Strategy to Beat the Odds

Despite their best intentions, business leaders often get bogged down by human biases and social dynamics that get in the way of clear strategy and strong execution. Just about anyone proposing a strategy comes in with a confident “hockey stick” projection. But how do you distinguish the true breakthrough plans from the fakes and then carry through the tough choices needed to make good on those promises?

90%

of economic profit created

is captured by companies in the top quintile of our analysis

1 in 12

companies

moved from the middle quintiles to the top over 10 years

8

strategy shifts

can change what’s happening in your strategy room and help you break through

Featured Insight

Article

Eight shifts that will take your strategy into high gear

– Developing a great strategy starts with changing the dynamics in your strategy room. Here’s how.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Strategy to beat the odds
– If you internalize the real odds of strategy, you can tame its social side and make big moves.
Interactive - McKinsey Quarterly

Five Fifty: The industry effect
– What’s the single biggest determinant of how your company performs relative to others? The industry you compete in.

The book behind the ideas

Strategy beyond the hockey stick

People, probability, and big moves to beat the odds
Learn more

Mining the data from thousands of large companies, McKinsey partners Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt and Sven Smit open the windows of the strategy room, and bring an “outside view.”

The eight shifts diagnostic

Take our diagnostic to learn how well your executive team is addressing the social side of strategy and how your organization performs
Take the survey

Recognize Yourself?

Beat the odds with a bold business strategy
“. . . The third little pig wanted to build a wolf-proof brick house. But the other two pigs thought that would take away resources from their budgets, so they talked him out of it right before the wolf killed all three of them.”

From our blog

The ten-session strategy reboot

To encourage real hockey-stick strategies, reward noble failures

Why your business needs a hit mentality

Simply labeling a plan ‘strategic’ doesn’t make it so
View our blog

Meet the authors

Sven Smit
Senior Partner, Chair of Insights and Ecosystems, and Chair of McKinsey Global Institute
Chris Bradley
McKinsey Global Institute Director and Senior Partner