Book.

The Emergent Approach to Strategy: Adaptive Design & Execution.
(now in audio!)

Embrace the chaos of solving strategy’s Rubik’s Cube blindfolded.

This book redefines strategy for our complex, adaptive age. It views change and innovation as an ongoing puzzle to be solved, capturing the “ugly, messy, and sometimes frightening” nature of real change and innovation in organizations.

In The Emergent Approach to Strategy, Peter Compo provides an alternative framework tailored for today’s aggressive, unpredictable business environment. Rather than a linear plan, strategy becomes an adaptive process of sensing and responding, more akin to solving an ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle blindfolded.

Whether you’re a CEO, strategist, or simply passionate about innovative leadership, The Emergent Approach to Strategy is a must-read guide to thriving in an increasingly complex world. Learn how to treat strategy as an adaptive process of solving a complex, ever-changing “puzzle” rather than following a predetermined linear plan.

Here are some key points about the emergent approach:

  1. It views change and innovation as an ongoing puzzle to be solved, capturing the “ugly, messy, and sometimes frightening” nature of real change and innovation in organizations.
  2. Rather than a rigid plan, strategy emerges and adapts as new pieces of the “puzzle” emerge or existing pieces change shape/color unexpectedly.
  3. Unlike a deliberate strategy focused on a predetermined end goal, an emergent strategy allows flexibility to adjust goals and priorities as new opportunities arise from unplanned actions and innovations within the organization.
  4. The approach emphasizes clarifying strategic intent while allowing adaptability as conditions change. It treats strategy as an overarching “rule” that guides real-time tradeoffs and decisions across the organization.

Compo says, “There ain’t no data from the future. All strategy is both deliberate and emergent – even mine.”

...a wonderful rethinking of the language and logic of business strategy. Be prepared to learn how to identify "killer problems" and critical "bottlenecks" as well as how to see the "disqualifiers" implicit in too many

Richard Rumelt
Author of "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy" and "The Crux"

Compo has provided a path to move beyond the typical annual strategy plan that never gets adopted. With an approach that drives clarity in intent to change conditions and opportunities.

Michael Effron
Chairman, Oliver Wright