A Non-Traditional Approach to Strategy Workshop – MIT Sloan Alumni Club of Chicago Event

Strategy 2 Market is hosting this MIT Sloan Alumni Club of Chicago event

Thursday, May 25th, 6 pm – 8 pm

In this highly interactive workshop on a non-traditional approach to strategy, the presenters (Mary Drotar and Kathy Morrissey, both University of Chicago Booth Alum) are seeking input on an adaptable approach to strategy from the MIT Sloan Alumni Club of Chicago.

They are writing a book on Exploratory PD™(ExPD), a new approach to product development that focuses on driving down risk through iteration and experimentation.

One important element of ExPD is strategy, an important system component for product development. Most product development processes treat strategy independently from the rest of product development, but this is not the case with ExPD.

Mary and Kathy have found that a traditional approach to creating and implementing strategy has four problematic characteristics:

Assumes a stable or slowly changing environment (history can be used to predict the future)
Internally focused (places emphasis on the firm and its performance over understanding the overall industry)
Waterfall approach (senior management sets the strategy and successive layers implement; learnings from the front line are not fed back)
Developed by the “chosen” few in the ivory tower (often a “strategy department” is established separately from the lines of business, further divorcing strategy from feedback)
Traditional strategy typically works well in stable markets, but not in moderately or highly dynamic environments. During this workshop, the presenters will provide a high-level overview of ExPD, and strategy frameworks for each of these three environments.

If you are interested in a similar event at your organization, contact Mary Drotar at 312.212.3144 or mdrotar@strategy2market.com.