Beyond the Mission Statement: A Practical Guide to Roger Martin's 5-Step Strategy Framework

My previous blog focused on the SWOT framework, one of the most popular frameworks used in businesses for developing a strategy. Not everybody loves that framework. Roger Martin, author of several business books and numerous articles on business, is a well known critic. He believes the SWOT is a poor framework for strategy because it promotes listing over choosing, analysis over action, and inclusiveness over focus. It answers the "what is" but fails at answering the question that matters: "What shall we do?".

I wasn’t sure I agreed with this because a SWOT should answer “What shall we do?” by bringing together actions arising from strengths and opportunities and weaknesses and threats. OK, some of these will be short term and some will be long term so they need integrating into a strategy.

It was therefore with considerable interest that I listened to the World’s Greatest Business Thinkers Podcast in which Nick Hague talked to Roger Martin about how to think differently.  (Link to the podcast is at the end of this blog).

I was seriously impressed. Roger Martin believes in frameworks and in the podcast he ran through one that every leader should use. He outlines it in his book with A.G. Lafley called Playing to Win.

This model, refined through years of practice at Procter & Gamble, cuts through the noise and provides a logical structure for building a winning strategy.

Here is a summary of the thesis.

Roger Martin’s strategy framework transforms a vague planning exercise into a blueprint for winning. Its power lies in five cascading questions that create a logical chain from ambition to execution.

It all begins by defining a Winning Aspiration. This is not a generic mission statement but a precise answer to what “winning” means for an organisation. In the case of the Four Seasons hotel chain it is about offering business guests a luxurious environment that feels like home from home. It moves beyond platitudes like “a luxury hotel experience” to focus on the specific value that is created for customers (home comforts), setting the stage for every choice that follows.

With the destination clear, the next critical step is to choose Where to Play. Strategy demands focus, and this is the deliberate selection of your competitive arena. It involves defining the specific geographies, customer segments, product categories, and channels where you will concentrate your resources. For the Four Seasons it means being in cities where business people travel or where they go on vacation. This choice is inherently about what not to do, preventing a scattered, ineffective effort.

Choosing an arena isn’t enough; you need a plan to conquer it. This is the How to Win choice—the core of a competitive advantage. It’s the unique formula for beating rivals in a chosen field. In the case of the Four Seasons it is providing home comforts with some indulgence.  This playbook must be coherent and difficult for competitors to copy.

A brilliant game plan is useless without the ability to execute it. This is where Capabilities come in—the organisational muscles that must be built and exploited. These are the strategically critical bundles of skills, processes, and technologies needed to deliver on your “How to Win” promise. For the Four Seasons this means having staff that are experienced in delivering home from home comforts. Staff that stay the course and know that working at the hotel has long term prospects and isn’t an 18 month job before moving on. Strategy without the requisite capabilities is merely a wish.

Finally, capabilities must be sustained and nurtured by Management Systems. These are the structures, processes, and metrics that embed strategy into the company’s DNA. This includes how resources are allocated, measured and promoted. A company focused on innovation needs systems that protect R&D funding and tolerates intelligent failure, while a cost leader needs rigorous budgeting processes. Without these supportive systems, even the best strategy will be eroded by misaligned incentives and old habits.

The true genius of Roger Martin’s framework is its cascading logic. Each choice flows from the one above and dictates the one below, creating a thread of alignment from the CEO’s vision to daily operations. This integrated system demands the tough choices that separate a real strategy from a mere list of goals, providing a logical and actionable path to victory.

Check out the podcast with Nick and Roger Martin on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjHwYdbQdFs&t=25s