Strategy and Change

A powerful guide to becoming a strategic leader who makes insightful business decisions and manages risk in volatile and unpredictable environments

Written by a team of seasoned strategy consultants, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk delivers an insightful playbook on recognizing relevant patterns, making consistently sound business decisions, and effectively managing risk in a world defined by disruption and volatility. This follow-up to the authors' first book, Leading with Strategic Thinking, covers major business developments and trends occurring since 2015. It explores disruption from technological advancements, like generative AI, as well as unforeseen crises, like the global COVID-19 pandemic.

In this book, readers will find invaluable insights into:

• The four ways to lead strategy in today's complex business environment: visionary leadership, directive leadership, incubating leadership, and collaborative leadership
• How to analyze problems and make decisions that achieve short- and long-term success
• New methods to evaluate hazards as both threats and opportunities in a marketplace that has become increasingly disruptive and unpredictable

Grounded in the latest research and real-world case studies, Strategy and Change earns a well-deserved spot on the bookshelves of all executives, consultants, and entrepreneurs seeking proven guidance to navigate the new world of business. It's also an invaluable resource for risk management professionals, academics, and early-career professionals involved in strategy and leadership.

Foreword xi

Preface xv

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Evolving Nature of Disruptive Change 9

Chapter 2 Implications for Strategy and Leadership 35

Chapter 3 Three Lenses 61

Chapter 4 Insight 69

Chapter 5 Choice 105

Chapter 6 Risk 129

Chapter 7 How to Lead Through Disruptive Change 161

Chapter 8 A Call to Action 195

Notes 199

Acknowledgments 209

About the Authors 211

Index 215

AARON K. OLSON is Executive Vice President at Aon, where he has held various leadership roles focused on client engagement, corporate strategy, organizational effectiveness, and talent management. Aaron serves as adjunct faculty at Northwestern University teaching graduate and executive courses on strategy and leadership.

WARD CHING is an Adjunct Professor of Risk Management at the University of Southern California Marshall Business School where he teaches courses in enterprise risk management and disruptive risk innovation. Ward led the Strategic Solutions and Innovation Practice at Aon, where he focused on client risk strategy development, advanced decision analytics and alternative risk finance.

RICHARD WATERER is the Global Risk Consulting Leader at Aon. In this role, he is responsible for leading a team of 1,500 full-time risk consultants, helping clients to identify and quantify risk, select and implement strategies around risk transfer, retention and mitigation, and provides post-loss consulting.

B. KEITH SIMERSON, EdD, provides consultation, executive coaching, and advisory services in the areas of strategic leadership and strategy formulation and execution. He is on the adjunct faculty of Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy where he teaches graduate courses on strategy and leadership.

As the world becomes more volatile, the importance of strategy and leadership has only increased. Today, leaders face challenging decisions on an ever-changing list of disruptive events like the implications of Artificial Intelligence, the future of global trade, and the prospect of another global pandemic.

Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk provides guidance on how to think and act more strategically in an unpredictable and fast-changing world. Leveraging the three disciplines outlined in the authors’ prior book, Leading with Strategic Thinking, this book offers practical insights and tools readers can use to succeed in the face of disruptive change.

Strategy and Change addresses how to be a strategic leader in a world of increasing volatility, analyzing the subsequent performance of the four organizations profiled in their prior book—Disney, GE, 3M and the government of South Africa. That analysis forms the basis of new guidance on how to apply the three actions central to strategic leadership: recognizing patterns, making good choices, and managing risks.

Through practical tools, theoretical concepts, the latest research, and real-world case studies, Strategy and Change enables business leaders, managers, and executives to develop a personal action plan for successfully navigating volatile times.

Praise for STRATEGY AND CHANGE

“We are in the midst of new a wave of disruption that will redefine business and society. In every era, the organizations that succeed find new ways to capitalize on disruptive change. This timely book challenges leaders to rethink the components of decision-making and provides helpful frameworks and tools to support them with these endeavors.”
—BRUCE CARNEGIE-BROWN, Former Chair, Lloyd’s of London

“Strategy and Change meets the urgent need for new strategic approaches to the dynamic challenges and opportunities generated by rapid and radical technological change. This book will prove a valuable resource for business school students and working professionals, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding and leveraging disruption as a strategic advantage.”
—DR. GEOFF GARRETT, Dean, USC Marshall School of Business

“Today’s environment is equally challenging for entrepreneurs and established businesses. Success requires insight and pragmatic decision-making. This book unpacks what makes disruptors and incumbents successful, distilling their insights into a set of core practices that any leader can apply.”
—MARIANNE MARKOWITZ, President and CEO, First Women’s Bank

“So often as leaders we find ourselves falling into the daily trap of looking into the business rather than looking out for the business. In this book the authors provide much needed guidance to help leaders look out for the business. This book will guide how we look at risks as opportunities, how we navigate disruptive change and how we as leaders can distinguish between opportunities, quantify and navigate risks, and manage our way through a rapidly changing business world.”
—DAN ARIENS, Chairman and CEO, Ariens Company

“This book provides a keen focus on practical applications around the ever-changing environment we operate in and the accelerated change cycles that we all experience. There is not a single answer to navigate strategic change in any organization and this book provides valuable insight into the different change levers that need to be considered to execute a successful strategic vision and manage the change that follows.”
—DAVE YOUNGBERG, Senior Director, Strategy & Transformation, PepsiCo