customer retention
?
Poor training?
Poor techniques?
People turnover?
Wrong hiring?
Inferior IT?

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Strategy Framework Design Process
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Goals
Analyze
Define
Typical Chevron

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Agile Design: Parallel v. Series
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Scenarios
Bottleneck
Goals
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Scenarios
Bottleneck
Goals
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Scenarios
Bottleneck
Goals
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Scenarios
Bottleneck
Goals
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Scenarios
Bottleneck
Goals
Metrics
Plans
Alternates
Strategy
Scenarios
Bottleneck
Goals
Evolve it
Evolve it
Evolve it
Evolve it
Good enough
Draft it

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Puzzle

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Evolving the Strategy Alternative Matrix

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The Five Disqualifiers of Strategy
1. Is the OPPOSITE of the statement absurd?
2. Does the statement include NUMBERS?
3. Does the statement DUPLICATE the parent strategy?
4. Does the statement EXCLUDE any part of the system?
5. Is the statement a LIST?
Just one yes
disqualifies
the statement!

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Words that Nearly Always Fail the Opposite Disqualifier
• Minimize
• Maximize
• Optimize
• Advance
• Get results
• Disrupt
• Accelerate
• Deliver
• Ensure
• Enhance
• Breakthrough
• Strengthen
• Sustain
• Attract
• Advance
• Transform
• Effectively
• Be fact-based
• Eliminate
• Execute flawlessly

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Summary of Essential Changes from Traditional
Theory
Strategy Definition & Function → A central rule to bust bottleneck
Tactics → Also a rule, but of smaller scope
Nested strategy frameworks → Everyone must have a strategy
Execution → not just get good results; stop crediting execution for all good & bad
Practice
Series strategy-framework design → Agile-parallel
Stepwise → Evolve a Strategy Matrix (minimum viable)
Strategy from aspirations → strategy from bottleneck
Uncertainty as an afterthought → multiple futures and scenarios not an option
Dashboard focused on results → measure execution, not just results
High-level strategy tests → Low-level tests (five disqualifiers)
Emergent
Approach

Tools &
techniques for
achieving
these changes

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Online Book Supplement
emergentapproach.com

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How I Arrived at the Emergent Approach
Music
Biology undergrad
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
E. I. DuPont (25 years)
• Diverse career: R&D, product, market, supply chain,
business management
• Tech ventures (superconductivity, displays) &
Commodities (Titanium Dioxide)
• Corporate lead for integrated business management
Research and writing (and some music)
Lifelong interest in creativity
+
Same adaptive patterns in all
+
Frustration with state of strategy in the
consulting-corporate-academia
strategy complex
Emergent Approach

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Thank you
www.emergentapproach.com
linkedin.com/in/petercompo/