Rita McGrath

Speech Topics

• Beware the Mal-Adjusted Organization

  Have you ever been part of a big, bold, strategic change intended to shift the trajectory of the organization, but that eventually just petered out? A common culprit in this scenario is a lack of alignment between elements of an organization’s operating model. This can happen for several reasons. One is sheer exhaustion – it was so much effort to get buy in for the big, new idea, that there is little appetite for changing the incentive/comp system. The result: a new strategy offering rewards for executing against the old strategy. Or, executives fall in love with one particular change lever – you know, it’s all about the boxes and lines in the organization chart, but deal with resource allocation processes? Not of interest. In this talk, McGrath presents a simple, but surprisingly powerful framework for implementing change, the “kite” model, in which she describes how to bring the key elements that determine organizational behavior into alignment. What you will learn: Why taking charge of your own agenda as a leader is the most powerful way to influence the behavior of others How to identify and promote a high-performing culture What criteria you should use when deciding how to physically locate individuals and teams How to make critical decisions about your organization’s history and legacy What three questions you can use to measure the effectiveness of a communication Why symbols are the most potent mechanism for galvanizing human action that most of us will ever have access to

• Catch a Wave: The New Strategy Playbook

  We’ve all seen the story play out. A company experiences phenomenal success, their CEO makes the cover of notable business publications, and business writers use them as examples for the rest of us. Then, somehow, the firm gets into trouble. Competitors capture their customers, margins shrink, investors grumble, activists turn up, the CEO, or a succession of CEOs, are shown the door, and, eventually the company disappears or becomes irrelevant. A root cause, McGrath argues, is the pervasive belief that a competitive advantage, once established, is enduring. This belief leads to complacency, inward focus, loss of customer engagement and a stifling of innovation. Instead, smart strategists leave old assumptions at the door and pursue opportunities to establish and exploit transient advantages. You will learn: Why too much stability can be your enemy – and how to embrace continuous reconfiguration Why existing metrics will lead you astray – and what you should be measuring instead Why healthy disengagement from a fading business is one of the most important practices to get right How it’s a trap to believe your most important competitors are others in your industry Why innovation is not optional How to lead when command-and-control doesn’t work How to manage talent in a ‘tour of duty’ context

• Customers Should Not Be a Mystery

  Peter Drucker once famously said that customers rarely buy what companies think they are selling. He also said that the only true purpose for a business was to create a customer. Ironically, many businesses appear to be failing at that one true purpose. This talk, based on research into hundreds of strategic moves that led to significant growth, describes how organizations can improve. Three core concepts are covered: insightful segmentation of customers into behavioral sets; understanding the complete customer consumption chain; and seeing the trade-offs customers make between different attributes or features in an offering. It also touches on how to do a customer interview (hint: don’t lead with a solution!) and how to use insights from social media and on-line customer interactions. What you will learn: Why traditional demographic segmentation is almost always pretty useless How to do a customer interview Why attributes that were once highly exciting to customers become commoditized How to map your customer’s complete consumption chain How to identify possible sources of differentiation, even if they have nothing to do with product features Why customer’s needs (or jobs to be done) are remarkably stable over time and how that can give you an advantage How to use the strategic segmentation, consumption chain and attribute mapping tools

Books

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