McKinsey Classics | August 2024

The power of big moves in crafting a successful strategy

In today’s ever competitive business environment, crafting the right strategy is crucial for any company to distance itself from the rest of the pack. But all too often, leaders are stymied once they enter the strategy room, where biases, competing agendas, and short-term projections result in unrealistic expectations and ineffective planning. This is the “social side of strategy,” as the authors of this 2018 classic put it, and it’s preventing your company from moving up the economic power curve.

So how do you reduce the social noise and boost your odds of setting a successful strategy? Start by making big moves. The authors highlight five that, according to their research, make the biggest difference—for example, engaging in a dynamic reallocation of resources, where organizations feed the business units that are likely to produce substantial moves up the power curve (and starve the ones that aren’t), and having a strong productivity program, one that puts you in at least the top 30 percent of your industry.

To uncover the other big moves that can help make your strategic-planning sessions more worthwhile, read Chris Bradley and Sven Smit’s 2018 McKinsey Quarterly classic, “Strategy to beat the odds.”

— Jordyn Libow, editor, Atlanta