Better At Work with Cathal Quinlan
Better At Work with Cathal Quinlan
Cathal Quinlan
Why most companies don’t actually have a strategy | Better Moments #2 | Roger Martin
13 minutes Posted Jul 23, 2026 at 7:47 am.
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Show notes

Most companies can show you a plan. Far fewer can explain the choices underneath it.


In this Better Moment, Roger Martin strips strategy back to what it actually is: what you do, not what you say. He explains why a list of initiatives is not a strategy, how the question “What would have to be true?” can get a divided room moving, and why AI is much better at finding the average answer than a distinctive one.


Thirteen minutes on the choices that make a strategy real.


Listen to Roger’s full Better at Work conversations:

Part 1: https://shows.acast.com/betteratworkpodcast/episodes/the-worlds-1-strategy-thinker-on-why-planning-isnt-strategy

Part 2: https://shows.acast.com/betteratworkpodcast/episodes/part-2-the-worlds-1-strategy-thinker-on-why-planning-isnt-st


Book: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley.


Follow Better at Work so season five lands in your feed when we return in September.


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